I have been back now for a few weeks, quite amazing tour, I saw the guys assembling 848's and thought, they were probably the guys that assembled mine. Very laid back in the factory, maybe it was cause their was a tour coming through, but I doubt it.... Its the Italian way of life.
I got a good look at a couple RR's with no fairings on, that was great, but of course, no photos. I will respect their rules!
A few interesting facts:
1000 employees,
600 on the factory
200 in the office
200 in the race division
90% of a Ducati is Italian, meaning the compnents, mainlty the OHLINS and tires, etc are not made in Italy.
the adverage 200 bikes a day in the winter and 100 a day in the summer, about 36-40,000 bikes a year.
50 minutes to assemble an engine and 2 hours to assemble the everything.
Almost everybike gets a test ride in the town of Bologna...
I was at the Dainese factory store, just off Via Del Corsa, in Rome. I ended up buying a 2 piece leather suit with back protector for about $1000. But I bought it from a small dealership just up from the Colleseum, its the fact that I bought a suit and walked outside and was looking at the colleseum......
Italy was an awsome experience, expensive, but thats cause I booked nice hotels, We will be going back to Bologna and doing the tour again.