Monday 18 June

Today we drive over the Stelvio Pass into Austria.  We are looking forward to the drive and catching up with Laura and her family.

Top Gear website with the episode which made the Stelvio Pass more famous than it already was, click on the 4th video titled TESTS.

Due to Top Gear, the road is very busy with many uploading there drive on You Tube, simply type in Stelvio Pass and select a You Tube video to watch.

Map of the route taken from Hotel Riveria (A) to the Hotel Gasthof Ölberg Familie Ilmer (C), Innsbruck.

The route is approx. 330kms; minimum 5 hours drive, we took 7 hours.

After packing and saying farewell to Andréa’s we drove back up the S340 to Menaggio and then onto Trezzone on the via Regina, we then drove to Delebio onto the SS38 - via Statale which took us through Morbegno onto Bormio. This is the route to the Stelvio Pass I wanted to take even though the GPS kept advising of another route.

The road started to climb and the elevation was increasing quickly, the road was good and there was not too much traffic.

There is no sign that says you are climbing to Stelvio, the only indicator is the elevation is increasing and the hair pin bends start.

Reading up on the Stelvio Pass (Jerry Garretts article on Stelvio) indicated a lot of motor bike and cyclists use the road, they were right.  The motor bike riders aren’t too bad on the road, they get past fairly easily however the cyclists own the road and use it all, meaning you have to avoid them, and there was a lot of riders on the road going in both directions.

Looking down into the valley, the SS38 is on the left

Looking up the mountain from the cafe

Our first stop was at a little road side restaurant on the Italian side of the Pass about 10 kms from the top.  It was small but busy.  The temperature had dropped to around 21⁰C and a cool strong breeze.  It was interesting just watching the cyclists, motor bikes and cars passing.

Watching the traffic

Cafe about 10 kms from the top of the Pass

View from the road above the cafe

View from the road above the cafe

On the plateau are some buildings and a description of the National Park and the importance this area played in the defence of Italy.  Info about the Park and its history.

Maria collecting fresh drinking water

Buildings on the plateau, includes farm houses

Finally reached the top of the Pass and drove into the village of Stelvio.  Even though the temperature was a balmy 22⁰C there was still a lot of snow around.  There were plenty of souvenir sellers.  Motor bikes and cyclists were the main traffic.

We reached the top of the Stelvio Pass

Checking out the snow

View from the top of the Pass

The drive down the Pass was as good and interesting as the drive up, plenty of hair pin bends and not too much traffic.  The road took us to Prato allo Stelvio and the GPS turned us left and onto the village of Glorenza, we pick up the SS40 at Malles Venosta.  This road took us to the Austrian/Italian Border which we crossed with out a problem.

One of the many hair pin bends, at least we could get off the road here

On the Austrian 180 we drove through Nauders and then past the fortress Festung Nauders.  It is located in a narrow gorge offering an ideal military defensive position which the fortress was built to do.  Unfortunately we did not stop as we did not realise what the purpose and history of the fortress was at the time.

Interesting bridge on the Reschen Straße 180, it is narrow for this main thorough fare

We stopped at the bridge above on the Reschen Straße 180 to look at the valley and bridge.  Whilst there another couple stopped and we got talking.  They had driven from Manchester and were driving over the Stelvio Pass from the Austrian end.  As it was late afternoon, they were planning to stop the night at the top of the Pass in one of the hotels.  They were also inspired to drive the Stelvio Pass due to Top Gear.

Innsbruck is a lovely city, fortunately the GPS was able to take us to the hotel.  The speed limit in a lot of the streets is 30 km/hr and I think I went past the same speed camera 3 times at 50 Km/hr, before I realised that it was a speed camera I went past it 3 times, so I wonder if I’ll get a speeding fine

Found our hotel, the Gasthof Ölberg Familie Ilmer, the lady at the desk (appeared to be the owner) did not speak English and did not have our reservation.  When I went to get the laptop with the email confirming our room reservation, a room suddenly appeared to be available.  It slowly got worse from here, no lift and we were on the second floor, the stairs were OK but Maria struggled, and I had to carry all of the luggage up.  And we were accumulating more luggage than what we left Australia with.

The lobby area and stairs had a slight smell of cigarette smoke.  Got to the room which was comfortable and basic, the ensuite was small and the toilet whilst clean had a slight odour.  We were about to turn around and find somewhere else when we checked the view, it was worth the very average room and hotel.

View of the hotel from the city

View of the City of Innsbruck from our balcony

As it was late we decided to stay in for dinner which turned out to be quite good.  The hotel is run by an Austrian family, whilst welcoming, any requests for help was usually answered with a ‘No’.

We needed to catch up with our laundry needs.  We were given a brochure for a laundromat in Innsbruck and no other help, not even assistance with directions to the location.  The GPS got us there, but we were to find out later in the week there was one very close to the hotel, it would have helped to know this earlier!

So our 4 day stay began.

Following information from is from the website of Bormio a small village you drive through to get to the Stelvio Pass.

The Stelvio Pass in Italy

Situated at an altitude of 2.758 m., the Stelvio is Europe's highest road pass, connecting the Valtellina with the Val Venosta. It lies 22 km from Bormio and is closed in winter season.

The Stelvio has been the scene of some major military and sporting events that have gone down in Italian history. Here the world's highest battle was fought during World War I. The dramatic images of the encounters between 1915 and 1918.ì, memorabilia form the so-called White War, and even a reconstruction of a trench can be seen at the Carlo Donegani Hisotry Museum, created by Banca Popolare di Sondrio and housed in the rooms adjoining the bank's local branch.

The museum also extensive technical documentation of the various stages in the construction of the Imperial Stelvio Road, the "Queen of the Alpine Roads": around twenty perfectly-planned kilometers engineered by Carlo Donegani in just five years between 1820 and 1825. Even today, the road still ranks as a masterpiece of civil engineering. Its creation was decided upon by Franz Josef I of Austria, for military purposes.

 

Local sporting events owe much to the existence of this road. Racing drivers and, more significantly, cyclists have achieved some extraordinary feats here. The cycling heroes of the 1950s battled in out on the bends of the Stelvio Road, and it was here that Fausto Coppi earned his title as "Campionissimo". The Stelvio Pass was dubbed the "Coppi Peak" in several Giro d'Italia cycle races thereafter.

Sunday 17 June 

Today we planned to do nothing but enjoy the atmosphere of Lake Como and catch up on my travel blog, which is now taking up a lot of time.  I was beginning to feel better so having a day at the hotel suited me fine.

Across the lake is Bellagio

View of Bellagio

Maria looking official!

Trying to concentrate on updating the blog, too many distractions though.

Car ferry arriving at the wharf next to the hotel, quite noisy at times.

The Hotel Riviera is a family run hotel and being Italian, they were friendly and welcoming.  We become very accustomed to eating and resting in the restaurant attached to the hotel.

Spending the day relaxing also gave us a chance to plan our drive over the Stelvio Pass (Wiki info).  Click on this link for a description of driving the Stelvio Pass - Stelvio Pass from South Tyrol to Italy.

Saturday 16 June 

As the hotel did not provide breakfast, we headed into the town centre checking out the market first.  It was a great market with sellers grouped according to the goods they were selling.  Maria can’t miss a bargain so we began to acquire clothing and other items to bring home.

 

The food stalls had a whole range of goods from fresh fruit and vegetables to deli style goods, meats, oils, wines and prepared food or takeaway.  We bought a few items to eat on the way such as peas (1 kg), apricots, peaches and cherries.

We had a late check out, so packed our bags and left by 1130 hrs, heading for Switzerland and then onto Lake Como, Italy.  Our route took us on the A6 (E15/E21) to the A36 (E60) which we followed to Mulhouse.  Turned right onto the A35 (E25/E60) to the Swiss/French border and the city of Basel (Bale).

562 km and about 6.5 hours, it took us nearly 7.5 hours

At the Swiss border we were stopped by an official who offered us a pass - known as a Vignette -  to their motorways which he stuck on the windscreen in the corner, it cost me €40 for a 12 month pass.  It cost me €40 to enter and drive on Swiss roads for one day!!  

There were no other checks, the Euro Zone is a great way to cross borders, you don’t get your passport stamped at each border so you can’t collect those stamps which show where you travel.

Onto the Swiss motorway system with our motorway pass, traveling along the E35/N2 which took us all the way to the turn off to Lugano.  This motorway includes a number of tunnels, the Seelisberg Tunnel is 9 km long and the St. Gotthard Tunnel which is 16,322 m long (16.3 Kms).  The St. Gotthard Tunnel is one lane in each direction, speed limit is 80km/hr.  I found it interesting in that the roof is quite high, no sprinkler systems, regular safety zones to get off the road and well lit and identified refuges.

Gotthard Restaurant

E35/N2

E35/N2

E35/N2

Continued onto Castione, following the E35 south to Lugano.  We exited the motorway here going through Lugano to get onto the SS340 to the Swiss/Italian border near Oria, Italy.  This border crossing was very different to the French/Swiss border, the road was one lane in each direction, narrow with a rock face on our left and Lake Lugano on our right.  The Swiss border was first, 3 border guards watching the traffic, through the first tunnel then the second tunnel was quite narrow into the Italian border control.  It is a control point literally cut into the mountain side.  Drove through and we were in Italy.

The following photos are in Italy, notice the narrow streets and this is the main road SS340 from the border to Menaggio.  There was some work being done to improve the drive with a couple of tunnels under construction, but it is a bit difficult as you have Lake Lugano on one side and a rock face on the other.

The first thing we noticed was the roads were much narrower and there was a lot of road construction work being done including a new tunnel.  The SS340 to Porlezza and then onto Menaggio had numerous sections where the road is very narrow, especially going through towns with a rock wall on one side and a building generally someone’s house or apartments.  We did not notice any damage to buildings being hit by vehicles, amazing.

At Menaggio we turned south to Griante.  The Hotel Riviera is across the road from Lake Como and across the lake is Belagio.  Andréa’s welcomed us to his hotel and helped us into our first floor, we could not have a room with a balcony as they were booked out but we could have one the next night.  He reserved a table for us in the restaurant next door, next the water.

Hotel Riviera

However I was not feeling well, had not been well for 1-2 hours, thought I needed the toilet and a beer and feed, but these only made me worse.  After resisting the urge to not to throw up, I eventually did, several times throughout the night. I believe it was the 1kg of peas that Maria made me eat when we left Beaune.