TUESDAY - HEADING FOR THE REAL MOUNTAINS

Hi everybody. I know this is getting a bit boring but we have had another great day. We left our friendly Swiss host after paying him 35 euros for the privilege of camping beside Lake Lugano. He gave me a bill for 40 something which seemed completely outrageous (we are used to paying about 20 euros a night for our sites). It turned out that it was in Swiss francs which converted to 35 euros. Still the most expensive we have paid but it was a great site.

We headed back to Como in Italy which, as usual, was busy and we couldn’t find anywhere to park so we kept heading north towards Bellagio, a true gem of a town on Lake Como. The road from Como to Bellagio was the most exciting we have driven on so far which perhaps explains why, when we got there, there seemed to be only one other motorhome in town and parking was not a problem. The road follows the lake very closely and somehow fits between the water and the mountain with lots of buildings protruding on to what one would expect to be the road. We could pass cars and bikes OK but trucks and vans required a careful squeeze past. Everybody’s mirrors remained intact.

On the latter part of the road, we caught up with the local bus, a specially shortened version with a siren type horn which he sounded as he went around the bends. Following him got everything out of our way.

After the usual wander around the narrow winding streets of Bellagio, we caught the car ferry over to the eastern side of Lake Como and headed north towards Switzerland again.

As I type this, the roar of a nearby waterfall is almost drowning out the CD we have playing. We have gone from the sublime to the even more sublime. We are at a campsite right beside Acquafraggia Waterfalls, not quite in Switzerland but the water originates in the Swiss Alps and comes off the mountains which form the watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. After we arrived here, we went for a two hour walk up the lower part of the mountain where there are numerous 600 year old stone structures originally used as cowsheds.

 

Looking at the map yesterday, I noticed that St. Moritz is not too far north of here so, given that all the beautiful people go there, we decided we have to go, not that too many of them would lumber into town in a motorhome but we might get especially dressed up for the occasion. I bought a new tee shirt in Bellagio today.

It seems incredible that we spend the day in shorts and tee shirts with the temperature in the high 20's but we still see snow on the top of the surrounding mountains. Obviously that's why the streams are running so energetically.