Vroom With a View

by Peter Moore | Travel | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0553816373 Global Overview for this book
Registered by saarahoo of Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on 10/23/2014
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by saarahoo from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, October 23, 2014
Peter Moore travels in Italy on a Vespa.

Journal Entry 2 by saarahoo at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, November 27, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (11/27/2014 UTC) at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

A fellow crosser was interested in the book so here goes!

Journal Entry 3 by wingAnneliswing at Kerava, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Friday, November 28, 2014
This courier is allowed to eat from the load. The book is on its way to Kirjakko, but it takes some time.
Thank you for the book, Saarahoo!

Journal Entry 4 by wingAnneliswing at Kerava, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, December 14, 2014
"It was the late night Tai Bo fitness commercial warning him that life comes to an end after 40 that prompted Peter Moore to chase a boyhood dream. To go to Italy and seek out its celebrated dolce vita from the back of a Vespa.

But it couldn't be just any old Vespa. Peter wanted a bike as old as he was and in the same sort of condition: a little rough round the edges, a bit slow in the mornings perhaps, but basically still OK. And it had to have saddle seats. And temperamental electrics. And a little too much chrome. The sort of scooter you'd imagine a sharp-suited, Ray Ban-wearing young Marcello Mastroianni riding. Her name was Sophia.

From picnicking in the Italian alps and rattling through cobbled hilltop to gate-crashing Frances Mayes's villa and re-enacting 'Roman Holiday', Vroom with a View is as much a romance as a travel adventure. For not only does Peter win the woman of his dreams, he falls for a side of Italy others rarely see. Along with Sophia, of course..."
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Well, I read this book already. It was so nice to read about many familiar places in Italy - and about unfamiliar places as well.
This kind of books are dangerous reading as they start me making plans to go to Italy even if I have decided about seeing other places in other countries (at least Oxford) first.
Now I know a lot about the history of Vespas, too. I remember that I was very surprised to see as many teenaged girls as boys driving a Vespa in Spain in the beginning of the 90's. I had believed that in Southern Europe scooters and motos were for the boys mostly.

This is my # 105 in
"KEEP THEM MOVING 2014" Challenge arranged by Booklady331.

Journal Entry 5 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, December 14, 2014
Vrrrrooooom.... I got the book from Annelis today at our BC-Christmas meet-up. She praised it, so I'm looking forward to reading it soon. I have three planned trips for 2015 so far: February: Vienna in three days, April: Oxford BC-convention and May: Escaping my 50th birthday to York. Not the New one, the old in the Glorious Yorkshire.

Journal Entry 6 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, April 16, 2023
How time flies when you are not driving a Vespa. Luckily this book was on teapot's wishlist, so it needs to be read before the Falkirk Convention in June. Other trips for this year: Berlin was already concured last month, Scotland in June, perhaps Paris Mega BC-meet-up in September and another perhaps Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Italy by rail in October. But I would never in a million years drive any motor vehicle in Italy, too much vaffanculo for me.

Pic: Berlin, March 17th 2023. Flags of the Reichstag building were in half mast in the memory of a schoolgirl killed by two of her "mates', aged 12 yrs.

Journal Entry 7 by wingkirjakkowing at Sipoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Wednesday, April 19, 2023
I am a happy plus-member of the Finnish Automobile Club, which means I can get a mechanic to help with car problems in an hour or so. I was most impressed one Friday night last December, when a chearful and polite guy came along and changed my flat battery to a new one in -20 C degrees, in the lights his car was giving us in the dark night and I only had to pay for the battery, his work was part of the membership bonus. Okay, I gave him 250g of Marabou chocolate I happened to have... He was also much nicer than any of the grumpy mechanics I normally use.
I'm in Sipoo, as it was time to change the summer tyres and my spare tyres live in the garage of my workmate, which I'm very thankful for, because every year the tyres weigh more than last year and at home I would have to carry them 50 m from the street to cellar.
Oh, and my possible trip to Switzerland etc turned into an impossible one, because it was sold out.

Journal Entry 8 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, April 20, 2023
We used to play something which sounded like "botscha" in our summer cottage when I was little. It had wooden balls which you threw with an iron ball and it resembled petanque, which wasn't even heard of until 20 years later. When reading this and Peter mentioning watching a game of bocce a little bell began to ring in mi head...

Journal Entry 9 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, April 20, 2023
Saints and pilgrims mentioned. I've always wondered what the thrill is for catholics to hack up their saints and place their bodyparts on show as holy relics. And those still alive and in one piece queue to see a pinkie. Rather grouse.

Pic: Behind the pearly gates is a big collection of holy relics.

Journal Entry 10 by wingkirjakkowing at Sipoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Saturday, April 22, 2023
Note to self: Never travel to Vernazza, where dishonesty is the norm in every monetary transaction. Sounds a truly unpleasant place.
What used to be called Interrailing when I was young is nowadays apparently called Eurailing. I think I did four or five Interrail trips and I've had my fair share of youth hostel living. Don't miss that bit at all, nor sleeping on trains and having no shower in the morning.

Journal Entry 11 by wingkirjakkowing at Sipoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Sunday, April 23, 2023
Pinocchio's theme park in Collodi sounded like the guided car tour we made from Riga, Latvia. We were supposed to see a wonderful old castle (ruins), an amazing old cave (50 m and full of modern signature carvings), a maze (they had laid the groundwork for the maze, but never grown the bushes or put up any walls, so it was just flat stoned circle, see pic) and eat traditional food in a village known by its witch (it was an islet beside a motorway with a gas station cafe and a big witch puppet was greeting customers outside the door - traditional gas station food...). The driver knew four English words and we got the guided tour from a tape... There were two ladies from Scotland in the same car and we were wondering what they were thinking, having seen some real castles, caves and mazes (they love their shrubbery mazes in Britain). It was such an utterly bad tour that we were laughing more and more with each pitiful "sight" we were shown.

Pic: The Maze! Our driver in the pink shirt demanded us to walk through it anyhow and everybody but me complied.

Journal Entry 12 by wingkirjakkowing at Sipoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Monday, April 24, 2023
Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa, 2018. A truly beautiful place, but soooo full of tourists.

Journal Entry 13 by wingkirjakkowing at Sipoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Monday, April 24, 2023
We happened to be in Pisa when some religious procession was heading into the church. It was 32 C degrees hot and we were wondering why catholic priests also pushed a dead one with them (pic). He didn't react to anything going around him and if he had been an animal and it had happened in Finland, police would have been called to stop the cruelty. But people are used to cruel things done in the name of relion, so nobody blinked an eye (except us heathen Finns).

Journal Entry 14 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Finally finished! For a non-mechanic this book was a bore at times, filled with so much detailed info about all Vespas great and small. I also had read quite recently a road trip book about a woman from the UK, who drove around NZ on a motorbike a few sizes too big for her. However, the parts where the Vespa didn't steal the show were ok.
Kimi Räikkönen (spelled Raikkonen) was mentioned in the book, if ever there is another reading challenge which makes us find in which books Finland or Finns have been mentioned.
Santa Maria della Concezione is the bone church of Rome, sounded like Kutná Hora near Prague. I'll find a few photos for you, photograpgy wasn't forbidden there.

Journal Entry 15 by wingkirjakkowing at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, April 25, 2023
One's coat of arms in the Kutná Hora -style.

Journal Entry 16 by wingkirjakkowing at Falkirk, Scotland United Kingdom on Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Released 9 mos ago (6/16/2023 UTC) at Falkirk, Scotland United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Surprise! In case I do not run into teapot myself, bookfrogster has promised to deliver the book.

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