Our next stop was to Bergamo Italy. Bergamo is located in northern Italy and is about 30 km from Switzerland and 40 km northeast of Milan. It's also known as the “The City of the Thousand”. Its a old city and is also the home to a few cycling companies. One of them is SMS. Otherwise know just as Santini. SMS is short fo Santini Maglificio Sprotivo. Santini clothing has been around since 1965 and was started by Pietro Rosino Santini.

We first discovered Crono shoes at Interbike and immediately liked what we saw. The Crono’s booth was in the Italian Pavilion and they had a prime corner lot at that show. Their road shoes were really hot and their MTB line was attractive as well. Once we found out who the distributor was we immediately set out to do a review and see if we could go over and visit the factory in Italy. We got a yes to both of those questions. When we arrived at the factory we were warmly greeted by Stefano Stocco. He is the son of the owner. His father founded the company in 1973.

Its the last of October and the cyclocross season is in full swing.  So we are packing our bags and heading across the pond to Italy!  We want to see the factories and meet the people behind some really great brands.  As you can see from the picture who we are going to visit.  So we are going to be going from Venice to Milan in this journey.    The companies that we are going to see are Bottecchia Bicycles, SH+ helmets and glasses, Croro Shoes, Ciocc Bicycles, Gaerne Shoes, Satini Clothiing.  That is 7 factories in 10 days!  Let the fun begin!