Flight SNAFU at BA and AA

[NW-Bound]

On the shore of Lake Lugano:

[NW-Bound]

Campione d'Italia is a tiny exclave of Italy on the shore of Lake Lugano. It is surrounded by Switzerland. Wikipedia has an article about its history.

This sleepy little town has a casino that claims to be the largest in Europe. This interesting casino also has an article on Wikipedia.

[braumeister]

Wow, that's very cool. I know of a few exclaves in that general part of Europe, but never heard of that one.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyking1 They held the connecting flight at the gate for us, which was great.

Wow. I've heard vague promises that an airline might do that but I've never been on the receiving end although DH and I were once on a plane that waited for a group connecting from another flight that arrived late. Glad you made it!

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 Wow. I've heard vague promises that an airline might do that but I've never been on the receiving end although DH and I were once on a plane that waited for a group connecting from another flight that arrived late. Glad you made it!

DW and I plus one other couple had a whole Amtrak train held for us for an hour. All the way from Denver to Chicago, we kept losing time. NO idea why, but first, they were going to stop and bus us. Then they said "Don't worry, we'll hold your connecting train." Say what? No wonder the trains don't run on time. BUT, it was nice not to have to wait 2 days in the train station. YMMV

[NW-Bound]

I have been too busy or too tired to post here. The Italian mountainous roads are indeed legendary, and will tire you out quick.

When I told Google Map to guide me from Menaggio to Bolzano along the backroads and to avoid toll roads, I did not expect it to take me through the famed Stelvio Pass road. I had read about this road, but forgot about it, and did not even know where it was. And I found myself driving it.

At the summit of the Stelvio Road, I was able to take a photo, but this did not do justice to the 72 hairpin turns of this road.




Not even the following photo that I link from the Web can show all the turns of this road. Of course, there's still the back side of the road that takes you down from the summit.

[pacergal]

beautiful picture, but No thanks, on the driving!

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacergal beautiful picture, but No thanks, on the driving!

Well, when you say to yourself "What the heck!", it's too late because there's no way to turn around, so you just keep going.

Somewhere in the Dolomites today, I just followed Google Map to get to a hotel I already booked. It took more than 2 hours to go 61 km or 38 miles. And I have obviously arrived safely at the hotel to post this.

[NW-Bound]

And when you get there, you get rewarded with a view off your hotel room balcony like this one I enjoyed in Selva.

And you are pleasantly surprised with a 7-course dinner in your hotel meal package. You have to buy your drink though.

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacergal beautiful picture, but No thanks, on the driving!

I unintentionally ended up driving California 101 near Big Sur - at night - in the fog. I think I could drive that road - though I wouldn't really want to. YMMV

Thanks to NW-Bound for the great pictures - hope he is able to keep up the travelogue.

[tulak]

I hope you splurged on an automatic!

I usually rent a manual when in Europe, but that can get old on hilly roads. This reminds me when I drove the back way from Milan to Nice. We had time, wanted to see Turin, so decided to take the long way. The road from Cuneo to Nice wasn’t nearly as bad in your pic - more hilly if I remember correctly - and after going up and down a dozen switchbacks, was a bit tiring. The views were great though.

Thanks for sharing the pics. Looks great!

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau I unintentionally ended up driving California 101 near Big Sur - at night - in the fog. I think I could drive that road - though I wouldn't really want to. YMMV Thanks to NW-Bound for the great pictures - hope he is able to keep up the travelogue.

The Stelvio Pass road is actually not difficult to drive, if you don't go fast. It's just tiring. However, thrill-seekers motorcyclists like to push the limit, and would pass motorists like me whenever they get a chance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulak I hope you splurged on an automatic! I usually rent a manual when in Europe, but that can get old on hilly roads. This reminds me when I drove the back way from Milan to Nice. We had time, wanted to see Turin, so decided to take the long way. The road from Cuneo to Nice wasn’t nearly as bad in your pic - more hilly if I remember correctly - and after going up and down a dozen switchbacks, was a bit tiring. The views were great though. Thanks for sharing the pics. Looks great!

Constantly shifting gear would indeed make the drive that much worse. Nope, I am too old to care to work that hard.

And I happened to get an Opel Grandland X Hybrid for a rental car. I never before drove a hybrid, but have learned to control the regen for braking. This makes driving the switchbacks a breeze.

This Opel is a plug-in hybrid, hence its battery has more capacity than a regular hybrid. Going down from the summit, I was surprised to see that the battery only got charged to about 1/3 capacity by regen.

Speaking of scary mountainous roads, I stumbled on a much narrower road that looked like a paved forest trail! And what looked like a single-lane one-way road was two-way. What the heck! Luckily, I ran across only one car going the other way, and we managed to pass one another. And this road segment was only 3-mile long. Whew.

[NW-Bound]

Here's a photo of the 2-way forest road in the Dolomites I found on Google Map and mentioned above.





It was labeled as a private road. And indeed it led to a mountain lodging called "refugio" or shelter for hikers.


Here's the vista at the end of the 4.2-km forest road.




There were many trail heads from the refugio here, one leading to a higher refugio on a nearby mountaintop, which was serviced by a trolley line. Guests have to hike up there themselves.

[Koolau]

^^^^^^^

Stunning. Thanks for the ongoing updates!

[NW-Bound]

Does Venice have a park, besides San Marco Basilica and Square, canals, and narrow alleys?

Yes, it does, at the southeast end of the Costello district. It may be too long a walk for people of other districts to go there daily, but local residents do enjoy it.

[NW-Bound]

A couple of days ago, we took a side trip from Verona to visit the Sanctuary of Madonna della Corona. It took more than 1 hour to drive the 22 miles from the agriturismo outside Verona to Spiazzi in the rain. And there was the cold and wet rain to endure to get some photos, but it was worth it.

[pacergal]

gorgeous photos!

[NW-Bound]

Earlier, I meant to post this photo taken in the Dorsoduro district of Venice, which is the home of the university.

Not many tourists there. And fall was coming. The night temperature was 65F when I was there more than a week ago.

[NW-Bound]

We are back safely in Lyon, having returned the rental car.

A couple of days ago, on the drive back from Italy, I was unexpectedly forced to exit the freeway E70 which was closed due to some unknown reason. Found myself scrambling to find a mountain road to take me back to France.

Asked the young Italian who manned the barricade and waved traffic off the road: "Francia?" He pointed to the exit to a mountain road and nodded "Francia".

ARGHH! More tortuous roads, more serpentine turns. You drive slow at 50 mph, and don't seem to make much progress. My wife said "Is that not the same mountain we saw 15 minutes ago?" It could be the same one, but we are now seeing the other side of it.





And somewhere close to the border of Italy/France, we saw this. I wondered if it meant a bad day for some skiers.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound ARGHH! More tortuous roads, more serpentine turns.

You sure know how to have fun in your travels!

But seriously, we appreciate the trip reports and photos.