Over the mountains we go to Italy

The temperature last night got down to -13.5c. Due to this, the LPG had begun to freeze as had the toilet chemical, and the bathroom sink was still blocked. It took us a while to get going as we needed the sun to come over the mountains, and then we could fill up the water and empty the loo before heading out.

Heading towards the Simplon Pass

Alter Spittel on Simplon Pass

It was another beautiful sunny day, and it was an easy drive down to Visp, along the valley floor to Brig, and then up into the mountains to cross them at the Simplon Pass. This was an incredible experience with amazing views. The skies stayed clear, the roads were easy to drive, it was not too busy, and it was actually easier to drive than we had imagined.

Impressive icicles

Lago Maggiore from Verbania

The border crossing was easy, we just had to stop before entering Italy, where a policeman came out of his office and waved us through. Once in Italy the road condition suddenly deteriorated, and we had a long drive through another valley until we pulled away from the mountains and found the lakes. We aimed for Verbania on the edge of Lago Maggiore. We were hungry and thirsty and pulled into a free car park right next to the lake for a break, where the temperature was a balmy 11c.

We carried on driving North along the lake, but a lot of the restaurants were closed, and there was no obvious place to stop, so we turned round, and headed back towards a McDonalds we had seen. Rather embaressing to have a burger in Italy, but it was cheap and they had loos. Also, the cheapest fuel we had found was across the road.

We decided to go and have a look at the lake from the other side at Stresa, so drove thought the rush hour traffic, and headed South where we saw the most amazing view of a full moon over the mountains, so had to pull in and take photos. Along this coast where some huge hotels, which were all closed up for the season. It did feel like you were going back in time, perhaps to an Agatha Christie plot. In fact apparently Queen Victoria liked it here, and at some point the Orient Express was re-routed through Stresa. We found some very nice parking on the waterfront and went in search of caches and munzees. Very pleased to say that we found our first (and only) cache in Italy, and several munzees.

On the lake are also three small islands, with large houses on them, and when these all began to light up, the placed looked almost dreamlike.

Islands in Lago Maggiore

It was time to head home, and the drive back was quite easy. The views of the mountains in the dark, with their tops covered in snow and a full moon were impressive. Then, as we headed down the other side, the beautiful town of Brig, all lit up looked just like a scene from a Christmas card.