Misano, Italy (CNN) — Within the Emilia Romagna area, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, summers are languid, sultry, and stuffed with alternatives to dine, drink, dance, swim, chill out and replenish. For a couple of days on the finish of July, nevertheless, this scenic nook of one of many world’s most stunning international locations experiences an invasion.
From everywhere in the world, a red-clad military converges on the cities and villages across the well-known racing circuit at Misano, most of them astride rumbling, rasping bikes. That is World Ducati Week, and this yr some 80,000 fans have been bringing the noise.
A Ducati is to motorbike lovers what a Ferrari is to automotive aficionados. Like its four-wheeled compatriot, the two-wheeled Italian model has made its title creating loud, quick, uncompromising, often eccentric and sometimes achingly elegant machines. However this gathering of Ducatisti, as Ducati fans are identified, is about far more than simply bikes; they’re right here to have a celebration, and the entire neighborhood is able to welcome them.
Cappuccinos on the waterfront
World Ducati Week on Italy’s Adriatic Coast welcomes bike followers from close to and much.
Ducati
This isn’t your typical “biker” crowd, both. An occasion on the dimensions of this in america would possibly conjure up photos of beards, tattoos, leather-based jackets and rock music, however it is a far more Italian affair.
Because the solar rose over the Adriatic onto this yr’s occasion, its rays glanced over luxurious yachts in close by Cattolica and Gabicce Mare, and located the Ducatisti sipping cappuccinos at waterfront cafes, earlier than guiding their growling machines on a brief and mild cruise to the close by Marco Simoncelli racing circuit.
On the observe, actually hundreds of Ducatis, previous and new, glided into the car parking zone and nestled alongside each other. One after the other, their riders dismounted and gazed round them, grinning extensively within the already scorching Italian sunshine at row after row after row of Italian bikes.
About 80,000 riders flip up for the annual occasion.
Ducati
Female and male, younger and never so younger, maybe probably the most putting factor about this group was simply how far many had come to be right here. Ducati claimed that guests to the 2022 occasion, the tenth World Ducati Week, had traveled from 84 international locations, a statistic that was straightforward to consider on the bottom.
Rebekah, wearing a vivid pink t-shirt and a straw hat, had ridden all the way in which to Misano from Regensburg, a medieval metropolis that sits on the banks of the Danube in Bavaria, Germany. Her membership, which she instructed CNN is “the best group exterior Italy,” had taken two days to make the journey. “It is the nice Ducati household, world wide,” she smiled.
‘Emozione’
The parking heaps are stuffed with hundreds of Ducatis.
Ducati
Fellow Germans Stefan and Bianca had come from the town of Nuremburg. They’d taken a extra leisurely three days to trip down, and echoed their fellow Bavarian Rebekah: “We got here down right here as a result of it is enjoyable, the folks, the bikes, Italy, it’s totally good,” mentioned Stefan. What was it about Ducati that made them do it? “Emozione!” he replied. “It is… feeling.” Bianca agreed.
Ed, Patsy, and JT had flown all the way in which from the Philippines. “We go first to Berlin, then again to Milan, then from Milan we go throughout Italy and France,” JT defined.
“We meet some folks with the identical ardour, completely different riders from completely different golf equipment, and share another cultures,” Patsy added. “We rode from France to right here!” Ed instructed CNN proudly, earlier than gesturing to the again of his t-shirt, which displayed the route alongside the Mediterranean coast and throughout northern Italy.
One of many points of interest on the circuit itself was the presence of a few of Ducati’s high racing expertise, specifically its MotoGP stars. Pecco Bagnaia, on the time vying for the producer’s first MotoGP title since 2007, was experiencing his first ever World Ducati Week, and was stunned to see its scale.
Ducati has made its title creating loud, quick and stylish machines.
Ducati
“It is unbelievable,” he instructed CNN. “I am already amazed to see all of the folks right here.” Amongst a throng of followers gathering to see him, he appeared virtually embarrassed on the fuss. “Quite a lot of riders are the focal point,” he mentioned, “however I am having fun with it rather a lot.”
Naturally, a lot of the exercise on the circuit itself was targeted on the bikes, with product demonstrations, workshops and shows of latest bikes, in addition to automobiles from Ducati’s sister corporations Audi and Lamborghini. On the observe there have been particular races, with star riders competing within the Race of Champions, on similar Ducati Panigale superbikes, and the possibility to trip on the again of a specifically tailored Ducati or within the passenger seat of a Lamborghini.
Seaside occasion
DJ Benny Benassi whips the gang right into a frenzy.
Ducati
However maybe probably the most eye-catching exercise of the competition was discovered elsewhere, again on the seashore. On the Friday a protracted purple chain of Ducatis, led by Ducati Corse CEO Claudio Domenicali alongside a number of the occasion’s star racers, snaked its technique to close by Riccione, a famend occasion vacation spot and a summertime magnet on Italy’s jap Riviera.
There a classy seashore occasion was laid out alongside the boardwalk to welcome the massed ranks of Ducatisti. Celebrated DJ Benny Benassi whipped the keen crowd right into a frenzy as they bounced alongside to his pumping mix of home music.
On the coronary heart of the competition, Claudio Domenicale was a whirl of power as he moved round speaking to followers, media and VIPs. He defined his impression of the attraction of World Ducati Week to CNN: “It retains altering, each time you discover one thing new,” he mentioned, “All of the folks be a part of right here, so that they have the eagerness of discovering themselves collectively, after which they discover their hero, the riders, the staff boss, myself, and we’re very accessible to them, so you will get near the riders, you will get near the folks.”
Everybody on the similar degree
The competition additionally consists of demonstrations, workshops, races and driving shows.
Ducati
Positive sufficient, Saturday night noticed Domenicali, dressed as a waiter, together with MotoGP riders and different Ducati officers, serving the friends at a barbecue on the Marco Simoncelli circuit’s pit straight, with meals ready by chef, Riccardo Monco, from the three Michelin star restaurant Enoteca Pinchiorri.
“These are three days during which everybody is nearly on the similar degree, and they also like it, they really feel it,” Domenicali smiled.
