October 2025 (G.T.) – The European tour of globetrotting motorcyclists SabrinAndrea continues, with their much-loved trusty Moto Guzzi V7 850. Below is the second episode of their travel story, along with some brilliant photos of the couple on the road. They certainly know how to enjoy life. Time for a pause for reflection!
Reportage by “SabrinAndrea”: “Hello, here we are again - the ‘unstoppable’ SabrinAndrea, the crazy couple who’ve been travelling around Europe since June. Where did we leave you last time? Ah, that’s right: we were having a little downtime at the Tre Archi campsite near Lido di Fermo (in the Marche region, Italy), staying with our friends Flo and Carlo...it's a real oasis, perfect for relaxing and planning plenty of journeys!
Given that we were in Ancona, we didn't miss the chance to visit Loreto (in the province of Ancona) and Torre di Palme (in the province of Fermo), two truly magical places!
The Sanctuary of Loreto is home to the “Holy House” (three stone walls from Mary's home in Nazareth), with marble cladding designed by Bramante, considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance art. Info: https://www.italia.it/it/marche/cosa-fare/loreto-santuario-della-santa-casa
The romantic village of Torre di Palme. Le Guide in Tasca, Facebook.
When we set off again on our journey, we travelled coast to coast (from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea), arriving in Civitavecchia where the ferry to Barcelona was waiting for us, so we didn’t have to ride across France for the third time. Having parked our legendary Maya (Guzzi V7) with MioPio (our mascot) below decks, we set sail on the 20-hour crossing of the Mediterranean.
We disembarked at 7.30 p.m. in Barcelona, staying the night in a bungalow in Sant Salvador for the first night.
The next morning, we woke early and set off again for Valencia, with the blue of the ocean on our left accompanying us and blending with the blue sky on the horizon. Having crossed the whole of Catalonia, we arrived at our destination; Valencia appeared before us in all its glory - a beautiful, clean and welcoming city, and very friendly to boot!
We spent two nights here, giving ourselves a day and a half to explore the city, wandering back and forth through the historic centre. The cathedral is immense and majestic, and we recommend spending at least a couple of hours looking around - it’s well worth it, and is home to the remains of what is believed to be the Holy Grail, from Christ's Last Supper.
We would also highly recommend a stroll around the Mercado Centrale, with its fruit stalls and countless delicatessens offering Iberian ham to nibble on the hoof, as well as delicious paellas (we sampled everything, of course!).
A visit to the Church of St. Nicholas of Bari is also not to be missed: often referred to as the Sistine Chapel of Spain, it’s a masterpiece that will leave you speechless, with your eyes turned heavenwards!
Long story short, Valencia enchanted us in every way, including the stunning architecture of the famous architect Santiago Calatrava Valls.
Visit Valencia official website:
https://www.visitvalencia.com/it
As we set off again on our journey, we crossed Murcia into Andalusia; here the landscape changed dramatically, and we didn’t even feel like we were in Europe anymore: we traversed the Tabernas desert, the setting for countless Sergio Leone “spaghetti western” films (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly being the most famous).
We stopped right at Fort Bravo to see the Western sets, breathing in the scent of earth and gunpowder!
Then, we stayed the night in Almeria, a port city with its own Medina and all the charm of Andalusia’s villages.
But SabrinAndrea never stay still, so we charged on towards Granada! A city of a thousand and one nights, split between Arab and European culture, where the scents of spices and incense enticed us into the narrow streets of the Arab quarter. The Alhambra and the old town are incredible.
As passionate foodies, we savoured a delicious lamb tagine with prunes and dates! We were even lucky enough to experience the festival of the city’s patron saint, Our Lady of the Sorrows, with a motorcade and flowers thrown from a helicopter!
On leaving Granada, we headed towards Malaga, and around a hundred kilometres later, we first set eyes on the Rock of Gibraltar.
We didn't stay directly in the centre, where prices are very high, but opted for La Línea de la Concepción, a 10-minute walk away. Here, you can stroll past customs with just your identity card, and once you've crossed the airport runway that forms the border, you find yourself in England, with red telephone boxes and the pound as the local currency; thank goodness they drive on the European side of the road!
Here, we spent a whole day walking around the entire promontory, from the castle, the “monkey cave”, St. Michael’s cave and the Pillars of Hercules to the sky walk at a height of 400 metres.
This was the goal of our trip: from the bears of Romania to the monkeys of Gibraltar... and what a lot of monkeys there are - one even climbed on top of me trying to open my rucksack! We’ve never seen animals as wild as monkeys become so familiar with humans, to the point where they live side by side, almost as equals. Not that there’s much difference between them and some of us; in many ways, the monkeys are better, and certainly more civilised!
With our trusty Maya, we reached the ‘Last Point of Europe’, where we took the obligatory photo with the lighthouse; looking south, we could see the coast of Morocco.
After saying goodbye to the monkeys, we travelled up the coast to Cadiz, a historic city founded by the Phoenicians, with stunning sunsets over the sea.
This was our halfway point and, as we continued, we skirted past beautiful Seville (which we visited in 2011) and carried on to Cordoba, the home of flamenco. Here, we took a tour of all the beautiful courtyards (or ‘patios’), which the owners take great pride in - there’s even a ranking system. But in this city, the Mezquita reigns supreme: an immense mosque-turned-church boasting multiple columns and Byzantine mosaics.
And we didn't miss out on the chance to visit the Roman Bridge either!
Back on our bike, we said goodbye to lively Andalusia, crossing the La Mancha region with its windmills; if our Maya had been equipped with a sail, we would have “navigated” across the whole of Spain!
Like Don Quixote in Cervantes' famous novel, we travelled along roads winding through enchanting landscapes to beautiful Toledo, city of blades. This is a town that deserves an in-depth visit: it is rich in history and offers countless views of medieval-style narrow streets and shops selling swords and knives forged by local craftsmen, while the imposing cathedral looms over the historic centre.
However, our legendary Guzzi awaited, so we got back in the saddle and rode through windy hills until we reached Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon.
The city is amazing, to say the least, with its patron saint, Our Lady of the Pillar (also venerated in Central America), and its huge cathedral, a miracle of art and architecture overlooking the River Ebro: it was once a Roman outpost called “Caesaraugusta”.
If you pass by, be sure to visit the Aljaferia Castle with its towers: spectacular!
As we approached the end of our journey, we returned to Catalonia to take a stroll around Barcelona before embarking for Civitavecchia.
Pit stop in Barcelona, with the famous architectural masterpiece of the Sagrada Familia in the background (in Spanish: Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia), whose main architect was Antoni Gaudí. A number of big events are planned for 2026 to mark the centenary of his death.
After a day at sea with our heads full of memories, we disembarked the ferry in Italy, briefly stopping in Tarquinia before travelling home up the Italian peninsula, even though Europe as a whole has been our home for the past few months. We’re not tired yet, and are yearning to get travelling again; we want to keep discovering, to talk to the people we meet who enrich us with their stories, we want to taste their food, inhale the scents of the street, the flowers, the trees and the spices: it’s fantastic to travel around discovering different cultures. This is how the world should be; people should live in harmony - it's such a joy to wake up under a new sun every day, with the desire and the madness to continue, always wanting more... We don't know where life will take us, but we want to go there by motorbike! Have a good journey, everyone!” SabrinAndrea.
Acknowledgements: to Wide Magazine, part of the Piaggio Group, which gave us the opportunity to tell the story of our adventure; to our friend Michele from Biondi/Accessori per Moto Guzzi, who believed in our journey and gave us a fantastic and extremely useful windscreen that we can’t do without; to Giava Motors in Monza for servicing the bike between trips; and, of course, to Moto Guzzi, who made the legendary Maya V7 850cc Stone, clocking up kilometre after kilometre with its fantastic, unmistakable sound!
TECHNICAL INFORMATION AND INTERESTING FACTS - ROADBOOK, 4 MONTHS CROSSING EUROPE. We travelled 14,760 km (by road), used 650 litres of petrol, with an average consumption when fully loaded of about 23 km/L; we crossed 9 countries: France, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Spain + 1 island, Corsica. We visited four European capitals: Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia and Zagreb, in addition to the numerous cities mentioned in the previous article and in this second article. We wore out a set of tyres, currently still on the bike, with 17,000 km of riding (Anakee Michelin adventure). We ate, drank and lived in many countries and cities across Europe, and we always had a GREAT time! We wrote three diaries over four months of motorcycling, and took more than 20 hours of footage (which we need to edit). AND WE ARE RARING TO GO AGAIN!
WIDE REWIND – READ THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE BY “SABRINANDREA”:
https://wide.piaggiogroup.com/en/articles/travels/the-unstoppable-sabrina-and-andrea-in-the-saddle-of-their-moto-guzzi-v7-850-travel-companion-as-they-cross-europe/index.html
