We haven’t had the internet since we arrived in Scarperi so I will give you an overview of what’s been happening:-  sorry there's so many photos but you are lucky because we all ran out of battery power in our cameras just before the big race!!!  We have taken about 2000 photos so you can imagine how hard it is to share just a few!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDAN! XXX

Hi Brendan, it was good to talk to you the other day but it was a pity the line was bad.  We hope you had a great day.

Salzburg was a great experience.  We did the Sound of Music Bike Tour and our guide was really good and knowledgeable so now we want to see the movie again!  The weather was great, the bike ride really easy – a couple of hills but always came down again which was fun.  We travelled through the old town and out into the countryside, along bike paths or nice smooth paths.  We were ¾’s (4 hours) of the way through and the skies opened again!  We could see the weather coming in and we started peddling faster and faster but it got us.  We finished the tour just as the rain stopped and the sun came out again so we set off in search of a place to sit in the sun and have lunch and dry out.   After lunch, we spent the afternoon looking around beautiful Salzburg and found an electrical shop and bought a Tom Tom for our trip to Scarperia (It’s cheaper to buy one than hire one from the Car Rental Company and we can use it at home).  We had a train booked from Salzburg to Rosenheim (1 hour) and then change to a sleeper carriage to Florence.  (8 hours) It has been so easy to get around and the railway stations are clean and modern.  Our stop in Rosenheim was one hour enough time for some tea before boarding the next train.  The sleeper which, in my mind, was going to be luxurious was, in fact, no bigger than a shoe box!  It was hilarious.  With the two of us and our two bags, one of us or a bag had to wait outside while we prised ourselves into position!  We ended up putting the luggage in the top bunk and we shared the bottom bunk – not real conformable when it was only a single!  I expected breakfast in the Dining Car – instead we got a cardboard box with only a small muffin that we could actually eat.  We got off the train in Florence at about 7.00am and caught a taxi to the car hire place to pick up a car.  Long story short – there were no cars available at any of the companies!  We had a Tom Tom and nothing to plug it into!  We ended up taking the shuttle to the airport and a taxi from the airport back to the train station to see about getting a bus or train. We caught a bus from the train station to Scarperia, (cost 3.00euros each!) rang our villa owner and he gave us directions and by 11.30 we were in our apartment!  Peter said you paid more for a ride at the show and it had none of the thrills that this bus ride offered!  We even had an accident on the way, someone hit the bus.  We unpacked and headed off to survey the town.  The town was formed in 1306 and has a lot of character.  Bikes started to arrive and more and more people, who were obviously here for the GP.  There were definite signs that it was going to be a big weekend coming up.  Rossi posters are everywhere.  The Church had a tribute to Simoncelli.  We had lunch in a little outdoor café - and along came Steve!  He has had a great time travelling here on a BMW motor bike.  Our apartment is really nice and we have spent the afternoon looking around Scarperia. Everything is accessible by foot-even the track! 

………..Next day.  The track is huge and is in a beautiful setting with the hills and mountains as a backdrop. We could only look at one section because they had everything blocked off, usually we would walk the whole track on the Friday to get our bearings.  We had to pay for today because VIP isn’t until tomorrow and Sunday but we sat in a few different places in the two grandstands available to us so we saw some different views.  Mugello seems really quiet compared to what we thought it would be.  The whole town of Scarperia shut down for the afternoon and it’s now 7.30pm and not much seems to be happening.  We will go out for tea shortly and look around.  They have been setting up stages and tents in the town so maybe it will go off tomorrow.  It has been 30C+ here today!  We are working on our tans!  The bells go off every hour and little old Italian men sit in the park on park benches and chat.  The woman all sound like they are fighting.  It’s so quaint.  We went out for breakfast this morning and there was a market on – all along our street.  The prices are so cheap.

Monday 16th 8.00pm

We had an action packed weekend at the track.  The MotoGP VIP Village was excellent.  We were above the Start/Finish line and the Pits, which meant we saw all the Media Hoo Hah and the bikes and riders up close.  The food was fantastic and was served all day, starting with a full breakfast including eggs, bacon, yoghurts, juices, fruit etc and lovely pastries, then morning tea, a full gourmet lunch with starters and deserts, afternoon tea and, of course, an open bar all day.  Our passes also included Pit Lane Walks and Paddock Tours.  We saw all the riders both in their garages and in the paddock.  And we saw Adriana and the baby (Casey’s wife and baby) coming from their motor home and into the pits.  Our cameras were going non stop all day.  We also won a trip around the whole track on the service road.  Peter was taken on his drive during the Moto 2 Qualifying and Steve and I went during the MotoGP warm up!!  I flew the flag out of the window the whole way and got lots of cheers from other Aussies.  That ride was awesome, we were so privileged to get inside the track and have the riders going past us at 300+km an hour.  We were next to Lorenzo as he was doing his practise starts!  As soon as the race finished the crowds just came from everywhere onto the track – not just people, but motorbikes, scooters, roller blades, bicycles, people dressed as teletubbies (?)  There were fire works booming, flares going off, motorbikes doing burnouts, it was such a spectacle.  We couldn’t believe it. 

We stood hanging over the balcony for more than an hour watching it all.  Mugello is an experience we will never forget.  Although, having said that – the boys have forgotten how they got home some nights!

We got up this morning and went to do our washing and have breakfast in our beautiful little village.  It wasn’t so exciting doing the washing this time because we know the next time will be at home L  We went back to our apartment and packed up and waved Steve off on his bike.  He will ride through the mountains wherever the road leads.

We sat in the park for a while and watched the comings and goings and then our apartment owner, Francesco, drove us to the station and we caught a train into Florence, had lunch and caught the HiSpeed train to Milan which is where I type this.

An early-ish night tonight and then off to explore Milan in the morning.