North Italy: Piedmont and Lombardy region - Oct 2023

 Early october we took our small van and traveled first to lake Como.

Busy, busy, to busy.....it was a friday so maybe the start of the weekend.

Saturday morning we took the ferry to Bellagio and cycled al the way to Chapel Madonna del Ghisallo.

That day was busy with cyclists because the last of five monuments, giro il Lombardia was passing through. Nice to see.....they go really fast.

Como Lake

Madonna del Ghisallo

Madonna del Ghisallo

Il giro Lombardia

After the show we cycled our way up to Rifugio Martina where we had some good local Polenta.

View from Rifugio Martina

Back in Como we moved our van to Breglia from where we hiked to the top of Monte Grona 1736m. On our way back we had a cold beer at the Rifugio Menaggio.

Monte Grona

Rifugio Menaggio

After this beautiful hike we left the lake behind us and entered Piedmont.....green rolling hills, vineyards, very good food and wines.....oh yeah.

We hiked and biked to lots of villages such as Cella Monte, La Morra, Alba, Grinzane Cavour, Barbaresco, Barolo, Monforte d' Alba...etc.....

Nebbiolo grape

La Morra

 

After a little more than a week we went to Susa in the Alps, Nice village close to the mountains with some beautiful roman ruins. After the first day of hiking and relaxing we had "a that point" the great idea to cycle to the top of the colle delle Finestre 2173m high.The Climb is 18.5 Km long with an elevation of 1700m and a average of 9.1 procent . The last 8km of the climb is on gravel....oh yeaaah.  Normally it was the plan to cycle further on the military road but to cold and rain kept us from going further so we decided to go down the same way....it's a pity we couldn't see more of the scenery and enjoy the ride more....but we did it... we have to come back one day.....for sure.

 Some heavy rain came our way so we decided to leave Susa and booked a hotel close to Torino. And also because their is a lot of burglary in cars and vans... they say....and we don't want that.

We visited Torino in 2 days. the first day we went to the car museum in Lingotto and checked the old racetrack on the roof of the old Fiat building...amazing at that time. The next day we took our bikes and cycled to Colle delle Maddalena, basilica di Superga  and Monte dei Cappuccini before we entered the city.....cool way to see the city and it's surroundings.

Fiat former racetrack on the roof

Torino

After Torino we looked at the weather forecast and the only option was going to Lake Garda....

We found a good spot for our van in Peschiera del Garda. Also busy with tourists but little less than Como. Here we did some hiking and cycling...and eating.....and drinking wine....Italy....of course you do.

made some new friends at this bar.....haha

The end of our holiday was coming so planned on driving to Fûssen on the Austria Germany border, but first we stopped on the way in Brentino Belluno to hike to Santuario Madonna della Corona. The first part of the hike was cloudy but at the end we had some sun.

1500 stair that day....crazy

Santuario 

Brentino

From Brentino we drove for 4 hours to Füssen and parked our van at the hotel Ruchti. For 25 euros we could use the hotel facilities....good deal.

We stayed 2 nights and hiked and cycled to all the surrounding lakes and to the castle Neuschwanstein.

Füssen was a perfect end of a perfect 3.5 weeks enjoying the good life. By the way...we had the best Asian food outside Asia in Kyodai restaurant in Füssen.

More photo's....check this link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/b649NqaUQ4ndjVNy8