The Beautiful Lakes

Wednesday 08-May-2019 (Cugnasco)

“They” tend to advertise 80 – 100% WiFi coverage at the camp grounds we plan to stay at. What they don’t tend to advertise is the speed of the WiFi!  Today was a recovery day from the delays and diversions of yesterday.  We were planning a ride into Locarno… but then it began rain at a higher rate… so decided to work on processing the photos we had both taken, writing the Blog (in WORD) then uploading to the blog site. Simple plan... what could possibly go wrong?

Processed (I am trying to be “pure” and work only from the camera’s “raw” files…) and selected the photos (from Jungfrau and Schilthorn ... and day’s diversions), and with the aid of Karilyn’s detailed diary – generated some accompanying text (… a few hours of labour). Now for the Blog.  There were 47 photos to upload, and although I rescale them all to 1024 pixels wide… after 45 minutes only about 50% had uploaded, and 25% had errors (timed out?)… then it stopped uploading altogether. So having some experience with software (where doing the same thing twice can sometimes lead to a different outcome)… I started all over… but decided to upload only half the images at one go… another hour (or so) passes… but I at least have around 75% of the 50% safely with Google… Time to start entering the text and inserting the photos. However, quite soon thereafter, the blogspot software kindly informs me “There has been an error – please try again” (=work lost). So I try again… but now, I can’t even get the blog site to come up.  Must be bed time… with the hope that it may get better tomorrow.

Thursday 09-May-2019 (Cugnasco to Sorico)

A short day was planned – we would just move on to Lake Como. ACSI had no site on the lake, but there were lots of sites on Campercontact – so finding a Camp Site should be easy. On the way we travelled via Lake Lugano… and passed right through Lugano (but all the people I know there – will be in Montreal at the Cray User Group meeting). It all looked familiar, from when I was here a year ago, visiting CSCS. And it was as beautiful as I remember it.

Lake Lugano (from the northern shore)

One of the many villas along the edge of the lake

More village scenery along the northern shore (while moving!) 

We did have an interesting side-tour on this part of our planned route. The GPS navigation system in the vehicle is very good – for determining where a 4.5 tonne motorhome is allowed to go, and it is easy to add way points” along the route – so that we can travel the route we most prefer. But… it is very slow to start, and can sometimes take what seems an eternity to find enough GPS satellites to start making intelligent directional decisions. When we turn off the engine, for example at a photo stop (one of those hen’s teeth referred to earlier… but becoming more frequent now) – then restart – the “but” issue noted above comes into play. After crossing the border into Italy – there was an opportunity for a photo stop – which we took. After getting underway again – we came to a critical junction – but the navigation system was not yet ready to give us instructions – so we made a choice… which led to a beautiful drive along the northern shore of Lake Lugano. It also provided some challengingly narrow streets.

One of those "narrow" streets... in Sam Mamete in this case..

The image above shows one of those streets – in San Mamete one of number of small villages we passed through. The interesting thing about this picture – is that at the right hand corner at the end of the street – we met an oncoming delivery truck – of similar  width to us. We got by, very very slowly – with perhaps 50 – 100mm of clearance on either side. By the way – the Hotel in this photo has been run by the same family since 1910 (just in case you were wondering – and yes it was google that told me that – when trying to figure out what town this was!).

A while later – we made it back onto a wider road, and passed over a saddle and descended into Menaggio on Lake Como. A beautiful town, in the Italian sense of that word, and on a beautiful lake.

Just after departing Menaggio. The house on the point looks like one we have seen in a movie somewhere...

We made it to the campsite in Sorico at about 1 pm.  Sorico is at the northern end of the lake. This was not the location we were initially aiming for (which was in Colico, on the north eastern shore of the lake) but it was lunchtime, and the area seemed nice, and it would be good to stop early so that we could enjoy the afternoon – as it was fine and sunny… so we chose a site a camp ground at random (there were many) and was easy to get into. Camping La Riva – was perfect – and we had a site right on the lake shore. 

The scene - 5 m in front of our site at Camping La Riva in Sorico - Lake Como.

There was a cycle path around the shore so we set out o see if we could visit Gravedona to visit a noted Romanesque Church and frescos in the gothic area of the town.  Somehow me missed it – perhaps because we were on the bike path at the shore line – but the scenery was lovely.

One of many boat harbours along the shoreline of Lake Como - this one with a Madonna on the tower at the entry to this safe harbour.

We have seen these everywhere... a large, and very permanent looking building attached to a caravan... it feels like it must be a work-around for some planning law?

Next morning – we decided to move on to Lake (d’) Iseo – smaller, but just as lovely as  Lake de Garda – but “without the crowds”. 

Friday 10-May-2019 (Sorico to Marone)

The plan was to drive to Iseo via the pre-historic rock paintings at Capo di Ponte (in the Camonica Valley) … well we got there – but the directions let us down a little – then the guide book said it closed at 4 pm… and it was by this time 4.15 pm – so we gave up and headed back down the road to our planned campsite in Marone on the north east side of the lake – and opposite Isola di Loreto. And we only travelled via 38 tunnels to get there.  Another front row seat on the lake…

Our site at Camping Riva di San Pietro in Marone, with the Isola di Loreto in the background.

A closer view of the Isola di Loreto (a private Island)

Marone (which actually means “big swamp”) is also in a beautiful location…

The view on driving into Marone

Saturday 10-May-2019 (Marone)

It was too nice to leave Marone today – given the possibilities of bike rides in the area. So after breakfast we headed off to Sale Marasino – to catch a Ferry to the island of Monte Isola (the largest island on a lake in Europe). It is said to “have the most (of all?) beautiful Italian villages”.

The "skyline:" of Siviano - capital of Monte Isola.

Ascending the path to the Church of Giovanni Battista in Siviano.

A (typical) street in Siviano (minus advertising placements!)

Inside the Church of Giovanni Battista

A detail from one of the frescos in the church... the beheading of John the Baptist.

We rode around the northern, western and southern parts of the Island… from lake-level up to 260 m elevation – my how an electric motor assists!

On Monte Isola - 2 stroke scooters reign! No cars allowed... Here - a scene from Peschiera Maraglio (south eastern end of the Island and the place we catch the Ferry, in this case back to Sulzano). Note the cigarette... so much smoking is evident here!

On the way back from Sulzano – some images of the lake shore.

View along the Solzano shore line

We have encountered many war memorials along our travels so far... this one is in Sale Marasino - with Marone in the background (with the church on the top of the hill).

This evening – we had a delightful convective storm go through – strong winds, thunder and lightning – and heavy rain.  We managed to pack up the bikes, awning, table and chairs before the precipitation started in earnest… it was much more interesting the Singapore event.

An observation about the (non Autostrada) roads (in this part of Italy) – my goodness they are “bumpy”… it looks like they have been repaired many many times.  It is like driving on un graded shingle roads – and with the dashboard rattle we have – quite cacophonous! Tomorrow we will try a “weight”(a bag of sand) on the dashboard to see if that will reduce the noise till we can have a Dethleffs dealer take a look at it.

Tomorrow - we will head for Milan.