Italy

Our brief visit to Italy was spent exploring some of the villages that surround the northern lakes of Garda, and Como. These lakes were extremely busy and touristy and we soon retreated to Lake Piano, a small unspoilt lake between lakes Como and Lugano.

The roads in Italy reflect the very laid back attitude of the Italians, although their driving is far from laid back, it is a competition, literally a matter of life or death.

We witnessed two near fatalities in the matter of four days. Firstly a gang of road workers (much needed) were repairing a road inside a tunnel. Rather than closing off one of the two lanes with cones, they had one man waving a flag to warn oncoming traffic. The truck in front of us wasn't warned, he didn't see the guy with the flag who was forced to sprint for his life.

The most bizarre incident we witnessed occurred when cars were waiting to load onto a ferry. You need to visualise two lines of stationary cars preparing to merge onto one lane accessing the ferry. I think there was only one space remaining on the ferry which two cars decided to compete for. The net result was both cars being towed, ambulances taking the drivers away, and a ferry worker slamming his head against the windscreen of one car before being thrown over the rail into the lake some three metres below. Several people dived in to rescue him, his injuries being so bad it took about ten minutes before they could get him back up onto dry land and into the ambulance.

Italy is never dull.

The Alfa came second in the race to board the ferry.

Varenna -our favourite village on Lake Como

Italian speciality (the drink, not the lady) is called an aperol spritz. Couldn't analyse the contents but it matched the tablecloth nicely.

Lake Garda with the early morning sun doing its best to penetrate the air pollutants that were present at all the lakes, providing a blue tinge to the surrounds. For James Bond fans, Lake Garda was the scene of the car chase in Quantum of Solace.

Lake Como without the blue tinge due to overnight rain. By midday the snow had a blue hue.

Lake Piano, probably our best campsite yet. Almost deserted.

Lake Piano, no motorised craft were allowed on the lake and the opposite side of the lake was a nature reserve, with no access permitted.

Who left the bungs out?