Time for a change of language and driving culture. After Monaco and the diversion to Sospel, it was time to head for the Milan area ready for some meetings at the start of October. Luckily the clients were based on a small airport at Vergiate, a town not far from Lake Maggiore. The lakes are all well endowed with campsites as they constitute a major holiday area, especially with their proximity to Milan – something I had not realised until now.
So, back through lots of those tunnels which I counted and logged last year, and over the same number of viaducts. We concluded after crashing across countless bad joins in the road that the Italians are not good roadmakers. We counted ourselves lucky nothing fell off, inside or outside the van. When we turned inland things improved a bit, until the rain set in. Funnily enough we had expected it for ages as all the traffic coming towards us had headlights on. Then B found something in one of our books to say its compulsory outside built up areas – Oops, lights on then!
After a soggy night by the lake, with nearly nothing visible in the gloom, we decided to move on straight after my meetings. More motorway – 200 miles of it in fact – and we hit the outskirts of Mestre – the large industrial zone which surrounds the airport and access to Venice. We toured it quite extensively due to some road changes which the satnag did not recognise and struggled to find Camping Venezia – “follow the signs to the airport and we are by the BMW Garage”. Good instructions and a very good campsite. In the end we did not go into Venice, but there was a bus service close by. I had to work, and we did the full monty there 3 or 4 years ago, but it felt strange to be so close and not manage to get there again.
After my meeting with a yacht design client nearby, we headed off again, target – Munich, Germany. We spent one last night in Italy on the way – in Cortina D’Ampezzo. As we had several days to make this trip we opted for the scenic route and headed into the Dolomite mountains. What a fantastic journey. It looked like we would not see much as we headed towards them as the clouds were low and heavy – but the gods smiled on us, the clouds cleared and the views were consistently breathtaking. In the end you need another word other than “wow!”……..
Cortina the town is also very pretty – we toured that a couple of times trying to find a campsite and again when we left and the satnag and myself had a little misunderstanding.
We departed Italy the next day after a night where Horatio’s window on the world was stunning (first time he has had a view of anything other than other vans or huts for quite a long time). Over the Tre Croci pass – a B road snaking through the mountains with wow and testicle moments coming thick and fast. Then down into the valley which connects with the north-south route through to Austria and the Brenner Pass. Two days of simply breathtaking views – we felt very lucky indeed that the weather was so kind to us. Grazie, Italia e arrivederci !
Its not snow, just very white stone – wow!
No, I didn’t photoshop the cloud there, it really was like that!