Laglio to Malcesine

To get a sense of what the ride over the Splügenpaß was like, it's worthwhile to read Mary Shelley's account of her crossing in 1840:
From "Rambles in Germany and Italy"

In 1840, author Mary Shelley traveled through the pass on the way to Lake Como with her son. She describes the pass in her travel narrative, Rambles in Germany and Italy, published in 1844:

A few years ago, there was no path except across this mountain, which being very exposed, and difficult even to danger, the Splugen was only traversed by shepherds and travellers of the country on mules or on foot. But now, a new and most marvellous road has been constructed - the mountain in question is, to the extent of several miles, cleft from the summit to the base, and a sheer precipice of 4000 feet rises on either side. The Rhine, swift and strong, but in width a span, flows in the narrow depth below. The road has been constructed on the face of the precipice, now cut into the side, now perforated through the living rock into galleries: it passes, at intervals, from one side of the ravine to the other, and bridges of a single arch span the chasm. The precipices, indeed approach so near, in parts, that a fallen tree could not reach the river below, but lay wedged in mid-way. It may be imagined how singular and sublime this pass is, in its naked simplicity. After proceeding about a mile, you look back and see the country you had left, through the narrow opening of the gigantic crags, set like a painting in this cloud-reaching frame. It is giddy work to look down over the parapet that protects the road, and mark the arrowy rushing of the imprisoned river. Mid-way in the pass, the precipices approach so near that you might fancy that a strong man could leap across."

Up in the morning to have a nice cup of cappuccino on the veranda overlooking Lake Como. Didn't see George (Clooney) anywhere.

Then it's back on the road again

Google said that it should take about 5 hours, but Google doesn't understand Italian traffic. Luckily, everyone in Europe understands lane splitting, lane sharing and filtering. It was unnerving at first, but after watching and then following, we got the hang of it. You need to understand that as long as you give the drivers enough warning, they will make room for you. You have to watch for tourists and bicycles. It takes some guts and some Star Wars ("Use the Force, Luke")

I figured out the GoPro for this one. It looks better if you watch it on Youtube.

The little yellow guy coming out at the end of the pass was a carabinieri. He didn't bat an eye. Again, you get more detail by watching the YouTube version.

Most of the speed enforcement here is done by camera. 10 over will get you "blitzed". We've been through a couple of manned radar sites, but haven't caught anyone's attention yet.

Even the carabinieri don't care

One of our common activities is to start out the day finding a place to buy a baguette, some meat, cheese and a little wine and find a place to lunch. This day found us looking for a castello (which we never found), but we went through Palazzolo sull'Oglio and found a really nice picnic spot on the Oglio River.

Not a castle, but still cool

Even Italian boxed wine is pretty good

Now all we have to do is find our way back toward Sirmione

 For six months, Jayne has been doing research to find castle ruins on an island in an Italian lake. We found ruins of an ancient Roman villa in Sirmione on Lake Garda, and that was it.

The town of Sirmione

Of course we get there on Monday

But it's still pretty neat.

At least we get some beach time.

It was close to 90 degrees out. I had to wet down before I put the riding gear back on.

We ended up in Malcesine on Lake Garda that night, hoping to head for Bolzano the next day. The weather wasn't going to cooperate though. But Malcesine was nice.

We can wholeheartedly recommend the Hotel Alpino. Reasonable prices, great location, nice people.