Date: Thu, June 10, 2010 7:37:22 AM (Italy Time)
Subject: Mountains and Lakes, Sunshine and Rain, Tiramisu and Wine...
Buongiorno (again),
After going through customs and immigration (Zurich: THE BEST!), I got my rental car. Well, even that almost did not happen! By mistake I had reserved the start date as June 7th instead of June 9th. So the guy behind the counter didn't find my reservation at first! When he eventually found it he told me this was reserved from June 7th and since I didn't pick up on that day, it was canceled. Well, I asked if they have any cars left, he said he's got 2. Both of them were subcompact (my original reservation was intermediate), and he asked me which one I wanted... I said the one with fewer km's on it. "100 km" or "3500 km" -- I took the brand new Citreon C3 with 100km on the odometer -- so far I have quadrupled that number. :)
I had also reserved a GPS unit but since my reservation was canceled I no longer had that... They did not have any spare maps at the rental counter either. So all I had was my AAA Switzerland, Italy and France country maps and of course the iphone with international data plan. So far I've been doing ok with that much.
A few months ago someone had sent me a link to an online survey "Top 10 drivable mountain passes in the world" -- and there were two of those in Switzerland I hadn't been on yet -- Splugen Pass and Stelvio Pass. Yesterday I went to Splugen Pass. The road is only open from June-November (if I remember that sign correctly; I could be mistaken). To get there from Zurich, I had to follow the same route I had done by train on my last visit -- Zurich to Chur, Chur to Thusis (that part was same), then Thusis to Splugen and Splugen Pass. Since the train goes parallel to the raod for much of that distance and I had just done that less than a year ago, the scenery up to Thusis looked very familiar. The drive (/rail journey) is through a valley with mountain peaks on both sides. And a LOT of tunnels between Chur to Thusis where the road cuts through the moutains (I remember tunnels on the train too, but not this many, so I'd say the train journey is more scenic
here).
I drove down to the town of Splugen then up the mighty Alps to Splugen Pass which is on the Italian border. This is a place where there are no trains, only a road :) -- and what a road it is! It's wide enough in some places for two vehicles to pass each other, but most of the road I was getting nervous if my SUBCOMPACT car would stay on the surface!! There are cliffs and straight drops, there are several hairpin turns where God help you if another (bigger) car comes the other way at the same time! I recently bought a new camera that also has a video function and have shot some video here while driving. I'll have that video uploaded eventually too.
It's no wonder why this road and mountain pass was voted to be one of the "Top 10" -- it absolutely deserves to be up there along with the others! After crossing into Italy there is a steep downhill with more hairpin turns -- and crazy stereotypical Italian drivers. It was a fun drive once I got over the fear and got into the spirit of driving in Italy :)
I made my way down to Lugano di Como (Como Lake) -- another place I had never been to before. The lake is shaped like an upside-down Y and there is a road that hugs it all the way round. Of course I wanted to drive the whole thing, but the traffic here was unbelievably crazy! Many places had bumper-to-bumper traffic and yes -- I was reminded again of the crazy Italian drivers! :)
I drove around about 3/4th the lake, then decided it was getting late and turned around and came back. The town of Como is a lot of fun to navigate and that's all I will say about that. My motel was reserved in the town of Garbagnate Monastero, a little southeast of Como. Fortunately I saw my hotel from the road pretty quick so did not have to spend too much searching for it. (I *could* have finished the lake loop road)
Dinner was at a restaurant in walking distance (i.e. downstairs in the hotel). The lemon chicken was lemony. The veggies were steamed and tasteless. The "house wine" was EXCELLENT, and the tiramisu was good.
I've checked the weather forecast and it's supposed to be raining all week in the places where I want to go -- which by the way are all places I've never been to before. It's not raining in Venice and Rome and I am very seriously considering scrapping my original plan and go to one of those cities instead -- it's been "that kind of a trip" so far anyway! :)
Then again..........
I don't know. Let's see what I do :)
Speaking of which, I should go get ready now! I've uploaded the photographs to my website (not the 2 videos yet), and I'll keep updating this when I get the time:
http://www.callmewanderer.com/europe/eur10-1/index.html#TOP
Please note that June 10, 11, 12, and 13 are not done yet, so please don't complain about those links not working -- they will eventually :-) I'm not going to name any names but a couple of you have mentioned things like that in the past, so just making it clear this time! :)
Grazie, e buona notte,
-me.
Videos from today:
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| Jun 8 | Contents | Jun 10 |