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I found
a local hotel not far from the restaurant and dumped
our clobber in the room. I contacted my friend Alberto
and he informed me of the plan for the night.
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Dave
and Wes share the evenig with Roby, his family,
and friends. |
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We
were to assemble in the lounge area of the Pizzeria,
drinks would be provided. Around 20 people would be
here for the meal, the restaurant was trading as normal
besides this gathering and the other diners must have
wondered what on earth was happening. As you are able
to see on the photos Wes and I wore our Roby shirts
while Joel was attired in the Fortuna shirt from last
season. |
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My
family and I were seated opposite Roby and Daniella
and were introduced to the other guests as “Guests
of honour from England”. After all the opening
speeches the food and drinks arrived. We were made to
feel very welcome, and with most of the guests being
able to speak English the conversation went on late
into the night. Before the gathering ended, everyone
got together for photographs. |
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We
flew to Berlin airport and picked up a rental car
for our holiday. I had purchased a Tom Tom sat nav
system from eBay to help me navigate across Europe;
this really was worth every penny! How did we ever
manage before these systems were available?! |
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Roby
asked if Wes and I would like to visit his home and
look around his garage the next day. We made plans
to meet up and left for a good nights sleep. We met
up with Roby the next day and followed him to his
residence. When Roby spoke about his garage, it is
not like the one at the side of your house - it's
massive! There are different areas within this building.
There is a workshop area (all spick and span) with
racks of machines that Roby has campaigned throughout
his racing career, from mini bikes right through to
the Aprillia that he won the Italian championship
with several years ago. |
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There's
also a large collection of paddock scooters from all
the teams that he has been associated with.
In his spare time Roby like to Super Moto and Enduro
for he lives in the country side with open access.
He has one each of these machines. |
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There
are cupboards full of every set of leathers that he
has owned, even the ripped ones when he has crashed.
There are also shelves full of boots from today right
back to his early years. You would drool at the unopened
boxes of new boots that his sponsor has provided.
We went inside for a coffee and chat and spent a good
couple of hours talking racing, both past and present.
Before Wes and I left, Daniella presented Wes with
the latest D’Antin team shirt and Robby gave
me 6 bottles of his own signature lable wine! WOW!!!!!
Unbelievable, I still have to pinch myself to make
sure that I did not dream all of this. |
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We
spent quite a few more days in Italy, then drove back
into Germany to stay with Jeff and Martina. I would
like to pass on to the readers my observations. Jeff
lives in the Chemnitz area of the former East Germany,
it is full of forests and open country side. In all
of these forests you are able to roam freely unlike
the small ones here in the UK that are controlled
either by private landlords or the National Trust.
There is not a great deal of traffic and homes tend
to be located in small villages and are all detached.
Everything is neat and tidy and I suspect that the
government has provided subsidiaries for these former
poor communities. Most people here smoke, and cigarette
machines are every where. They are located at bus
stops and at random on the streets. They never get
vandalised or robbed, unlike here in the UK where
petty crime is “young men’s sport”
as Jeff commented. As soon as I arrived back in Stockport
after my vacation I saw the broken glass from bus
shelters and phone kiosks…welcome home Dave!!!!!!! |
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