10th Oct 2015
Alabaster,
Marble, and Lakes.
A pleasant free night down
beside the sea, and we woke up to see people off swimming (Brrrr.). We just had our breakfast and packed up ready
to hit the road north. Once again, not
the most exciting day, and eventually we decided to get on the Autostrada and
make some miles – The B roads were just too winding and too slow, and the
scenery was not that good. But first we
passed through the area where Alabaster and Marble mining has been famous since
before Roman times – Massa and Carrara.
The mountains above the road
often look like snow capped peaks due to the extensive white scars
everywhere. Marble mining has been
carried out here for centuries – It is said that Michealangelo would journey up
into the mountains to pick his own marble for his statues. Everywhere you look are yards beside the
road stoked with varying quantities of blocks of alabaster or sheets of marble. We wound through the mountains and villages,
but it really was very slow and tedious, so eventually, near Busalla, we
decided to get on the Autostrada and try to make it through to Lake Como
today. Where we got on the Autostrada,
we stopped for a lunch break – and an old ’60’s competition Lancia pulled in
! Right behind it came a Lotus XI on a
trailer – Something must being going on round here ! Later on I heard a rumble on the other side
of the freeway and looked over – In the gas station opposite was a 300 SLR
Gullwing Mercedes pulling in for fuel – Yes, and 1956 / 57 model ! Very interesting.
After our lunch break we got
on the Autostrada and headed towards Milan – Once again, not a very interesting
road. It wound through the hills, and through a lot of tunnels, and eventually
into Milan. We chose to go round an
inner ring road of Milan, heading towards the SE end of Lake Como – A place
called Lecco. We were hunting for camp
sites that might still be open at this time of the season, and there were a few
in this SE corner which we needed to check out.
We found our way past Lecco – Just follow the signs for Monza !! Difficult for me when the Monza road turned
off from ours, because I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Monza, but unfortunately
the F1 GP is in Russia this weekend, not Monza ! Next time……..
We arrived at Lake Como,
thinking of blue lakes, million dollar homes along the water front, and George
Clooney, spotted the lake – And promptly went into a tunnel before we could
even take a photo ! And then another
tunnel. And another ! In the brief moments when we were out in the
fresh air, we could see that the road on the other side of the lake was also in
a tunnel, or at least an avalanche shute.
Where were they going to have campsite on a road like this ? We started to be concerned……..
Finally, half way up the
southern leg of the lake, we came out of the tunnels and found ourselves beside
the lake – RIGHT beside the lake. There
was water, a very narrow road (not even two cars wide in some places), and then
cliffs reaching up above us. Hmmm. Very pretty, but……. Anyway, we needed to check out the camp sites
as I was starting to get tired, so we plodded on, and as we passed the first
possibility, we saw the gates were actually open and people were there, which
looked a lot more promising than last night in Viareggio. As the road was so narrow with no turning
spaces, we decided to keep going and check out the 2nd option about
3 kms further up – But this time, no luck.
All locked up tight. So we found
a small space to turn around and headed back towards the first sight, where we
were greeted with a big smile and a “Si, no problem” when we enquired about an
over night camp.
We were right beside the
Lake, with the narrow road being all that was between us and the water. We soon found out that we weren’t in fact
that far from Monza – The race track was right there at our front door ! The road round the lake, especially on a
sunny weekend evening, is a favourite ride for every local biker, and they are
moving through this section ! There are
also a fair number of Maseratis, Ferraris and Lambos enjoying the road, so
crossing the road is done very carefully !
Oh well, hopefully as darkness falls, they will head home, because it
sure is quite noisy here ! And while I
do enjoy the sound of an engine on full throttle, after an hour or two it can
become quite overpowering !!
The supervisors in the camp
site seem to run a busy little bar and snack bar as a part of the campsite, and
there was a big game of poker (or similar) going on (well, lots of poker chips
were on the table, the vino was flowing freely, and lots of noise was being
made !). They kindly put the World Cup Rugby on the TV for us, so we were able
to watch our first game and see Australia squeak past Wales before we headed off
to our beds. Now the bikes seem to have
left the road for the night, we are thinking of stopping here for a second day
and just enjoying a bit of rest for a day before we keep heading north. We will decide tomorrow….
Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0379ViareggioToLakeComo?authkey=Gv1sRgCOnjkYqontKLNg
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