Aug 18, 2009, 4:13 GMT
Rimini, Italy - With a hearty 'Benvenuti!' Luca Toni greeted his foreign guests. Sun-tanned, wearing Bermuda shorts, and with his curly black hair gelled and combed back, the star striker for the German football club Bayern Munich looked a little like a top-fit lifeguard at the beach.
And he would not have minded spending the day at the seaside. But Toni preferred escaping to the hinterland of Italy's northern Emilia-Romagna region - true to style on a nearly 50-year-old Vespa motor scooter.
During the off-season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league, he likes travelling around the region. 'If you've been here once, you come again and again,' said Toni, who was born in the Emilia-Romagna province of Modena.
The scooter tour passed the harbour and historic centre of Rimini on the way to the town of Santarcangelo, where Alfonso Marchi cultivates the Romagnolian craft of hand-printing linens with rust colour. As was done centuries ago, he uses hand-carved wood blocks and dye made with iron dioxide.
While holding forth on his 'passione' for his craft, Marchi handed Toni a block and dye. The footballer actually showed some skill at hand-printing. 'If Bayern gets rid of me, I can work here,' he quipped.
Meanwhile, word of Toni's visit had got round and dozens of fans were gathered for an autograph from the key member of Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning squad. But before the commotion could get out of hand, the tour continued into the hills.
Less than a 15-minute drive from the overcrowded Adriatic beaches, tourists can plunge into Tuscan-like countryside. From the perch of castles such as that at Verucchio, one's gaze sweeps over vineyards, olive groves and medieval villages. The huge amusement parks, kilometres-long rows of beach sunshades and cool bars and discos are almost in sight but far away.
Around noon, the rumblings in Toni's stomach almost drowned out the roar of the Vespas. It was high time for an 'il pranzo,' a long lunch. Toni guided his group past cypresses and flowering oleanders to an agriturismo establishment, a farmhouse offering room and board for tourists.
The signora of the house served a veritable feast. After two hours at the big table on the terrace, the guests understood why Emilia-Romagna is called 'Italy's stomach.'
Things that used to be routine are now rare pleasures for the football star: a shopping spree under the roofs of Bologna's arcades, for example, or a trip to Brescello.
Emilia, Toni says, has more to offer than the nearly 90-kilometre-long beach from Cattolica to Marina di Ravenna, which in summer becomes the world's longest stage.
'Fare Bella Figura!' is the name of the daily performance there, or 'Make a Good Impression!' This play has to do with vanities on the Adriatic. The same goes for the beach resort Figli del Sole in Cervia, north of Rimini, which belongs to Toni and two other football players.
'Whenever I have time, I like to drop in,' he said.
Your Talkback on this Story