Visit Ducati Factory and Museum fourth part. The dream factory
Visit Ducati Factory and Museum fourth part. The dream factory

Video: Visit Ducati Factory and Museum fourth part. The dream factory

Video: Visit Ducati Factory and Museum fourth part. The dream factory
Video: The Ducati Museum 2024, March
Anonim

Fourth and last installment of this series of articles on the visit to the Ducati Factory and Museum at its Borgo Panigale headquarters in Bologna. It remains for us to finish the visit to the Ducati Museum with the exhibition of the motorcycles of SBK and MotoGPThen we go shopping at the factory store and we will end up going over the details of this trip, emphasizing little tricks and some other interesting places to visit in Bologna.

For the SBK section, and as you can see in the photo, the arrangement of the bikes is in a row due to the large number of them. And there are all the champions, from Raymond Roche's 851 in 1990 to Troy Bayliss's 1098R in 2008 through the legendary 888 by Doug Polen, 916-996 by Carl Fogarty and Troy Corser and the 999 by Neil Hodgson, James Toseland and Troy Bayliss. And there should be the 1198R of Carlos Checa that to this day I have no information on whether it is currently exposed or not but surely, if it is not yet, it will not take long to become part of such an illustrious staff.

MotoGP
MotoGP

Continuing with SBK, the adjoining rooms are a display of engines in which you can see the Ducati powertrain development with the Desmodue, Desmotre, Desmoquattro, Supermono and Testastretta. Here also I suppose that the Superquadro that the Ducati 1199 Panigale mounts will be incorporated shortly. And before moving on to the section MotoGP, to say that Ducati lived not only from the great championships since in its showcases there are eight titles of the BSB, one of them won by our Gregorio Lavilla in 2005 with a Ducati 999 and two AMA Championships.

That's when it comes to titles. But there are many who, loyal to the Bologna brand, have fought tooth and nail on their red motorcycles and it would not be fair to forget them, such as Rubén Xaus, for example. One of ours who would dare to say that He has been one of the pilots who has carried the Ducati brand the most in his heart. And then to finish it goes to a room, like the one you see in the image, where all the models of the Desmosedicci RR of MotoGP are seen to date.

The MotoGP section starts with Loris Capirossi's Desmosedicci RR GP3 until the GP8 of Casey Stoner and could not miss the 2007 world champion in a room that also has showcases with all the trophies and a projector that shows images of the World Championship continuously. As a singular note, it is striking to see one of the versions of the Desmosedicci RR that instead of having a strong red color it looks more like an orange to the eye. They explained to us that the reason for this orange hue is that with the advent of high definition television, that orange hue in reality became Ducati red in television images.

Heritage museum
Heritage museum

We put an end to the visit to the Ducati Museum, not without first sign the guestbook upon departure and we head to what many call "the Outlet", which is nothing other than the factory store or factory store. It is a Ducati dealer very close to the factory, specifically about 200 meters from it on the same street and passing a roundabout. In your store it is normal to find discounted products with the plus of being able to have almost all the range of your catalog. In our case they gave us a discount voucher that we could redeem at this factory store.

And although as we said at the beginning, We regret not having made this trip on a motorcycleWe have come for a weekend and the visit to the Ducati Factory and Museum occupied us on Friday afternoon, so we will be able to take advantage of a couple of days to see what the city of Bologna gives itself. Another museum that should be taken into account is the Museum of Industrial Heritage. The whole region where Bologna, Emilia Romana, is located, is of a strong industrial character and in this museum you can see it.

We were lucky that there was also an exhibition of popular postwar motorcycles but there is a representation of Ducati in that Museum that is also worth seeing. It should be noted that although the center of Bologna lends itself to enjoying walking, the Museum of Industrial Heritage is located on the outskirts and it is advisable to take a bus to get there. And here are our tips and tricks for this city.

CenterBologna
CenterBologna

A city with a lot of life in its streets, with large cobbled avenues, with arcades and very bright spaces. For us, once we had arrived from Borgo Panigale to the Stazione Centrale, where train and bus mix, it was necessary to look for the tourist office in Piazza Maggiore to get a map of the city, which, at its center, is shaped like a pentagon. At one of the ends of this pentagon we find the accommodation with prior reservation online from the hotel page itself. It cost us 50 euros a night for two people with buffet breakfast included.

We recommend the old town with a must visit library from Piazza Maggiore where you can see Ducati history books sitting in its interior patio. In the center of Bologna something as basic as finding mineral water can ruin our budget, it is very expensive. The most practical thing in this case is to look for small supermarkets run by orientals in which we can assure ourselves of water at reasonable prices. About one euro for a 1.5 liter bottle.

Other recommendation is to have a strong breakfast at the hotel buffet and to eat, take advantage of the multitude of small establishments that sell pieces of artisan pizza, taking into account that it is eaten around one in the afternoon. Nor can one go to Bologna without tasting the ice cream at Grom ice cream parlors that will delight those with a sweet tooth. They are small indications that together with the plane tickets, in our case, they made us spend a very intense weekend without ruining ourselves. We could do another four more parts since things remain in the pipeline but it is better that you check it yourself and do not stop going if you have the opportunity, even if you are not drivers or fans of the Ducati brand. The visit to its Factory and Museum is well worth it.

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