It was a bit of a shock entering Italy. The architecture didn't change much at first and all the signs were in both German and Italian but one thing did change dramatically and that was the behaviour of the motorists... Obviously speed limits were now only suggestions, crossings are to be ignored, the whole of the road is to be used especially for cornering no matter whether or not there is oncoming traffic, and following distances dropped to 2 inches! Quite a change from the orderly Germanic roads we have been travelling on.
Still, the alps continued to be amazing and the valleys in between very flat and green. Carol managed to have some conversations with locals with sign language and a little Italian and some Spanish. Our map book is small and so has hardly any towns or small roads on it, in one of the first towns we stopped in Cortina d'Ampezzo we found a big poster of the Alps showing a lot of smaller roads so we drove through the top of Italy using a photo of that map.
We wound across to below Bolzano and followed the Strada Del Vino then more west and down the western edge of Lago di Garda which was much warmer than we expected to find it considering it is surrounded by Alps. Here we were definitely in Italy, the architecture is square concrete walls with no fuss shutters and balconies have wrought iron railings, roofs are clad in copper. West again at the bottom and up the Valli Guidicare where we stopped at Lago di Idro for an authentic Italian Pizza and on to Tione the next day and Madonna di Campiglio, Mezzana and on across to Tirano on the border of Switzerland. Parts of this journey have made us feel we were really travelling in old Italy. Magical views, nice people, crazy drivers :)
Pics (click on or copy and paste into browser) http://cjb.pascoe.net.nz
Next stop Switzerland.
