I’m sitting in an outdoor restaurant in a piazza somewhere in central Palermo. I rode 730km today, too far as it turned out. It’s 9:30pm, soccer playing on the TV, and the place is really alive. I arrived only an hour ago, from Caserta.
First problem today was when I turned the bike on after breakfast and it told me its headlamp had blown, the low beam one. BMWs have a penchant for blowing globes, mine blew a couple while I had it too. What now, call Ralph? I’m only 2000km from Munich, he can fly to Palermo in the morning with a new globe! If he answers his phone.
I left the headlight on high beam all day, except when following cars closely in tunnels. Bikes nowadays cannot turn their headlight off, there is no switch. There were lots of tunnels today.
Second problem was that I’d more or less randomly picked, to stay in, the town with the biggest Royal Palace in Europe, comparable with Versailles. I had no idea. I could not leave without spending some time and money on seeing the palace. I could go another one of those beers, but I’d better get on with this. A cappuccino instead. The palace was indeed awe inspiring. The man hours that must have gone into its building and decoration. The wealth and power that enabled it don’t exist now.
After an hour walking around it and within it, I needed to hit the road. Leaving Caserta, I could see that it was a very attractive town. At 10:45 I got my billet on the autostrada and assumed it would take me hundreds of kilometres. It took me about 3km, then at the toll gate I returned it and paid a €2 toll. What a nuisance. Only later did I realise that the rest of the way to Palermo was toll free. I love the way the toll machines on the autostradas say “Arrivederci”. No tolls in the south of Italy. Not for the only time today, I realised that my earplugs were not in. Pull out, squeeze against the armco, gloves off, specs off, helmet off, earplugs in, reverse procedure, check all pockets are zipped, proceed. This happens a couple of times per day.
To ride 700km in a day you need to start at 7am, not 11am. That means skipping a breakfast I had paid for. I was still awake at 2:30am catching up with this blog, so a 7am start was not going to happen. I figured I would need to refuel twice in that distance, and not stop apart from that. I cruised at 110-120km most of the way. It was impossible most of the time to know what the speed limit was. There are very few signs, and they are interspersed with random 60 and 80 signs that make no sense and everyone ignores. A given stretch of road would have a limit of 110 and an identical section further along might be 80. There was no consistency or logic in the speed limits, just as in Australia. Just when I thought the limit really should be a bit lower, say going into a tunnel, the limit would increase to 120, for 100 metres, then back to 110. Zumo had no clue what the limit was, anywhere. The country is extremely rugged and much of the road south of Salerno to Reggio Calabria is tunnels and bridges. So too, in Sicily. 150k in a curving tunnel is a new experience for me 🙂
The bike is a revelation. Only 800cc, but its power belies its relatively small capacity, it really goes. But at 130k, the engine feels quite busy. Its doing only about 4500rpm, but just doesn’t feel relaxed. 120 is much better. If the engine just had another cylinder. My Daytona 955, pictured at the top of this blog has three cylinders, and feels as if it is just loafing along, at almost any speed. Just more relaxing to ride.
A long stretch was rigorously enforced with radar gantries above the road every couple of kilometres. Everyone cruised at 110, including the Carabinieri. Zumo thought it was 130. The road is an engineering masterpiece.
I kept seeing cars that were decked out like rally cars, all from Poland, all the way south from Salerno. They turned up at servizios, and on the ferry to Messina. Must be some kind of event.
At Reggio C, Zumo’s map was out of date, and he tried to have me turn right where no exit existed. I stopped and tried Google maps, but could get no mobile data. Out came the backup “Here” maps. I have several European countries loaded in the phone. They are extremely good, and of course, work offline. I needed to get to the ferry port at Villa San Giovanni, to take the ferry to Messina. By then, I had taken a wrong exit, circled a roundabout to do a U-turn, one of the Polish rally cars turned up and did the same thing, probably with a confused GPS like mine. We ended up heading back north in the direction of Salerno, and took the first exit we came to. Zumo by then had regained his composure and agreed. At the port, I had to buy a ferry ticket. It was well signposted, and I had no trouble finding the ticket office. Traffic was queuing for the next ferry. A guy, who I thought was a truck driver, asked if I needed help. I didn’t know why he was interested in helping me, but it became obvious. He asked what kind of ticket I wanted, single, or return, etc, and directed me to the queue at the ticket office. While there I noticed the ticket machine a few metres away, changed it to English, selected a 90 day return ticket, the machine accepted my card, and I had my ticket. All this with the guy standing next to me cheering me on. For his trouble, he wanted “a coffee”. I slung him €2 just to get rid of him.
For most of the way down, Zumo had estimated an arrival time in Palermo of 7:19pm. He didn’t take the ferry into account, and neither did I. It cost us about an hour. When I rolled off the ferry in Messina I still had 200km to go, and it was nearing dark. I decided to swap the high and low beam globes so I could run on low beam and avoid dazzling people when following them. I changed the globes mostly by feel, as it was almost dark and the globes are not very accessible. When it was done, the low beam didn’t work. I had no headlight at all! I replugged the connector, then had an idea, and started the engine. Light! BMWs run the headlight only while the engine is running.
It was a pleasant cruise west to Palermo, almost all in the dark. Very little traffic. Mostly through tunnels, which are lit, so you don’t need to concentrate, as you do in the open. Temperature was 23C, very comfortable. After one fuel stop, Zumo took me through some very seedy looking streets in Palermo, toward the centre, and delivered me to the BnB Teatro, Via Bara All’Olivella, 51, Palermo.
Luigi was still waiting outside. I hope it wasn’t just for me. I had called from the ferry, to say I expected to be there at about 8:30pm, but whoever I spoke to spoke only Italian, it wasn’t Luigi. He took an age to scan my passport. I figured I had kept him waiting a long time, so why not?
About then the couple in the other guest room arrived. Fiona and Brian, from Ballarat. Australians everywhere.
This Piazza was glowing invitingly just 100m from the BnB, so here I am.
