Once back on the road my next stop was Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. I'd tried a few ways of contacting folk there but the way that came up trumps was using the Facebook group Veliko Tarnovo Ex-pats.

Through the group I was met by Steve, an old friend of Clive from CJ Scooters who used to sell spares on the UK National Rallies.

Anyway we got on well, and through Steve's Bulgarian girlfriend Kalina we got to meet council. Mission accomplished. I also got my son Sam a new pen-friend in Kalina's daughter Pinkie.

VT is jaw-droppingly beautiful. No wonder so many Brits have moved there.

Not everything going to plan. My scooter started to feel rough in the mountains of Montenegro and I crept slowly into Serbia where I was greeted by Vespa Club Naissus.

An exploratory surgery of the engine revealed that the top ring peg on my piston had failed, the ring had turned and trashed my MB-tuned RT225 cylinder. I gave the bad news to Mark who was gutted as he had pulled out all the stops to reed-valve the kit for me in a day before I left. Credit where it's due, the reed conversion performed ace so I was well upset too. The bumpy mountain roads also cracked my Franspeed Super Tourer exhaust when I grounded it out.

Dejan and Sharon gave over their garden to strip the lammy, son Nikolas helped me strip the scooter.

Fair play, Scooter Centre offered to sort me a new standard RT kit and the folks at Rimini Lambretta Centre went into overdrive to post everything I needed to rebuild the engine in less than 24 hours. Mega service.

The delay gave me time to learn more about the fascinating history of Nis and enjoy more of Sharon's officially the best carrot cake in Serbia at the excellent Vespa Bar. Poor me...

Long story short,  the scooter is now fitted with a stock kit, a Gori exhaust to improve clearance on potholed roads and Dejans friend Dragan welded my Franspeed to keep in Serbia as a spare. Failed ring pegs are a classic result of having a twisted crank but I had no time or facilities to check if that was the cause so fingers crossed for this new kit!

As I write I'm just leaving Bulgaria after a wicked time in Veliko Tarnovo, but that's another story for another post.

I'm a blog or two behind so far due to some unexpected developments.

Before Serbia I was in Montenegro where my plan didn't exactly go to plan, but in the end everything was sorted by a Montenegrin Chelsea fan from my target city of Cetinje.

Gaga, the owner of Gaeta bar and my accommodation of the excellent Irina Apartment sorted the paperwork.

While my entrance to Montenegro was supremely fortuitous, my exit was less so. It's a long story, but after all, that's the point of this adventure anyway...

Well Serbia has been a complete eye-opener in so many ways, but by far the best is the way I've been welcomed by Dejan and Sharon Tonic who run the exquisite Vespa Bar in Nis as one of their family. Their scooter mad son Nikolas has been a huge help today, working on my Lambretta with me .

All this took place after today's "press conference" which included two TV interviews with both local and national stations. See this link.

The Croatian link in my chain of Twin Towns was Rijeka but I'd not had time to make any contacts in advance.

Instead Igor from VC Ljubljana rang ahead to Daniel of the Vespa Club in Rijeka to try and find someone who could help me.
Ive (Ivan) - a young tattoo artist from the club -  volunteered to guide me. Cool and calm, we had everything sorted with the local newspaper and the council within a few hours without any stress at all. In fact it was the best official reception yet with a slide show about the city's twinning relationships and gifts that included a CD complation of Rijekas punk bands from the 70s.

I was so buoyed by this success that I even got inked!

It's a long way to my next stop in Cetinje, Montenegro which required a stop off near Split, a chance meeting with their Vespa Club and a night with a hearty and hilarious sea captain...

Mad day leaving Italy on Saturday. After lunch on Friday with the Rlc crew and a visit to my friend Paolo in Savagnano it was up early on Saturday for a ride in the rain towards Slovenia.

Marco pointed out that there was a Lambretta club of Triveneto on near Venice so I planned to drop in. What l didn't expect was to meet a load of Vespas immediately and to end up following them to the rally of the San Mauro Pascoli Vespa Club. Quick meet with some friends and the president of the Vespa Club of Belgium and on the road again.

Arrived at the Lambretta rally but they still weren't back from their scheduled ride out so rolling once more.  I decided to skip a couple of Lambretta shops in Treviso and Pordenone but still could do with a new set of rear  brake shoes.

Long story short, Lady luck smiled and I got sorted and found an article for Scootering before arriving at a wonderful seafront hostel outside Trieste.

Bosh bosh!

I made a tentative connection with the Vespa Club of Ljubljana prior to my arrival and Igor - the clubs PR - pulled out all of the stops to show me around and get the job done with the council.

We were hosted for a delicious but unpronounceable meal by Renato and Petra and shown around a hugely impressive motorcycle and scooter museum.

The following day the club arranged a meeting with Marko Morel from the council and afterwards Igor and Andrej even escorted me off Slovenian territory :)

Thanks to everyone from Vespa Club Ljubljana for all their help and those of you riding out to Vespa World Days in Croatia please make sure to look them up. They all speak better English than Brummies...

OK, so I arrived in Rimini area and guess what - Dean and most of the crew have pissed-off to Mirecourt in France for the first race meeting of the ESC Championship with their Casa Lambretta/RLC Race scooter.

Never mind, Joe, Alex and mad-head Marco helped me change a dodgy flywheel bearing and I'll be ready for Eastern Europe next...

Well Parma went roughly to plan with certificates signed by the deputy mayor for Ljubljana, but also a whole lot of other funny experiences with anglophile Topo, Garage Retro, Motor Passion, Due Gatti Pizzeria, Gazzetta di Parma and the lads from The Souls Scooter Club.

I like Parma, not only for the excellent food...

After a day in the Alps the next official destination was Parma, but I stopped off in Turin where my first experience was a road closed for a burning car. 

I was kindly hosted by Alex and Laureana despite invading her birthday party. 

I also had a chance to do a little servicing at Cosmoto (Alex's shop in Turin) and photographed his completely outrageous skinhead skelly for Scootering Magazine.

Thanks folks!