I'd packed car up by 8am then down for some breakfast. No need to force feed myself today as I wasn't going to need the calories that I'd needed the previous days. Google maps suggested heading east towards Briancon but the TomTom seemed to suggest heading north first. I knew the road two thirds of the way to Briancon as we'd driven along it a couple of times yesterday and I couldn't see any reason to avoid it so I ignored the sat-nav and headed east after saying bye to the guys.
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| View to the south as you drive to Briancon |
From Briancon back up the hills was slow going not helped by an old camper van. Unfortunately it was going over the top and back down the other side holding everyone up in the process. I probably could have made some better progress but I was trying not to get too stressed out by it. Eventually after following it for 20 miles it pulled in, at which point the mostly Italian traffic didn't seem to want to go much quicker.
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| I made it - to a country with slower drivers than North Yorkshire on a Sunday afternoon |
Soon we were moving at a reasonable pace again though heading down through the long tunnels to Torino where began the toll drudgery of having to get out of the car to collect a ticket and then to pay further down the road. This wasn't too bad really until I came to come off the autostrada after Brescia and found that it wouldn't take my euro mastercard, my sterling mastercard or my 50 euro note. So I tried some coins to get to the €4.60 it wanted. It rejected the €2 coins. Hmm. Digging in my pocket I managed to find €4.75 of which it was eventually happy with accepting and I could leave. I apologised to the Dutch couple behind me with a shrug and they smiled and shrugged back.
After skirting Torino I was heading towards Milano. The TomTom decided to take me off the autostrada for some reason at one point and only succeeded in adding about 5 mins to the journey for no good reason so from then on I just decided to follow the road signs for Milan, then Brescia. After passing Lake Garda I turned north to head to Trento and it is quite a nice valley with a couple of nice castles on the hillsides. After 377 miles I made it to Seren del Grappa. I know the Honda isn't the best car for cross european travels but this was exacerbated by the need to keep the windows open and fan on because of the heat. Passing Milano I noticed a clock/temperature sign which was displaying 35C. No wonder I was exhausted and a tad sweaty.
After Garda I headed north to Trento. The autostrada has surely got one of the best views in the country if not in Europe...
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| Amazing castle precariously placed on a hill top |
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| Castel Nuovo |
After 360 miles I made it to Seren del Grappa where I was warmly welcomed by my new adopted family for a while. Despite this being a fairly small village off the beaten track and usually very quiet that wasn't quite the case when the kids from next door were running around screaming and shouting. They did like the bella macchina parked on the drive though. When things calmed down a little a was just sat on the little bench in the back garden and looking down past the neighbours' houses. Lots of greenery and the mountains in the background. I like it. A lot.
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| Sitting at the bottom of the garden |
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| Behind the houses.. a few little hills :) |
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