Italy
This is the tunnel that we rode through to enter Italy from Switzerland. It's a really long tunnel, probably 2 to 3 kilometers and is only one way at a time so you have to wait at the entrance until it is your time to pass through. This goes right under a big mountain, so if there was ever a nuclear war, this would be the place to be to survive it. I only spend a couple days in Italy riding through some of the smaller town in the far North. The scenery was beautiful and the small towns all had little squares with cafes and small shops selling cards and other mementos. This is not an area that I would want to drive a big car through. The streets are narrow and windy and hard enough on a motorcycle. Doing it in an SUV would be crazy. We stopped for coffee in a small town before tackling Passo Del Stelvio. The cafe was nice and tranquil. I can see why people sit outside in the squares for hours at a time. People watching was great and the coffee was delicious. This was a nice rest before tackling the toughest pass on the entire ride.
Passo Del Stelvio, the toughest pass on the weeks ride and we did a lot of passes. In fact we rode the highest passes in Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Passo Del Stelvio is 2759 meters high and is a series of 21 switchbacks that climb up the mountain. It would be generous to say the road was two lanes. It was narrow and there were cars and tour busses coming down while we were riding up. We also had to pass cars on the way up or it would have taken forever. Let's say that it was a ride up that I will not forget anytime soon. The back side was a lot smoother, it was still tough but not as difficult as the way up. Later that day we rode another pass that was quite nice. When we got to the top it was freezing cold and there was snow off the road and a glacier not far away. We stopped at a little bar, yes a bar at the top of a mountain. The Italians seem to like bars at the top of their passes, I guess they figure that if they made it up sober they might as well have a drink to make the way down that much more exciting. I can tell you going down that pass was exciting. The way down was steep, with switch backs and a sheer drop of at least 1000 feet on the side. Oh and there were no rails to prevent you from going over. Again we had to worry about on coming traffic and we had to pass cars. To make it more fun there were some small tunnels that we so narrow that there wasn't room for a motorcycle and a car. Since we were going down it meant that if we entered the tunnel and there was a can inside we would have to dismount and push the bike back out of the tunnel to let the car past. What fun!!!
After a very long day of riding in Italy we stopped for the night at a new, small hotel. After a quick shower everyone gathered downstairs at the bar for drinks. Out the back of the hotel was a very nice grassy area and up on the hill a citadel. The citadel was there to block the way of travelers heading to Rome so that they could be charged a fee for passage through the area. It was quite beautiful but also imposing.
The next day we stopped in Bolzano to see the ice man, a guy that lay frozen in the ice for about 5000 years before being found in 1991 and put on display in the museum.
Though I didn't see much of Italy, what I saw was impressive.
