Report by Monika Greiderer from WIMA Germany.
‘WIMA al Mare’ was organised by Monika Greiderer, together with a group of friends including two Swiss women Christa and Maya.
They called themselves ‘The Ramazottis’. 333 participants came from nine countries to this very hot rally by the Adriatic Sea. The rally price was +179.00 in a tent on a campsite in the summer resort town of Lignano Sabbiadoro (which means golden sand), between Trieste and Venice in north-eastern Italy.
This rally had a Mafia theme – participants had to form themselves into groups of five or ‘clan teams’ and amongst other tasks, they had to search ‘a corpse’ in the pool for identification papers. On the Tuesday, when temperatures were over 30°C, participants rode for 90 minutes to Jesolo before boarding a private ferry to Venice – and were astonished to find another ‘corpse’ floating beside the boat.
Pool games provided a welcome break from the heat on Wednesday, followed by a barbecue in the evening, and on Thursday, participants rode through the mountains to the border with Slovenia. There were also opportunities to visit local places of interest such as Aquileia, a strategic colony town dating back to Roman times, Grado, an island in the lagoon between Venice and Trieste, and Trieste itself.
And never to be forgotten on the final day, was a helicopter flight from which red rose petals rained down on the women in the pool, accompanied by the song ‘Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen’ (Hildegard Knef).
