Bologna, Italy Ducati Factory and Museum
Friday, June 10, 2005
Wake up to Italian Alps, bellisimo!! Stay up and drink tea with the English. Watch the rolling fields of grain, corn (?), and grape vines roll by. Back to bed for a few hours before we arrive.
Pull into Bologna around 3:30pm. I have a tour set for the Ducati Factory and Museum at 4pm. I call the curator and tell him it will be at least 4:30 before we can arrive. Up to the room for a quick shower and head count on folks going on the tour.
Meet in the lobby at 4pm, it's myself, our production manager Greg, monitor engineer Beau, audio tech Geoff, and rigger Brian. Off we go in a cab for the 20min trip to Ducati.
Arrive at the factory and are met at the gate by our host Livio Lido, who is the curator of Museo Ducati. We take a walk through the factory first with Livio giving us a history lesson of Ducati along the way. There is a strike in the factory, so there are no workers. This means we can take photos, which are normally not allowed. Sweet! Every Ducati motorcycle ever made has been made in this factory, there is no other. Kinda cool to see where my bike was made. Everyone says I'm like a kid at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, you can't tear the grin off my face ;) We walk along the production lines and snap a few photos and soon we are done.
Off to the Museo Ducati (Ducati Museum) next. It is filled almost entirely with Ducati race bikes. It is amazing to see. We even see a restored version of the first motorcycle Ducati made, which was actually a motor you attached to a bicycle. We top off the tour with Livio allowing me to sit on Loris Capirossi's Moto GP bike. Wow, if this bike were running it would be putting out 230+ rear wheel HP for speeds in excess of 205mph!!
We wrap up the tour with Livio presenting me with an edition of the Ducati book. An amazing hardback book on the history of the brand. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Livio for making this a once in a lifetime adventure. Click on my Flickr photo link to see all the pics.
Pull into Bologna around 3:30pm. I have a tour set for the Ducati Factory and Museum at 4pm. I call the curator and tell him it will be at least 4:30 before we can arrive. Up to the room for a quick shower and head count on folks going on the tour.
Meet in the lobby at 4pm, it's myself, our production manager Greg, monitor engineer Beau, audio tech Geoff, and rigger Brian. Off we go in a cab for the 20min trip to Ducati.
Arrive at the factory and are met at the gate by our host Livio Lido, who is the curator of Museo Ducati. We take a walk through the factory first with Livio giving us a history lesson of Ducati along the way. There is a strike in the factory, so there are no workers. This means we can take photos, which are normally not allowed. Sweet! Every Ducati motorcycle ever made has been made in this factory, there is no other. Kinda cool to see where my bike was made. Everyone says I'm like a kid at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, you can't tear the grin off my face ;) We walk along the production lines and snap a few photos and soon we are done.
Off to the Museo Ducati (Ducati Museum) next. It is filled almost entirely with Ducati race bikes. It is amazing to see. We even see a restored version of the first motorcycle Ducati made, which was actually a motor you attached to a bicycle. We top off the tour with Livio allowing me to sit on Loris Capirossi's Moto GP bike. Wow, if this bike were running it would be putting out 230+ rear wheel HP for speeds in excess of 205mph!!
We wrap up the tour with Livio presenting me with an edition of the Ducati book. An amazing hardback book on the history of the brand. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Livio for making this a once in a lifetime adventure. Click on my Flickr photo link to see all the pics.
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