Moto Madness

Up till now we've been having mostly "Emily days" - food, coffee, talking with the local shopkeepers about health and childhood obesity, etc.

This weekend we had a Paul day - we went to a motorcycle fair in Reggio-Emilia with Vincenzo!

Who is Vincenzo, you ask?  Vincenzo is my new motorcycle friend, who I met in a local Yamaha dealer as I was moseying around.  He's an enthusiast who rides a Honda Transalp, he's very nice, and for bonus points he looks just like Jean Reno in "The Professional":

So early Saturday morning we piled into Vincenzo's van and headed off to the fair.  And oh, what a fair it was. 

I wasn't sure what to expect, and upon entering it quickly became clear that I couldn't have imagined it beforehand.  There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of stalls, selling everything from the most basic parts like pistons and spark plugs, to complete, concours-quality classic race bikes. 



Parts here, getcha parts here....

Sweet old Benelli - check out the pipes

Super clean Duc 

 A Kenny Roberts 250cc race bike!  Vincenzo told the guy I was American, and he started trying REALLY hard to sell it to me....only problem was he wanted about $50,000

Shaft drive, surprising on something from this period!

A typical chaotic transport truck

Oh yeah, there were also things like meat slicers and tools thrown in for good measure.  In short, it was a Man-Fair, the likes of which I have never seen before.  And apparently Man-Fairs over here are cherished, because it was attended not only by people from all over Italy, but from all over the world!  There were Swedes, Germans, Brits, Spaniards, Czechs, you name it, they were there. 

Pictures don't do this old Moto Guzzi justice...it was simply awesome

Some cool Yamaha race bikes

Also, they love Hondas over here, especially old CB500s and 750s!

One other thing about Vincenzo, is that he knows EVERYBODY in the motorcycle community over here.  So of course, we bumped into many of his friends, a few of whom we met up with for lunch.  After gathering at the designated spot, one of them started digging in his backpack....

Next thing we knew he had laid out a feast of salami, cheese, bread, and beer!  It was all delicious.

Our lunch crew....


And of course after lunch there was still a TON more fair to see:

Mechanical art

"I'll take the Moto Guzzi with the matching salami slicer"....where else but in Italia?

Dirt-cati?  Huh?

Speaking of Ducatis, here's one: great shape, slightly used, may need a little polish.

No need for the shirt, you can tell he's a Colorado man....

All told, I noticed a striking difference from any motorcycle gathering I've seen in America.  Many of the parts for sale were rusty, old, obscure, or all of the above.  But most of the attendees had two or three of these found treasures tucked under their arms, ready to take home and install on whatever pet project was incrementally nearing completion.  Parts, engines, and entire bikes that some would deem fit only for the junkyard were eagerly pored over by keen-eyed collectors and restorers, willing to invest the time and effort needed to restore them to glory.

And the finished bikes that had been lovingly removed of rust, painted, polished and pieced together from those found parts were simply amazing.  The small-displacement Italian bikes from the 50s were especially impressive, marques that I had never heard of before like Parilla (which I especially like) and Mondial. 

I've noticed that the Italians seem to have a deep appreciation for a "cosa bella", a beautiful thing.  It doesn't need to have the most current performance, or the newest technology.  But if a motorcycle has exquisite design, if it invokes passion, if it stirs the soul in some way, it will be cherished long past the point of its practicality.   

Anyone want to go in halfsies on an old, obscure, temperamental, beautiful work of mechanical art?

Concours-quality Mondial

Finally, my favorite, a beautiful Parilla:

I took a lot of pics, the rest are here:

Cheese and Coffee

To follow up on a few earlier posts, here are 2 new pictures.

First, if anyone wasn't convinced that the Parmesan cheese from our landlords was big, check out the picture we took once we opened it:



Also, about the size of the coffee: sometimes in the afternoons we have been going to a cafe that has wireless to do some work. It is called Lino's coffee and has a modern, trendy feel to it. In addition to the traditional coffee options they have a big list of other choices with coffees with different flavors and whipped cream, one of them being the "Maximug," which seems to me like a caffe latte with a flavor of your choice.



The novelty is that for Italian coffee this is a huge mug, maybe 10 or 12 FO, which I think is about the size of a Starbucks tall. We ordered Maximugs one day for a photo opp, but didn't feel so good after drinking them. It is really hard to beat an afternoon caffe macchiato! It's also hard to beat our favorite bar, Bar Gnocla. Check out the earlier post called "Pasadena vs. Parma Coffee Culture" for a few other new pictures.

Immigrant Party WhooHoo!

Well, we sure had an interesting night on Friday. You may remember that we live in the heart of Parma's "migrant district". A few weeks back we noticed this very eclectic-looking place right by our house:

Upon closer inspection, we saw a flyer advertising free Italian language classes for people who lived in the area. Bingo! How could we refuse?

So every weeknight from 6-7:30, we walk down the street and participate in this class, led by some Italians, along with other immigrants from the district. It's been quite interesting, to say the least - we're in class with people from Algeria, Senegal, Sudan, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Mondavia, Morocco, and Eritrea.

We're pretty sure we're the only Americans who have EVER been in the school, based on their reaction to us. At first, we weren't even sure we were welcome there, but now we fit in just fine.

That's not to say that everyone doesn't watch our every move though, because they do. Because of the media, or the influence of our culture, or whatever, everyone is very curious about the Americans. So we're trying to represent well.

Anyways, we've been in the school for a few weeks now, and Friday night it put on a monthly party. Everyone was encouraged to bring music and a food item "typical" of their country. I made an eclectic music mix of American bands, and Emily made vegetarian chili and also artichokes.

At first I was against the chili because, being a Texan, I passionately argued that chili without meat isn't really chili. But we knew that there were several Muslims in the class who wouldn't want pork, and several Indians in the class who probably wouldn't want beef...so those considerations won and she made it with eggplant, carrots, and beans.

Plus it was SUPER tough to think of another "typical" American dish - what is typical American anyways? Grilled cheese? PB&J? Chili seems to be a solid choice to represent our country - it's big, bold, and hard to pin down exactly what it's made of.

So with chili and artichokes in hand, we went to the party. Sure, there were some awkward moments:

This is me with Ali, Asimov, Mbaye, and Ivan, from Sudan, Eritrea, Senegal, and Mondavia. Very nice guys all, but we speak 5 different languages, so there wasn't a lot of communication going on, mostly smiles and nods.  About the only thing we know how to say to each other in Italian is our names and what time it is, and that gets old real fast.

Anyways the party started off slowly but once the music started it definitely kicked up a notch.  One interesting thing we learned is that everyone, all over the world, knows Bob Marley.  And boy do those Algerians love to dance!

When all was said and done we had a great time.  And the vegetarian chili turned out to be a HUGE hit.  People were a little scared of it at first but once they tasted it, they went back for 2nds and 3rds.  Emily stayed true to her reputation - one guy refused the chili on the first pass, saying in Italian, "I don't eat vegetables, especially eggplant".  I saw him about 15 minutes later with a heaping plate of the stuff...apparently someone gave him a taste.  That's Emily for ya, converting veggie haters all over the planet!