On the Road Again, and into the mountains.

13 th March 2017 And we have left Milan and our friends Manuel and Ida at Axel Camper.

 

 

They cared for Matilda for the last 9 months since we were here last, and also did some small repairs. In particular they replaced a leaking tap, waterproofed a locker, replaced our house batteries, and most importantly, installed a heating system in our roof-top tent! The heater is connected to our camper heater and we can divert the heat into a ring-system of piping around the tent floor- Manuel’s design!

 

if you are in Northern Italy and have camper or Webasto problems, please contact Manuel and Ida, manuel@axelcamper.it   Viale Enrico Fermi 25, Monza, +39 347 9516741 You can also find them on Facebook. They are passionate about their work, and very innovative!

 

We headed northwest to get out of Milan and the peak hour traffic. The north of italy has a number of large lakes some of which we had already seen, so this time it was Largo Maggiore, and a number of smaller lakes in that area. They are quite picturesque, but each time we have seen them they have been spoiled by haze which we can ony conclude is pollution.

 

 

 

Cafe Matilda has popped up again, this time on the banks of a lake where we enjoyed the unseasonal sunshine.

 

14th March

 

The weather has been particularly good and so we made the decision to go a little further north into the Swiss Alps. This was a great road trip and we certainly saw more of the Alps than we did by train. 

 

 

  

 

We saw glaciers and rugged snow-topped mountains until they seemed normal!

 

We continued driving in the Alps from Italy, into Switzerland, and then into France.

 

16 March 2017

And then there was Mont Blanc! And the associated “Needle”.

 

 

We went to 3842m elevation by cable car, and the air was cetainly thin up there. We were significantly breathless. But the views were breathtaking in themselves.

 

 

 

We couldn’t resist lining up with a mob of people to have our photos taken in the glass box so high above the valley below. It was quite unsettling stepping out onto the glass floor.

 

 

17th March

Our plan was to make our way to vale d'Aosta, in Italy but our way was blocked by snow on the high passes. Apparently the snow in the vallies has only melted 2 weeks ago, but it remains in the mountains. We are still seeing lots of people skiing, and enjoying this remarkable fine, sunny weather.

 

 

So we have made our way to Turin (Turino).

 

As we approached Turin we were dismayed to see the pollution! Joe has recently seen a statistic that over 1/4 deaths in children world-wide are caused by pollution. And that is not difficult to imagine right now.

 

 

     

 

This is the Abbey of Saint Michael, which is promoted as the symbol of this region (Piedmont). I reckon ole St Michael woud roll over in his grave if he saw what his Abbey is looking out on now!