L&F Italy Austria & Switzerland

Pelting rain greeted us this morning as we awoke for our 2nd last day in Switzerland. The hotel was still hot from yesterday’s heat (we haven’t come across too many hotels in Switzerland with air conditioning) so the cooling rain was welcomed in a sense.
The exit from Montreux was again straight forward thanks to Cynthia our GPS lady and before too long we were on the motorway, speeding towards Zermatt – well not exactly; we were speeding towards a place called Tasch, which is about 8 or 10 kilometres from Zermatt. We needed to park the car in Tasch as Zermatt is a car free area, so we couldn’t drive into there. The last stage of the drive was quite picturesque , as we headed closer and higher into the mountains. Fortunately the rain had also stopped so the visibility factor was good.
Once we dropped the car in the carpark in Tasch at about 11:00am, it was a simple task to pick up the shuttle train that takes you into Zermatt itself.
The shuttle train ride was only about 20 minutes long, but it again was climbing all the way. Once in Zermatt, we had to find our hotel, so luggage in tow and aided by Google Maps, we set off on foot to our hotel, which we reached in 10 minutes or so.
With check in complete and town map in hand we set off to find some lunch and do some exploring.
Zermatt is definitely an alpine village on steroids. It is wall to wall hotels, chalets, B&Bs, and all other forms of infrastructure that caters for tourists. It is positioned in a valley surrounded by the majestic mountains of the Swiss Alps and is at the base of the famous Matterhorn, which we were able to spot at different locations from the village.
After a cursory walk around the town and the old historic village, we took a train ride up to a peak called Gornergrat, approximately 3000 meters high. The journey up was pretty spectacular with fabulous views initially over the village, then opening up to the surrounding Alps.
When we reached the peak, the views were initially spectacular, but then the weather closed in with fog and misty rain prevailing, which of course killed all possibilities of good vistas. The most unfortunate part was that we never were to have a complete view of the Matterhorn, it was always partially shrouded in a shifting mist. You could make out the shape of the pyramidal peak but could never glimpse it in its entirety.
We caught the train back down to Zermatt at around 6:20 and reached the village just before 7:00, in time for dinner. The weather was still cold and wet so we opted for some hot soup at a local bistro.
Another busy day on the trail – a bit disappointing with the weather conditions but what can you do some things just are not in our control!

Early start this morning, as we had a long drive from Bassano Del Grappa to Sankt Veit An Der Glen in Austria. Today marks our last day in Italy, at least for a couple of weeks, as we now move into touring Austria and Switzerland.

The drive through the Veneto region of northern Italy did not disappoint, as we traveled through stunning mountainous districts and Alpine villages. From a personal point of view, I grew up listening to my parents and relatives talking about some of the places and how wonderful they were, so it was a pleasure for me to drive through them at least, even though we could not stop there and visit, because of time constraints.
Our first and only stop was Cortina D’Ampezzo, an alpine village nestled high up in the Dolomites. It was over two hours drive from Bassano Del Grappa but was well worth the effort to get there. The village is tourist Mecca both in summer and winter, in winter for the obvious skiing, snow boarding etc, and in summer for its hiking, mountain biking and providing for general tourists like us. Whilst we were there this morning, there were a number of groups that looked like they were seriously into biking and hiking. The place has a magical feel about it, with the lodged, the hotels, the chalets and the magnificent Dolomites protruding upwards in every direction.
We would have truely loved to explore other such locations in this area, of which there are a number, but yet again, time constraints were in play. Had I known what I know now, I would have arranged it so that we could have had a greater length of time in this area to explore.

The drive into Austria was long but uneventful. Once we moved out of the Italian mountains, the roads on the Austrian side opened up to motorways allowing us to cover long distance relatively quickly. We definitely noticed a different pattern of behaviour amongst drivers once over the border – the Austrians tend to stick to the rules more rigidly and appear to be less erratic, although those driving the more high powered vehicles still tend to plant it to the floor and go for it, and are easily annoyed at anyone who maybe in their way.

We reached a city called Klagenfurt at approximately 2:00pm so we opted to stop for some lunch. It was immediately noticeable to us just how much a bit of knowledge of the local language can make, as when we went to order lunch, we had no clue about what the menu offered so requiring assistance from the waitress who had a little English to order.

We eventually made it to Sankt Veit An Der Glen at approximately 3:30 and checked into our hotel. We had chosen this one for its rather quirky nature and decor, but it was clean and comfortable nonetheless.

Sankt Veit An Der Glen is only a small Austrian town which doesn’t really cater for tourists in any major way, so there wasn’t much to see and do there, apart from an early dinner and a quiet night.

Another hot day on the trail today. Even though we were leaving the lofty shores of Sirmione today to head towards the hills, the temperatures were still hovering around 35 degrees in the shade – too hot really for any comfortable touring.

The journey to Bassano Del Grappa was pretty simple with the majority of road travel on the auto strada, albeit the roads were busy the early morning commute traffic.

We reached Bassano Del Grappa at around 11:00 and booked into our hotel. We struck it lucky there in that we were allocated a ‘villa’ room – a very Italian styled luxurious room with marble floors and bathroom, painted ceilings, chandeliers and so on. Apparently this complex was previously a villa which had now been turned into accommodation, and we were allocated the previous owners villa rooms.
At around 12:00 we decided to go into the town centre for a look around – big mistake, as virtually everything closed up at 12:30 for afternoon siesta until 3:30 or 4:00pm.

We still managed to visit the town’s main Piazzas, the historic bridge, and visited some of the iconic grappa stores for tastings. By about 2:30 we were too hot and bothered, so we determined to go back to our hotel room for some cooler temps and some escape from the heat.

We ventured back into town at around 6:30 (it was still 33 degrees) for a further look around and some dinner.

We had grown accustomed to being in tourist centres over the last 10 days and having everything at your fingertips, but Bassano Del Grappa is not like that at all. In fact, there are tell tale signs of economic struggles especially in the historic centre, with many shops empty and some businesses closed.

Nonetheless it certainly has a personality all of its own, with the rich history of the ‘Alpini’ and the resistance role it played in WWII. It appears also to be a gate way to the Dolomites with trekking and bike riding groups using this area as a base for entry into the nearby mountainous regions.

After breakfast, we once again headed into the old historic centre of Sirmione. The castle was closed yesterday so we determined to see it today. It looks huge from the outside and even bigger from within. Construction was first begun in 1277, but it has had various refurbishments and make overs through the centuries, due to various reasons – wars, fires, upgrades etc. There are many interesting facts about the history of this place, but one that sticks in my mind is that in certain areas, they used substandard masonry to build it and the used plaster on the outside walls to give approaching prospective attackers the impression that this was a very solid, impenetrable structure. The Castle towers provided some great views of Sirmione, old and new, and the surrounding landscape. From here you can get a very clear understanding of the shape and size of the promontary of Sirmione city and its surrounding coastline.

A tad more browsing through the old city of places we had not seen previously and then it was back to our hotel to pick up the car and head out for more adventures.

We ventured north on lake Garda on the western flank to a place called Limone Sul Garda, about 75kms away from our hotel. The drive was again mostly on lake side road, so the interest level was fairly high, one might say. We went through scores of tunnels gouged into the rock lining the coast; some of the road was actually constructed in man made tunnels, so as to mitigate any rock fall issues. The town itself had a particular feel all of its own, like most of the lakeside towns we have visited over the last 10 days. I’m guessing this comes about due to a number of factors, such as geographic location, landscape, times of settlement and by whom, principal industries, weather, and so on. In the case of Limone Sul Garda, I suspect the topography had a lot to do with establishment of the old city, as it’s all clustered around a port area, but opposite the coast side, there is almost a sheer, high rock cliff which provides a physical boundary to the area. In the historic centre you find the usual collection of souvenir shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels, and many arts and crafts and local produce stores. The lemon seems to be a popular local product around here (hence the name) as you’ll find many items for sale, comprising some sort of lemon input. Limoncello abounds here, as does lemon scented soap, lemon sweets, lemon fragrant saches, lemon biscuits etc.
We spent a few hours there, had a drink at a cool lakeside bar and then headed back to Sirmione and our hotel for dinner.

This morning we set off after breakfast at the hotel, to visit the villa known as the Vittoriale Degli Italiano (which translates to The Victory of the Italians). It is a house and garden complex located on the western shores of Lake Garda at a place called Gardone Riviera. The house and garden complex is famous for Italians in that it was completely refurbished and adorned by a man called Gabriele D’Annunzio, who was an important figure in Italian politics and society in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He was prominent as a poet, a social thinker, an intellectual and a political commentator in that era. He was also a ‘friend’ of Mussolini, but they kept a respectful distance from each other. Mussolini recognised the political capability of D’Annunzio and therefore put steps in place to isolate him as much as possible. He eventually succeeded in doing this by funding D’Annunzio’s eccentric and ambitious plans to build a house according to his weird strange outlandish and freakish imagination. To keep him quiet, Mussolini basically gave him free rein to spend public money in whatever way D’Annunzio wanted. This resulted in a wacky weird house cluttered with adornments of all shapes and sizes from many different parts of the world and his fear of death enabled to surround himself with various artifacts of all religions. I could go on and on, but suffice to say that he used the public purse to fulfill his own creative ambitions and in doing so created his own legacy. Rightfully so, when he died, the house became public property.

From Gardone, we drove to Maderna, where we took the ferry across to Torri and drove to Spiazzi, a lovely little alpine village, where we had lunch. From there we also visited the amazing Madonna Della Corona sanctuary, a simply astounding construction of a church built literally into the side of a rock cliff. How this was achieved I cannot say, but suffice to say that it is amazing to view this church just clinging to the side of a cliff.
We were supposedly close to the top of Monte Baldo, a high peak in the area which provides great views over the valleys, mountains and back to Lake Garda, so the adventurous spirit took over and up we went. The highlight of this journey was not the views unfortunately, as the atmosphere up there was slightly cloudy foggy and hazy which limited visibility, but the drive up these skinny,windy mountain roads, barely wide enough for one vehicle. What made matters even more interesting was that there must have been some sort of Alfa car club rally going on, so a number of Alfa drivers came zipping around corners, hairpin bends and tight curves whilst we’re trying to wind our way up the mountain. Certainly made for a challenging drive!

The drive back down to Sirmione was less eventful; we reached our Hotel Riel after 5:00pm. We had a dinner engagement with our great friends Bruno, Maria and their daughter Mel, who also happened to be traveling northern Italy and by chance our paths crossed on this day. We had a fabulous evening with them and swapped some interesting travel stories.

We were sad to leave our beautiful location of Bellagio this morning after three fantastic days in the area. The initial journey was again around narrow bendy roads, but certainly the views over the lake were just as stunning as ever.
The drive today was approximately 170kms mostly along what they call here autostrada, which is an easy way for them to charge you extra – Italians are masters at that sort of thing. The drive itself was fairly easy because of the motorway and we reached the outskirts of Sirmione by around 10:30.

As usual, the hotel room was not ready on our arrival, but we decided not to wait around and waste time, so we headed for a walk along the lake to the old historic part of Sirmione. We hadn’t realised, but our hotel was quite a way from the centre of town (approx 4kms), so it ended up being about an hour’s walk. As it was quite warm, we arrived there ready for a cool drink.
Old Sirmione is very different to what we had in Bellagio, Varenna, Menaggio etc in that there weren’t the narrow village streets, rising up from the waters edge with quaint shops and cafes lining either side. The topography here in Garda is very different to what we’ve seen in Como and Maggiore. Here you don’t have the steep hills and mountains which contain the lakes on all sides. Lake Garda (at least in the Sirmione area seems relatively flat). We can see sizeable hills in the distance, but they’ve not close to us.

This topographical difference influences the layout and feel of the city of Sirmione. Whilst cafes, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops abound, they are in wider streets, bigger piazzas and generally more room to move. There is a famous old castle here (Scaligera Castle), which we have only seen from the outside as yet, but is a most imposing sight as you come into old Sirmione.
We spent some time looking through the old town, had some lunch and then took off to the Grottoes of Catullus, a first century BC Roman villa, the ruins of which are still very evident and visible. Surprisingly, it is a large site with many parts of the villa still recognisable.
Catullus was a Roman Poet who had been born into wealth and he used some of that wealth to build the villa. It would have been quite a magnificent construction in its day and is still impressive today, with its fabulous views over the lake, the huge arches, the expansive rooms etc.

By the time we got back in the hotel, it was after 6:00pm, so a quick shower and then off to somewhere for dinner.

Our plans today were to visit the Villa Balbianello in the morning and then the village of Varenna in the afternoon. It’s always good to have plans, but sometimes for whatever reason, they don’t work out.like the best laid plans of mice and men one could say!

We used the hotel shuttle bus to reach the port area by about 10am. When we bought the boat tickets, they told us that the next boat to Lenno was at 10:40; of course that’s Italiano time. The boat was about 15 minutes late, so we reached the port of Lenno after 11:15. It was a twenty five minute walk from the port area to the Villa entrance up hill and down . When we got there, we were advised that the next guided English tour was not till 12:45 and that it lasted about 90 minutes. There was no way our proposed plans would come together, as we had to be back in Bellagio by dinner time. Besides, even though the villa looked very promising, we had by now seen about half a dozen of them, complete with resplendent gardens; that and given the fact that the entry price was 20 euros (approximately $30) and also that we were not given any other option, we decided not to go ahead with the planned activity.

So we trudged back down to the boat terminal, most annoyed, or as the Italians would say scotchato however accepting that it was not going to happen. We thought we’d catch an early boat to Varenna, so we could spend a little more time there and have a good look at the place.

Varenna is a neat little spot, located to the north east of Bellagio, pretty placed much opposite Menaggio. It was originally established as a fishing village back in the eighth century, but has undergone a number of rebirths, after wars and conquests from opposing factions through the centuries. Today, it looks like it survives on tourism, as when we arrived, the place was overrun with day trippers, both local and international being a Saturday. We actually found it somewhat difficult to get a place for lunch at a restaurant.
Apart from the normal touristy attractions of coffee shops, restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops, there are 2 or 3 other important sites, the Villa Monastero, the hotel Villa Cipressi and the Castello De Vezio. According to our tourist information, the first 2 were supposed to be free entry, but when we arrived there, they were not, and the castle was an arduous 45 minute walk up steep hills, which we were not equipped for, in terms of footwear, so that was a no go as well. From our cursory look around Varenna, it gave the impression that there was a lot more to see around the surrounding mountains, hills and valleys, but that would have to wait for another time.
As there was not all that much in the town itself, we decided to head back to Bellagio on the 4:00pm boat and cut our losses. Some times plans don’t always work out the way you might think.

Back in Bellagio, the place was a throng of tourist activity. Even at 4:00pm, the bars, cafes and restaurants were full of day trippers. By about 6:30 things started to calm down, so we had a quick dinner and back to the hotel for some housekeeping stuff.

The morning was spent mostly in Bellagio – it is such a lovely spot with a real magic about it. It certainly has a personality all of its own, quite distinct from other lake side towns.
We spent the first part of the day looking further around the village of Bellagio, browsing the shops, taking in the sights, observing the locals as they went about their business and having the usual capuchino.

After lunch we ventured across Lake Como, to a place called Villa Carlotta which is a huge mansion and garden complex, right on the shore line. The villa is now a museum housing many fine works of art (and some not so). It was first built in 1690 by wealthy silk merchants who were prominent in this area. The villa also has an amazing garden which you could say would take a ‘team’ of gardeners to maintain it. There is so much to see, that the recommended tour takes 75 minutes to complete. The day was very warm so we opted to take the shorter garden tour, which still gave us an excellent picture of the who complex.

We completed our short but informative tour of the villa at approximately 3:30pm..We hadn’t really seen Menaggio yesterday so we thought we could catch a bus into the town, as we were heading along the same side of the lake
When we eventually found the bus stop, the time table indicated that the next bus was more than an hour away, so we opted to start walking, after all, it was only 4kms away, according to Google Maps.
It was an uncomfortable walk, as it was predominantly in full sun, and for long stretches there was no footpath, so you shared the busy road with other traffic. Eventually we reached Menaggio town, again a place with its own unique character and personality, different to Bellagio. Ariving quite hot and bothered, we sat at a bar and enjoyed a long cool beer and spritz. After a further look around at churches, restaurants and knick knack shops, we took the ferry back to Bellagio for dinner – this touring business is certainly tough work hmmmmm..

Another full on day started with breakfast at our B&B, during which our host kindly suggested some possible itinerary options for our move from Lake Maggiore to Lake Como today. I was all set for a fairly smooth day’s journey of about 120kms on the northern Italian motorways, but Massimo had other ideas.

He suggested that we might like to take the more scenic route and go north along the western flank of Lake Maggiore to a certain point, then take a ferry boat across the lake to a place called Laveno on the eastern flank of the lake. From there we could go visit the monastery of Santa Caterina del Sasso (St. Catherine of the Stone) which has some stunning architecture and lake views, then continue onto Como.

This all sounded like a great idea, and I’m nearly always up for a challenge, even driving on narrow, rough, congested, windy roads around the lakes.
Driving so far has definitely been an experience, not so much because of the left hand drive, right hand drive stuff, although that presents challenges in itself, but the real test is the narrow windy roads with traffic coming up against you.

So we accepted his suggestion and happily took off, ready for anything (almost).

We made it to the town where we were supposed to catch the ferry, but had no idea where to catch it from. A few interrogations of locals later and some challenges for Cynthia (our GPS lady) we eventually found our way there. The ferry boat journey only took 25 or 30 minutes but afforded some stunning views to as far as the Swiss border and the Swiss Alps.
Once on the other side, we again struggled to find our way to Massimo’s monastery, so again we quizzed some of the locals and challenged Cynthia. Lucky we have a little knowledge of the language – I don’t know how other tourists do it. We again eventually found the way there and parked the car at about 11:30am. By the time we reached the ticket office it was 11:45, and the guy at the ticket office had just shut up shop for lunch; he wasn’t going to reopen until 2pm. We could not afford to wait around till then as there was still quite a way ahead to go, so we decided to forgo the visit unfortunately and press on.

We then headed for Como and the lake area itself – not a simple drive by any measure, as it entailed more rough windy narrow roads along with all sorts of motor ways, highways, toll roads with a variety of toll collection systems. Anyway, we reached Como city – it’s funny how you have this idea in your head and even funnier how wrong it can be. We always thought of Como as this rustic, quiet, tranquil little village nestled just above the lake, with very little in the way of people, traffic, business and general hustle and bustle; boy how wrong can you get it; the opposite is closer to the mark.

We moved on past Como and towards our stay in Bellagio, but first had another casalinga lunch (home style cooked lunch) in a small restaurant in Tremezzino, had a quick drive through the village of Menaggio and then took another ferry boat across lake Como to our accom in Bellagio. At this point, I must profusely and sincerely thank Cynthia our friendly GPS lady for getting us here. There is no way on earth that we could have made it with just a map – scouts honour.

The view from our hotel is nothing short of sensational. When we first saw it, we both had a WOW moment. Both of us were a little bit weary from the journey, and the view from our room was so breathtaking that we both decided to hang around the hotel for the rest of the afternoon.

We took the free shuttle bus from our hotel (Borgo Le Terrazze) down into Bellagio town just to have quick look around, and also have some dinner. It was a stunning balmy evening, so we had dinner by the lake’s edge and watched the sun slowly set over the surrounding mountains.

The rain had not stopped all night, and once again we awoke to drizzly light rain. During breakfast we discussed our options with our host. He suggested a visit to Lake Orta, in particular to the old town of Orta San Giulio and to an island in the lake which has the same name.

So taking on board his suggestions we headed off in the car to the town of Orta San Giulio, some 20kms away, all on local country roads, through lots of small towns and villages. The vegetation up here is so lush and green, because of the high rainfall.

We arrived at the town at around 10:00am, but the old part of the town was only accessible by foot. Light rain was still falling, but the walk was not too arduous, albeit slightly slippery.

The old town itself did not disappoint, with so many narrow streets, small shops, domestic residences, churches and chapels, cafes and restaurants, all within a stones throw of the lakes shore. It was obviously somewhat early in this town as quite a number of the shops and restaurants were either just opening, or had just opened. There were not too many tourists about as yet either, so it was relatively easy to move around. The local market was also in the process of setting up, with lots of stalls selling local produce and local arts and crafts.

We then determined to take a motor boat across to the island. It was only a short distance so it was comparatively inexpensive. The rain had just stopped by now and there was even a hint of sunshine. The island has one main point of interest – the 10th century and a monastery attached. We were able to visit the church and even the crypt containing the remains of San Giulio, but unfortunately we could only view the monastery from the outside, as it is still a functioning monastery with clergy inside. We circled the small island completely in a matter of 30 minutes checking out the quaint and the antique and then headed back to Orta San Giulio in time for lunch.
The rain was still holding off, so we had a pleasant lunch in a small but lovely local restaurant, which specialises in home style dishes.

Our host had also advised us about some shopping outlet place about 40kms away, so we spent some of the afternoon there, browsing and checking out the locals shopping habits.

A quick stop back at the B&B and them out for some dinner back in Stresa town. By this stage, the weather had fined.up to a balmy sunny evening, ideal for a dinner outdoor, followed by a passegiata along the lake promenade – very pleasant way to finish off an evening.