Coming
down from the Italian Alps we began our mini-tour of the lakes at the small
scale Lake Orta, driving along the eastern shore first as it looked the best
bet for campsites. Orta San Giulio was where we planned to stop, but the
campsites there seemed very expensive and very crowded to us, and because we’d
done practically no research for this trip we didn’t know there was a perfectly
nice camper stop in the middle of the Parco del Sacro Monte. We drove around the lake to the north west tip,
where we found a nice little area attrezzata at Bagnello, a suburb of Omegna, (€10 for each 12 hrs,
inc. hot showers & wifi), by the sports centre, and next to two public
beaches - one very open and no dogs, the other, past the sports centre, in a
wooded park where dogs can have a good run. Our dogs are both lurchers, and
when they run they really run, so we need space where they won’t crash into
anyone and where there’s unlikely to be anything to hunt!
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| Bagnello area attrezzata |
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| Lurchers when not running |
The town of Bagnello is a bit of a
stroll away from the camper stop, but is very pretty and has a good range of
shops, plus boats go from there around the lake. If, no - make that when we
come back, we will make sure we pop in there and take a boat tour to Orta San
Giulio.
Swimming in Lake Orta was lovely,
although the dogs could not be tempted, and we spent much of the next day
sunning and swimming here before packing up and driving over the rugged hills to
Lake Maggiore to meet friends at Arona.
The road down Maggiore to Arona was
quite busy at this tail end of the holiday season, so I’d expect it to be
chocker in the summer months, but it passes some very elegant ‘fin de siècle’
(my new phrase - means turn of the century, end of 19th in this case)
villas and hotels painted in ice-cream pastels. Lots of coach parties were
unloaded to stroll along lakeside promenades and you can imagine a once chic
heyday for the towns we passed through.
Facebook is an interesting thing.
You pick up ‘friends’ you’re never likely to meet and reacquaint yourself with
people you knew in your youth. On this occasion Rob noticed that a chap he’d
gone to school with was posting about his holiday on Lake Maggiore and since we
were in the area it seemed like a good idea to go for a meal with him and his wife.
Despite not seeing each other for some 32 years, threads of lives were picked
up from where they had frayed, career paths swapped and a generally lovely evening
was had. Even the dogs behaved themselves under the table.
We slept in a large car park area
beyond Arona station, which was almost empty when we went to bed, but which was
full by 8:30 the next morning. Needless to say I hadn’t heard any of those cars
arriving and parking around us. There was a little park beside us, which, if
we’d been braver, would have been a better place to sleep, and there had been a
motorhome there earlier in the day, but it had gone by the time we got back
from our meal so we guessed it was a not for sleeping place.
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| Arona - we overnighted just beyond this fountain |
We spent the next morning strolling
round Arona, having breakfast of croissants filled with a very sweet custard
(crema) or an apricot jam (marmelada) and watching the entertainment provided
by two cycling acrobats, part of an event of ‘theatre by the sea’ which was on
for a few days.
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| Arona's take on bunting |
We drove round Lake Maggiore to Luino,
stopping along the way for a swim and a break. Germignaga, just before Luino,
had a campsite and a sosta right by the lake, but unfortunately the sosta was
full by the time we arrived and we didn’t fancy paying for a campsite when all
we wanted was to cook and sleep, and it wasn’t next to the beach, so we drove
to the other area attrezzata advertised at Lunio, which is a little out of town
by the sports centre (as they so often are), but was free, very quiet (just one
French van there), and had areas where we could run the dogs, replace water
& dump our ‘you know what’.
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| Lake Maggiore swimming spot |
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| Lunio area attrezzata |
Heading south from Maggiore the
next day, we passed a couple of places on the lakeside where motorhomes were
allowed to park and where steps led down to public beaches (you could easily
wild camp at these), after which we headed for a brief drive through
Switzerland to Lugano, which was as busy seeming to us as the last time we
passed this way 5 years ago, and we gave up on the idea of trying to park,
instead driving on to Porlezza. We would have stopped earlier, as the little
lakeside villages were very pretty, but it was that old parking problem again.
Still, Porlezza was a nice place to eat ice-cream on the spruced up lakeside
promenade. A passer by photographed the dogs, stretched out on the boardwalk,
mainly because Betty was doing ‘very cute’ with her head on Pom’s back.
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| Sign granting permission to stop here |
Finding good food shops was
becoming quite difficult. If you are happy trolling round a large supermarket
(I am!) there’s one outside every town, but Rob always wants local shops
selling local produce. There were shops selling tourist wine and salami in
Polezza, but the bread shop had closed down (maybe for the season, maybe
forever) and the one tiny general store didn’t have a lot to offer. We did
manage to find a good butcher, so replenished supplies of sausages, and also
found a tiny shop where we managed to buy garlic - we’re alright as long as we
have garlic and tomatoes! We briefly discussed stopping at Polezza’s campsite,
but decided to push on to Lake Como, which was possibly a mistake since time
was rapidly heading towards evening and we always have a habit of leaving
finding a resting place until too late.
We passed through Menaggio, on Lake
Como, past the place we camped 5 years ago on a car park overlooking the cemetery,
but decided to head on a bit. Finding parking by the lakeside seemed a bit of a
trial and we ended up heading up a hillside after Gravedona, towards the
village of Livo, as our book said there was a sosta at Peglio. The trouble with
these books is that they are not always accurate, and in this case the index
gave no address for the sosta, which is always going to be suspect. Also, our
book is 5 years out of date. Still, for those motorhomers happy to wild camp we
can say there is a nice car park at Peglio, near the village recycling point,
where we spent a fine night, and got fabulous views over Lake Como on our way
down. There’s also a nice church by the cemetery, which is worth a walk around
the exterior, and a huge chapel by the car park.
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| Peglio overnight spot |
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| Peglio overnight spot |
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| A walk around the exterior of Peglio church |
We slept well up in the hills, and
then wound our way down the next morning to stop at the village of Domaso on
Lake Como for a shop, breakfast and a swim, before having to make the decision
to head back to Alps or continue around Lake Como. We chose the route to the
Alps, got as far as Morbegno, checked the weather reports for the Alps and
turned round to head back to Lake Como.
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| Domaso |
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| Domaso |
We found a very friendly campsite
just outside Colico, at Piona, which had a nice private beach. Italian
campsites can look a bit off-putting to us as there are often small caravans
permanently sited, which over the years have had extensions and awnings,
bringing them so close to their neighbours that they give the impression of
some sort of colourful shanty town. Interspersed between these encampments are
odd spaces where motorhomes can be squeezed in. We look over the fences at
these places and baulk at the cramped spaces. However, all of the ones we’ve
stayed on have been fine, and once you are parked and have staked out your area
with the awning out, it feels fine, and it’s nice to have electricity, showers
and clothes washing facilities. Camping Piona cost €22 with everything,
including dogs, electric and wifi (2hrs a day).
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| Piona beach |
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| Piona camping |
The dogs and I stayed put at Piona,
while Rob had a day cycling up to the Sanctuary of Madonna di Ghisallo, above
Bellagio. The sanctuary is dedicated to cyclists and cycling, and there is a
collection of famous bikes going back to the 1920s. It’s a weird place with
cycles hanging from the walls inside the chapel, but it was very popular with
cyclists, so Rob was not alone in his visit.
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| Sanctuary of Madonna di Ghisallo |
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| Sanctuary of Madonna di Ghisallo |
The abbey at Piona is worth a
visit. It’s on a pretty headland and is set in olive groves, which reminded us
that this is the first area on our route through France and northern Italy
where we have actually seen olive trees. The abbey has some old parts, a ruined
apse from the 7thC and 12thC cloisters with frescoes, but much seems to have
been rebuilt after the place was revitalised in the 1870s, including a strange
little prayer grotto. The Cistercian order took it over in the late 1930s and it
now houses silent orders of monks and nuns who spend their time in contemplative
prayer or in painting horrendous abstract works of art incorporating some sort
of glittery rock.
We drove along the east side of
Lake Como towards Lecco, hoping to find a nice restaurant for lunch or a
swimming beach, or preferably both, but we couldn’t even find a parking spot,
it being Sunday and every lakeside town seeming to have a bric-a-brac market.
The road gradually got busier and busier, and it dawned on us that there were
more and more motorcyclists on the road. You expect quite a few out on a Sunday
afternoon, but here there were convoys out in force - huge numbers of them -
running into the hundreds.
We reached the town of Mandello del
Lario, only we didn’t find out the name until much later, where we saw a very
uninviting area di sosta and a sign to a lido. Traffic on the main rod had come
to a complete standstill so we tried to get to the lido, made a wrong turn and
ended up heading back in the direction we had just come from. Loath to join the
traffic jam again we spotted a parking spot overlooking the lake and stopped
for a bite to eat. Time was getting on and we decided our best bet for the
evening was the unattractive sosta, but only to park up and sleep, which would
mean we could spend the early evening at the lido and then go into town for an
evening of sitting at restaurants and bars. After we parked up we noticed that
everywhere around us had signs saying they welcomed motorcyclists, and when we
reached the lido it was obvious that there was some massive motorcycle event going
on, with tents pitched on every green patch of ground, stalls and beer tents
set up and hundreds of bikers of all shapes, sizes and nationalities walking
around - with Germans over the age of 55 dominating the scene. It turns out
that Mandello di Lario is where Moto Guzzi motorbikes have been made since 1921,
making this their 95th anniversary, for which they were having a
three day celebration event.
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| An evening in Mandello di Lario |
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| Unattractive area di sosta at Mandello di Lario |
Staying on a sosta we’re not overly
enamoured with does mean we are more likely to make an early getaway, and in
this case we were off and had parked up below the walls of the old citadel in
Bergamo by 10 a.m. Bergamo is well-worth a visit. The old town overlooks the
newer, planned, 19th century town. There are two different
funiculars to the top. Medieval streets wind about to a main square where a
beautiful Venetian style palace sits in front of the baroque cathedral and the
older church of St. Maria Maggiore, onto the front of which is tacked an ornate
red and white striped porch and mortuary chapel, dedicated to the 15thC Bergamo
nobleman, Bartolomeo Colleoni. Inside the church every available space was
highly decorated with frescoes and tapestries, with the extra icing of copious
gilding in any area felt not to have quite enough ornamentation.
The main thoroughfare through the
old town, leading to the citadel, was full of lovely local produce shops,
including some sweet polenta cakes, which we didn’t try. We did get some
delicious pizza slices and some fresh stuffed pasta. The dogs drew quite a bit
of attention, especially from an English chap in tour party, who thought Rob
and I spoke good English. He had a good old East Anglian accent and it turns
out he was from Ely, and he was amused when we said we were from Duxford!
The drive from Bergamo to Lake Iseo
was a bit dull and urban sprawly until we reached the tiny Lago de Endine,
where the road along the western side of the lake was pretty and well endowed
with picnic places, where you could easily overnight. The eastern shore looked
to be a more sedate lakeside holiday destination than some of the larger lakes.
We’d deliberately chosen not to
drive directly to Iseo town, but to head to Lovere at the north west tip of
Lake Iseo, with the intention of driving down the eastern shore and sussing it
out, before arriving at Iseo and returning to the campsite we stayed at five
years ago. We did this, passing by a couple of reasonable overnight stopping
places and some campsites, but on arrival at Iseo we found the three campsites
there were full. They were also quite horrendously expensive at up to €35, so
we turned round and headed to Marone and Camping Riva di San Pietro, which is
by far the nicest Italian campsite we’ve stayed at, being spaciously set out,
with good facilities, good wifi, lovely showers & our dogs (by negotiation
of Rob pulling faces) free all for €26.50. This campsite was so lovely we stayed here for 4 nights - and it's very unusual for us to stay put that long.
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| View from Marone campsite |
For those interested in food shopping, or other shopping, there's
a teeny tiny market in Marone on a Thursday morning (get there early as it starts
closing up by 11:30 a.m.), and a ginormous market in Iseo on a Friday morning,
which seems big on cheese and fish stalls, as well as clothing, shoes and so
much more, and where you need to dart around the very many begging migrants - a
sign of how hard Italy has been hit by waves of unfortunates hitting their
shores.
Moving on from Lake Iseo we headed over the hills, through
Sarezzo, to Lake Idro. Sarezzo seemed to be entirely given over to a massive
Beretta factory and production of ‘stuff’ for the Italian army (there’s a
museum too, if you like armaments), but the whole area we were driving through
had begun to be much more focussed on industry, much of it to do with metal
working.
We didn’t find Lake Idro particularly motorhome friendly - lots of
signs saying no parking for our sort, though it was raining and nothing looks
very cheerful in the rain, does it? Lake Idro marked decision time (again) for
us though - on to more lakes or leave the area for the Dolomites. We’d been to
the southern end of Lake Garda before and felt it was a bit overdeveloped for
us, but in the end we decided to head that way and see if the northern end was
any better.
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| Ledro Valley great overnight spot |
From Lake Idro we took the road through Storo, to Riva del Garda, which
took us through the pretty Ledro Valley. At the highest point across the hills,
in the Ampola Pass, we came across a nice big, empty car park and picnic spot
where we decided to stop for the night, which meant we got a good, early start
the next day.
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| Lake Garda |
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| Lake Garda |
It was just as well that we managed an early start, as we spent a
fair bit of time driving along the west side of Lake Garda to Limone sul Garda.
The roads either side of Lake Garda are busy, and we’ve only ever seen them out
of peak season, so heaven knows how packed they get in the summer months.
Needless to say, we didn’t find anywhere to park. We had a bit of trouble even finding
somewhere to turn round. Still, it is very pretty along that road, with craggy
hills rising steeply above, and we got to see it in both directions, which gave
me ample time to notice that all the tunnels are named. Rob says they all are
in Italy, but it was on this stretch of road that I noticed it, probably
because whoever was responsible for naming had dipped heavily into Greek
mythology with tunnels named satyr, dryad, nyad, fury, siren, titan and gorgon,
among others.
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| Riva del Garda |
Back in Riva del Garda we found parking in the side streets
running at right angles to the lido park and headed into the old town centre,
which was lovely - full of tourists, but attractive, especially around the
harbour, and a good place to sit outside one of the many cafes and chill. We
managed to buy Rob a pair of water shoes here, so all we needed next was to
find a beach we could park at. Useful tip for anyone visiting the lakes - bring
a pair of shoes you can swim in as it is generally very rocky and you’ll end up
wincing and slipping, as Rob has been doing, if you try getting in with bare
feet.
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| Mount Bondone sosta |
We found a swimming spot on the other shore of the lake, heading
through Torbole and past the various campsites. Unfortunately the spiaggia
(beach) was non-dog, so the girls had to stay in the van, but we managed to fit
in an afternoon swim before leaving Lake Garda and heading into the hills to
Mount Bondone just before Trento. We were thinking of wild camping in one of
the picnic spots or laybys in this area, but we had on our ‘let’s get to the
top’ mentality, so headed on past suitable places, ooing at the fabulous views
over Lake Garda. At the summit the road opened out onto proper rolling Alpine
meadow, with a large refuge/restaurant/hotel and a 48 place area di sosta with
great views over the lower Dolomites. This wasn’t in our sosta book. It looked
like it was probably there for busier winter tourism, but it was perfect for
us, and was free, so we joined the Dutch van and UK van already parked up and
settled down for a cooler (9°C mid-September) evening in the knowledge that
this really was the end of the Italian lakes section of this trip.
