There’s some special experience with Gresini Racing Team that I didn’t post here.
Just to be clear, I’m definitely not encouraging everyone to go and randomly bother the team! If you can, please just book Gresini’s official Guided Tour.
So, right after surviving the absolute hell of finishing my thesis last year, I headed to Italy to visit my friend. She lives in Bologna, so I also checked out the Ducati Museum and Factory. On Monday, I booked a guided tour scheduled on Friday with Gresini Racing, but on Thursday, I got an email saying the tour was cancelled due to lack of tourists. But Faenza is just also a beautiful town to visit, so I was like, let’s go anyway and try my luck.
While in Milan, I bought the book Nadia wrote about Gresini. So, book in hand, I took a taxi straight to the Gresini team which located outside of the town. When we got there, the main gate was tightly shut. I was just about to tell the taxi driver, “Hey, can you wait a sec? I’ll just snap a quick photo and we can go.” But then the gate suddenly opened! The driver thought it meant “come on in,” but it turned out another car was trying to leave, so we had to back up. Just as the gate was slowly closing again, it opened again… And out walked this middle aged guy (pretty sure it was Carlo Merlini). He just stood there, locking eyes with me and the driver. So, I looked at Carlo, Carlo looked at the driver, the driver looked at me... the three of us just stood there in the most painfully awkward silence ever.
So I pulled out the book I bought a few days ago to show him why I was there. Carlo looked at me and went, “Do you want Nadia to sign it for you?” I was literally like ??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME IS THIS EVEN ALLOWED??? And just like that, Carlo had me follow him inside. Like, I literally just effortlessly walked right into the Gresini hq just like that??? Then Carlo went to find Nadia. It seemed like Nadia didn’t really speak english, so Carlo literally stood right next to us the whole time, translating everything so she could write the autograph for me.
Nadia is genuinely a literal angel, so sweet and down to earth! She asked how to spell my name and we took some photo together right in front of Fermin’s bike. Then Nadia asked if I wanted a tour. I thought I'd be touring with Carlo, but NOPE!! Nadia herself took me around the team facility!!! Seeing that I didn't really know Italian, Nadia went around the whole office asking, “Who speaks English here?” Ahhhhhh, there was seriously no need to treat me this well, I'm gonna cry! A mechanic introduced the workshop to me in english, and Nadia took me to the area dedicated to Fausto. After a quick little tour, the staff mentioned that next season’s bikes weren’t fully assembled yet so I couldn't see them, but honestly, I was already on cloud nine.
Then Carlo asked if I was heading to the train station. I said yeah, and he ACTUALLY DROVE ME THERE HIMSELF???? Before leaving, I wished Nadia and the team the absolute best for next season, and then I got into Carlo’s car... Like, what is this royal VIP treatment?! I will ride or die for Gresini Racing forever... In the car, I was fangirling like crazy, telling him “Nadia is my Queen!” and Carlo was just like, Yes, SHE IS. He also asked me random stuff like how much the book was and where I bought it, but my brain had completely short circuited by then. What a wild ride... It honestly feels like a dream. It's been hours since I woke up from it, but I’m still so incredibly moved...
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