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Harley Davidson: The European Harley Owners Group Rally a few kms from Venice
 Venice, water city but capital of motorbikes. From May 2nd to 5th in Cavallino beach, just by the lagoon, about 8600 Harley Davidson arrived from many european countries, especially from the northern ones. There has been in fact the annual European Harley Owners Group Rally, a very important event for the fans of the famous american motorbike. The Union Camping, one of the best campings of the Venetian coast, has been pacifically overrun by the traditional biker's universe: Stuntshows, Battle Tracks, Field Games and Poker Runs. The H.O.G. is first of all an experience. It started about twenty years ago, in 1983, and now it's the largest factory-sponsored motorcycle club in the world with more than 600.000 proud members and 1200 chapters worldwide. Their mission is to provide members with a means to "Ride and Have Fun." It's a simple concept but the Harley Davidson's fans take it very seriously. They organize rallies and countless other riding activities all around the world just to satisfy the hunger for the road.
The "European HOG rally 2002" of Cavallino beach has broken the record of people of "Saint-Tropez Rally 2001" (in which there were 'only' 7500 people) and for a water city like Venice it's an incredible result. All the bikers have been pleased with the Venetian promoters and a new strange twinning between the soft city of art and the hard engines is born.
• • • soccer in venice
 Venezia calcio back in B series. Another defeat and the Venice's adventure in A series is finished. At last! The soccer team in fact at the end of the championship is come bottom of the class with only 18 pts. A real disaster, one of the worst results of its history. Everything is gone bad this season for the players dressed in orange-black-green, the numbers are very evident: 34 matches played, only 3 wins, 9 draws and 22 (!) defeats, the last one on May 5th against Parma. Also the goals have been a failure: only 30 goal for Venice team (61 the suffered ones). In a word, a very unlucky year for venetian fans that have suffered for about nine month. The only joy of this 2001/2002 season was the number nine of the team, the forward 'Pippo' Maniero that at the end of the championship has been one of the best Italian forwards with his 18 (!) goals. If he weren't so "old" (30), Maniero might be a member of the Italian National team at the next world championship in Japan and Corea.
And then, next year the Venice soccer team will be in B series with no certainty because its best players will be sold and the current president, Mr Maurizio Zamparini, maybe will leave the society. A strange coincidence: also the teams of the other main Italian centers of art (Florence and Verona) are living now the same sporting situation.
The best team of the 2001/2002 soccer championship has been the Juventus Turin (71 pts) that has surpassed the Inter of Milan (69 pts) winning the last match against Udinese (Inter lost against Lazio, the other team of Rome). An incredible ending of season that will be forever remebered by the fans of the 'Vecchia Signora' - (the team is called "the old Lady" by his fans).
• • • soccer in venice: a very special fan There are those who complain about the inconvenient location of Penzo
football stadium, especially Venice supporters who have to make a long
journey from the mainland to support their favourite team. So what about
Giuseppe Romano who moved to Venice from New York to satisfy his passion for
football!
This is a really extraordinary story about a 71 year old retired engineer
who was born in Gela (Sicily) but has been a passionate fan of Venice
football team since the age of ten. Let's hear it from him how his love for
the black-and-greens began: "My father, a policeman, was stationed in Venice
and one day decided to take me to the stadium to see the Italian Champions
League football match between Venice and Rome (at that time Valentino
Mazzola and Loik were playing in the team, the best Venice has ever had) and
I was so fascinated by that team that it became a reason for living. I was
crazy about Pernigo, they used to call him "flash", and about Loik and
Mazzola".
Due to his fatheršs profession, he travelled a lot throughout
Italy, until 1952 when he moved to the United States, to New York. He was 23
years old when he graduated in Electronic Engineering: "It was very hard at
the beginning. I worked for a Network called WADO where my task was to check
radio installations and I stayed there right until the day I retired. But I
never forgot the Venice team, in fact I began a desperate search for news
and pictures. Whilst the team was still in the first or second division, I
managed to get something thanks to the daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport
or the Italian television channel, RAI. But when the team was relegated to
the third division, it got harder". Meanwhile he married Mary, had two
children - Robert, graduated in Chemistry and Sonia, graduated in
Psychology. Time went by but his passion did not fade and four years ago Mr
Romano took the momentous decision. "When I retired, we moved to Florida, to
Pompano Beach. I love the seaside, and the climate in that part of Florida
is really fantastic. But I was getting more and more eager to go back to
Venice and in particular to see Penzo stadium, so it became an obsession,
especially when the team's President Mr Zamparini started to make the right
investments bringing a wave of enthusiasm and achievements". This fan with
his unshakeable faith did not waste much time thinking about it. Giuseppe
Romano got in touch with a local real estate agency, rented a flat round the
corner from Sant'Elena Island and moved to Venice, overcoming his wife's
natural resistance to move; she was convinced she was going to spend the
rest of her life in that paradise called Florida. "Actually she is not very
happy about it", Mr Romano admits, "She would like to go back to the U.S.A.
to be closer to our children. Unfortunately two years ago I let a promise
slip: if the team got relegated again we would go back to the States. And
now Mary is complaining a little bit. But I have so much trust in the team
under Prandelli that I cannot miss this season, this upward ride which I am
convinced will take us back into the first division. Maybe then we can talk
about going back home!".........(RDM)
• • • formula 1 in venice 
 Feb. 6th: Benetton unveiled B201 in St Marks Square Venice. The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team today presented the B201, their challenger for the 2001 season, in one of the most spectacular locations in the world, St Mark's Square in Venice.
Right between St. Mark's and Todaro's columns, near Palazzo Ducale and the Basilica, the new Benetton F201 was shown on February 6th. Next year the Benetton racing car will simply called Renault. The entire staff Benetton took part to the ceremony: the 2 drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button (coming from Williams), the team managing director Flavio Briatore, Renault vicepresident Patrick Faure, and Luciano Benetton; top model Naomi Campbell, expected, did instead stay in London.
Venetians did not
get too excited at the event: the Piazzetta was anyway animated by flashes of tourists and of photographers who came to Venice from all over the world to see the Benetton F201.
To most visitors' opinion, the car looked like a hybrid; the main innovations relate to thebrear part and the frotn, with a strange wing resembling a seagull; the car of the new age (project by Mike Gascoyne) will be displayed only in June. To Giancarlo Fisichella the F201 is already a good start, and he adds: "With a little luck we will be able to win some Grand Prix". And what is the management's comment?
Patrick Faure, President of Renault Sport: "2001 will be above all a year of adjustment and transition. It is an year in which we will strengthen and develop the team and will test new solutions, particularly the RS21 engine, which represents a great technological leap forward in terms of compactness, weight & efficiency".
Team Managing Director Flavio Briatore: "We have carried out a significant recruitment programme that began in 2000 and will bear fruit throughout 2001, to get the people necessary to make a championship-winning team". • • • and what about this "cheese racing"?  
Carnival in Marghera, the industrial town by Mestre, means... "cheese-cars". In fact in the Market Square, Saturday Feb. 17th there was a special race of cars: instead of the tires, four cheese moulds! Real Parmesan cheese moulds (one costs 500 thousand Lire!) that rolled and turned into the 150 meters circular track. The strange race with only four cars has also a name: Italian Cheese Formula.
• • •motorcycle racing• • • golf cups: upcoming
..... • • • adventures
From Germany to Venice riding horses and crossing mountains, following ancient paths (a route in use until the early 1800):the successful and emotioning horse-trekking adventure of Albert Knaus and three horswomen of the First Trekking Club Deutschland. They took a deserved rest at Centro Vacanze Union Lido in Cavallino, where we met them. (Reports on request for media)
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