Quote:
Originally Posted by Dackelone
IF you guys come over here... let me know!! It would be really cool to have you guys come visit for the Welt 4.0 (see the sticky in the Euro subforum) or come join us for our Stelvio 2.0. We will probably do Stelvio in mid June or July this year. Still TBD. 
Dack |
Hm, sounds tempting, Dackel.
Guys, if you plan to head for Stelvio again this Summer, then it's definitely worth considering to extend the trip a bit further down South the Dolomites for a Garda Lake round trip (pre-Alps - Northern Italy). You're in the area anyway with your cars, so benefit from that unique occasion. Will be a fond memory for future story-telling.
Our non-European forum fellows must eat their hearts out that we can manage to roam the roads and towns at that exquisite location.
It normally takes about 2.5 hours to get from Stelvio to Trento (160 km) (Northern Italy) by car. Then heading (with a full fuel tank) from Trento southwestwards towards Sarche (for a stop at the lovely Castel Toblino bar/restaurant - an extraordinary scenic location to have a drink or get some food), further southwards towards Riva del Garda (Northern point of the Garda Lake). Then start the Garda Lake round trip anti-clockwise: at Riva del Garda take the westside leg southwards towards Peschiera del Garda (Southern point of the Garda Lake). Subsequently take the eastside leg northwards (other half). Should you want to skip the eastside leg (in the unlikely event of bad weather, lack of time, feeling tired or road too crowded), you can decide to take the highway at Peschiera del Garda either heading West (direction of Milan) or East (direction of Verona / Padova / Venice) or back North (direction of Trento / Bolzano / Innsbruck).
If the Garda Lake round trip is too loaded to combine in one day with the Stelvio as schedule, then spend a night in the Trento whereabouts and schedule the next day for the Garda Lake round trip. Eventually you can have dinner in the Northern area of the Garda Lake and get back to the Trento whereabouts for spending a second night. Next morning with fresh energy the return trip: heading North (highway) from Trento towards the Austrian border (± 150 km), across Austria and subsequently the German Autobahn again.
On a sunny day touring around the Garda Lake is truly a joy for all senses. Scenic, curving lake roads with plenty of small tunnels (vroom-vroom
). Even if temperatures are high (normally 30-35°C in the Summer season), you still got the lake breeze. During the weekend the road can be pretty crowded, as you may expect.
I toured that road already plenty of times with my wife's DD, just for the fun of enjoying life. Yeah, I got a soft spot for that area. This trip might be the right excuse to sell the story to my wife to take the 1M from Belgium to Northern Italy for a few days.
Here's my sweet pie back in April 2008 in her ///M(axi-Cosi) in Riva del Garda:
A winter picture I took from the scenic 'Castel Toblino' (Sarche) back in 2005 (as mentioned above, it has a bar and restaurant - for a virtual tour:
http://www.trentinovirtualtour.it/casteltoblino [click on 'foto' to change]):
Some Garda Lake impressions:
The Aston Martin pursuit opening scene of the James Bond movie "Quantum Of Solace" partially shot on the Garda Lake road:
Here's a guy following that James Bond trail:
Conclusion: consider a "Quantum of ///M" extension to the "Stelvio 2.0" journey.