Guzzi's MIA

[Gmc28]

thats a great view.  thats one of the several great things about the lake, the norway-like views, but combined with much better food, wine, and moto guzzi 😎

not to get carried away with recommendations, but one more:  if you are out touring a bit, a great dinner spot is just north of varenna and up the hill (perhaps 15 mins from Mandello?), in an area that the vast majority of tourists haven’t figured out, a little restaurant called Semi di Grano.  finding it is half the fun, even though its really close ..… be patient, leave yourself a little extra time to figure out the map guidance (can’t necessarily just follow the google map prompts), and you’ll end up parking in a tight little town square of the town nestled into the steep hillside, then walking up cobblestone alleys wondering if youre in the right place, but its a jewel.  see if this google map link will paste:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/NRhp44ofC4BuvMEo9?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

ciao!

[v11_meticcio]

@Lucky Phil Confermo, semi di grano 👍🏻, é uno dei tanti luoghi incantevoli del nostro Lago…volendo potrei scrivere per ore, consigliandoti come districarsi tra panorami mozzafiato, ottimi ristoranti e buon vino.

Personalmente non tralascerei alcune delle attrazioni facilmente raggiungibili dalla tua base, come il Castello di Vezio, Villa Monastero e la passeggiata degli innamorati a Varenna…una volta lí, potrai bere dell’ottimo vino (a prezzi molto bassi e onesti per il luogo) dal mio amico Hermes 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/jJcKQ6F6hVpRUeYu6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

 

Mandello in questi giorni é caos!!! Ma puoi provare a muoverti in treno.

 

@Lucky Phil I'm very happy to have met you and your lovely lady, too bad about the language barrier (unfortunately it's my limit)… I would have liked to talk to you longer and better. I hope you will keep good memories of Mandello and Italy

Edited September 14 by v11_meticcio

[Lucky Phil]

Big day today wandering around Mandello. Still packed with Guzzi enthusiasts. I got the hear an old bicylindrica running (the 120 degree V twin 500cc GP bike from the thirties to the 50's if memory serves) and also got to sit on a Guzzi V8. I didn't get to see it running due to timing issues (me being around) but I heard it run twice during the day from 1/2 a klm away when it was started up. I also had the great privilege of visiting the preserved workshop of Giorgio Ripamonti who was a teacher of the young Carlo Guzzi and in this workshop with his help the very first Moto Guzzi called the "GP" was built and assembled. I spent 1/2 hour talking to his grandson who spoke very good English.

On this very anvil and in this tiny workshop at this hearth Carlo Guzzi and Giorgio Ripamonti created the very first Guzzi.

 

[Lucky Phil]

One for docc and scudd. The wife and I are so taken with Mandello we are looking at properties here. Six months a year here would be quite agreeable.

[Scud]

Hey Phil - That looks like a great adventure. I got close to Mandello once, but not close enough. I had a rented BMS GS - and chased a Moto Guzzi Stelvio up the Stelvio pass. Gearing up for a 500 mile ride across central Nevada tomorrow on my Stelvio.

[gstallons]

Is the Stelvio as good as it looks ?

[gstallons]

17 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

Big day today wandering around Mandello. Still packed with Guzzi enthusiasts. I got the hear an old bicylindrica running (the 120 degree V twin 500cc GP bike from the thirties to the 50's if memory serves) and also got to sit on a Guzzi V8. I didn't get to see it running due to timing issues (me being around) but I heard it run twice during the day from 1/2 a klm away when it was started up. I also had the great privilege of visiting the preserved workshop of Giorgio Ripamonti who was a teacher of the young Carlo Guzzi and in this workshop with his help the very first Moto Guzzi called the "GP" was built and assembled. I spent 1/2 hour talking to his grandson who spoke very good English.

On this very anvil and in this tiny workshop at this hearth Carlo Guzzi and Giorgio Ripamonti created the very first Guzzi.

 

This would have to be the equivalent to a religious experience. 

[Lucky Phil]

Forgot to mention that yesterday I got to sit on a Guzzi V8 that was in the small Piazza where the statue of Carlo Guzzi resides. This Piazza was where they had a display of about 20 old Guzzi race bikes and some were started up for the benefit of the crowd including the V8 and the 500 Bicylindrica. I cheekily asked the custodian of the V8 if I could get an image of me sitting on the bike and he looked a little shocked that someone would ask such a thing but then happily agreed. So on it I sat and my wife got a few images. This is the bike.

  

[gstallons]

MmmmMmmm

[Lucky Phil]

 Carlo Guzzi memorial. Centre of Mandello.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 17 by Lucky Phil

[v11_meticcio]

https://www.leccotoday.it/attualita/guzzi-motoraduno-2024-foto-moto-eventi-sfilata-.html

[v11_meticcio]

 

 

Steam generator designed by Carlo Guzzi based on a drawing made in Polytechnic of his father Engineer Palamede Guzzi before 1905. The thermal machine dusted off by Guzzi and built by Graziano Trincavelli, nephew of «Feree» Giorgio Ripamonti, has a boiler that generates steam which transforms the pressure into the mechanical rotation efficiency of a flywheel which constitutes the drive for a dynamo which powered the house's electric light and the pump of a well which supplied running water in the two houses, that of the Guzzis and that of the engineer. Angelo Parodi at Piani dei Resinelli. The machine is not, as one might think, a model, but an actual working steam engine. All brass taps bear the «Guzzi» marking which demonstrates their origin. The second example was unfortunately demolished.

 

Edited September 18 by v11_meticcio

[Chuck]

Pretty awesome.. thanks for that.

[docc]

Here I thought it was an industrial strength espresso machine . . .

[gstallons]

I thought the same thing but I thought it would be blasphemy to say it !