The first week of August 2004 I was fortunate enough to get into the Ducati factory and museo even though it was officially closed for the August shutdown.  My guide for the factory tour was Alex Corazza who is know as 'the' tour guide to tag along with when visiting the factory.  Michael Paratore, the DOC guy from the factory who arranged the trip for me was also with us.  He cleared his schedule and delayed his own vacation just to hang out with me.  Special guest appearance was Reno Leoni whom I was supposed to meet up with the following day for an interview....  I asked Reno if he wanted to come to the factory and museo with us and he did.  Here is a photo essay of my day.  I hope to put comments in at a later date as well.  Click HERE for some photos of my time with Reno in the following days along with some stories he told me etc.  Reno worked at the Ducati factory in the 60s and 70s before coming to America to build racebikes for Jimmy Adamo, Freddie Spencer & Mike Baldwin to name a few.  He was THE premier Ducati tuner through the 70s and 80s.

Ducati gave me a ST3s to ride during my stay in Bologna.  Here are a couple photos, the first one is myself and Michael Paratore, the other ones I took on my way to the Del Futta pass.  The paper is a ticket I got after getting on the Autodrama when I didn't want to, turning around in front of the toll booth and riding back.  They don't have much humor for that behavior there......  oops!

The little motor is a 38cc Mosqueto clip on engine I got from Reno, the statue thing is a nice piece of artwork someone made out of valves and gears etc of a Ducati engine.  it was really kewl looking.