Of italian holidays

This year took 17 days for the "summer holiday" - a leisurely 3 day
drive to Umbria (overnight in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, FR and Modena,
IT), 2 weeks in a lovely villa on a peaceful hillside and a rather
quicker drive home with one overnight stop (Kappel, CH).

Thanks for all the comments pre-holiday (particularly wessie's seeming
encyclopaedic (sp?) knowledge of roads in and across Europe).

Some stunning scenery and that was using pretty much autoroutes all the
way. MB tunnel had only 1 car in front of us, so that was smooth. Pretty
boring driving through tunnels but the views as you emerge into daylight
after some of the tunnels are truly amazing.

I was really surprised at just how many (of the old) Fiat 500s are still
in daily use, 1st time I saw one is was "don't see many of them" and by
the end of the holiday it was just commonplace. Also the Piaggo Ape - so
agricultural, functional and yet so in keeping with the (apparently)
slow pace of life in the region of Italy we visited.

A small on topic piece: we visited a town called Narni and by chance
there was some bike event going on there - a reference to it is here
(Italian) http://www.umbriaturismo.net/eventi-umbria/feste-e-
manifestazioni/1424_narni-motori - was very laid back, low key with a
few classic Guzzi, Ducati, Gilera and some of their more modern
equivalents. But the real surprise was when I looked inside the
theatre... and found the foyer, lower performance area and stage all
exhibiting motorcycles - this is a tiny little theatre in a small town -
it was a real delight to see such passion for these bikes and it all
appeared to be at zero charge to visitors.

 

Heh. Just to show off:

I stopped in B-sur-V in 2003, on the way back from Lake Garda. I wish I'd
gone via Austria & Germany now, but wanted to ride over the Petit St
Bernard.

B-sur-V was a dump. We arrived about 5pm on a Sunday afternoon. Everything
was shut. Eventually, we managed to get booked into a Logis hotel in the
centre of town. we wandered around and found a bar. No food and it closed
at 9.30pm. Eventually we found a kebab shop which was better than having to
go back to the McDonalds next to the autoroute exit. The following morning,
the hotel didn't have any bread until the boulangerie opened. It seems the
lazy fucker had a lie in as it was 9am before we got something for
breakfast.

You did me with Kappel, though. Checking google maps, it seems we all rode
past it on the tour last summer.

 

B-sur-V was a nice setting but yes, it was a bit of a dump but we found
a lovely restaurant and had a walk by the river so that was good.

Breakfast in our hotel, though booked, was unavailable at 8.30 as a
coach-load of japanese tourists had devoured every last scrap - the
downside of buffet breakfasts I suppose.

Kappel seemed lovely, beautiful setting (ignoring the edge-of-town
distribution centre) - we chose it because it was geographically the
right area for our overnight and because it was one of the few places
with a spare hotel room at non-exorbitant rates.

 

Actually I retract that statement - as I recall the centre of B-sur-V
was actually quite nice, the edge quite industrial/commercial.

 

When we were there a couple of weeks ago I started taking photos of the
500s and the Ah-pays until I realised that they were nowhere as unusual
as I'd imagined that they would be.

Apparently the good 500s tend to change hands for about the same as a
new Panda

 

Saw my fist Renault 4 for years last week. In northern Italy.

 

I did an overnight there recently.
www.kreuz-kappel.ch
Immaculate

 

What a coincidence - that's where we were on Saturday night.

It was indeed immaculate; good service, good food.

 

Nice little write up.

I had some airmiles to use up so have booked myself a Friday to Monday
in Milano Marittima at the end of the month, nice little 4* place
right on the beach.

It also happens to be the World Superbikes at Imola on the Sunday -
what a co-incidence eh !