17 April 2024 – The Italian Alps

Miles driven today = 84

Total Miles to date = 4,143

We wanted to see as much of Lake Garda as we could this morning before we continued North so we had a choice; do we backtrack a little and head up the east side or do we continue up the west.  Both options had pros and cons but we ultimately opted for the latter, so we cut across the headland to Salo where we picked up the shoreline hugging SS45bis.  In the sunshine the scenery was jaw-droppingly gorgeous and we passed through some lovely lakeside villages and past some very exclusive looking hotels.

As we approached the northern end of the lake it got a lot more mountainous with a succession of narrow tunnels carved through the rock.  On exiting one of these I lost concentration momentarily and clipped wing mirrors with a stationary truck waiting to come the other way.  On inspection of the casing my intrusion was only by a matter of millimetres but it was enough to pop the glass out of the mirror.

The small blind spot mirror was still intact so we were able to continue but decided it would be best to get it fixed at the first possible opportunity and found a Fiat Service Centre just beyond the town of Riva del Garda which sits at the head of the lake.  Unfortunately we got there just a smidge after they closed for lunch at noon so we had to hang around for a couple of hours but thankfully when they reopened they had a spare and we were able to get underway again.  They even had an English lad in the workshop who was able to help out with some of the translation.  Once again our luck was in.

Having lost a chunk of time we decided to continue straight on to our chosen destination for tonight.  We continued northwards on the SS45bis which now followed the course of the River Sarca upstream and past the turquoise waters of Largo di Toblino to Trento where we switched to the SS12 and the Adige valley.

We’ve made our home for tonight in the small town of Salorno and are parked in a free car park next to the local football ground.  There’s been a fair bit of coming and going since we got here what with the school run and also kids football practice but now that is over it is quietening down nicely.

We are now in Italy’s northernmost province of Alto Adige, also known as South Tyrol due to the fact that until the end of the First World War this part of Italy was actually in Austria.  All signs around here are bi-lingual in Italian and German and German also seems to be the language which is predominantly spoken by the locals.  Every town and village around here also has two names.  Salorno is the Italian version but in German it is Salurn.

Although it was getting on towards tea time when we arrived we wanted to have a bit of a leg stretch so we went for a look around.  With a population of around 3,500 it’s not exactly a big place.  The original town is built close into the steep rockface.  This is the main square with the Town Hall.

A lot of the buildings have a very Austrian Alpine feel to them.

There are at least a couple of churches here.

We spotted what looks like a small fort built high up in the cliffs.  It’s all lit up now that it is dark and apparently is a bar/restaurant but I have no idea how you actually get there without some serious climbing gear.

This was looking East across the valley to the mountains on the other side.

We put the heating on this morning for the first time since we were on the slopes of Mount Etna and with temperatures due to drop well down into single figures I’m sure we will be doing so again tonight just in case the frost protection valve trips and dumps our water supply all over the car park.  It’s our last night in Italy.  Barring any more unforeseen mishaps we will be in Austria this time tomorrow and I’m sure it will be even colder when we get there.  Was it really only 3 days ago we were sweltering in Verona?

18 April 2024 - Austria