Today we had all kinds of weather on our trip up into the mountains to our destination Livigno.
It was very grey and overcast as we left Lenno and headed along the lake through various little towns perched on the lakeside. Some of these towns we did not actually see as at regular intervals there are tunnels through the mountains which bypass the actual towns. We eventually left the lake behind and started into the mountains and most of the day we just seemed to go higher and higher !
View of the mountains from Soglio… or that’s what the sign says !
Our first stop was a little town called Soglio. Perched on a hillside, it is nicknamed the “Gateway to Heaven”. It sits overlooking a deep valley – not that we could see the valley as it was shrouded in mist below us. We had actually crossed into Switzerland at this stage – the border crossing a non-event as the guys merely glanced at us slowing down as if to say ” don’t stop otherwise we will have to get up!” So we just kept going. We had a few coins and notes from our previous trip just in case and as you need to pay everywhere in Switzerland if you want to stop, sure enough we needed coins to park in Soglio – The whole town only has about 6 parking spots ! I put in the smallest coins I had but these were not enough so I had to use the only other one I had – 2 Francs – which I think then meant we could park there until 2016 !
I feel a yodel coming on !
We headed further on into Switzerland and the weather started to clear a little and we actually got enough blue sky to see some of the mountain peaks around us. Along the way we passed through St Moritz, managing to stop long enough for a toilet stop without paying for the parking, then headed up the Bernina Pass.
Up and up we went again and the temperature dropped as we hit the bottom of the snow line. Along this road we actually passed 2 glaciers high in the mountains and the lookout maps showed how the glaciers had receded over the years. We stopped at a couple of lakes with the distinctive glacier blue colour but it was too damn cold to be out of the car for too long !
From the top of the Bernina Pass, we started to wind down the road again toward the Italian border again. With the weather behaving, the views of the green valleys and forests against the blue skies and occasional white topped peaks was quite spectacular.
Glacier in the pass
Back into Italy again, we arrived in Livigno for a late lunch. It is a real alpine village and as it is basically between seasons, a lot of the shops are closed. It is also a shopping Mecca as it provides duty free shopping so close to the Swiss border. We were looking for a chemist to top up Adrienne’s drugs but they were both closed. We did manage to find a cafe doing a roaring trade so we joined the crowd and had a lovely risotto with porcini mushrooms and speck. The rain came back whilst we had our lunch but had thankfully soon moved on again.
A glimpse of rainbow … Livigno from our hotel
After lunch we found our hotel. It was one of the many “wellness” hotels in the area where you are supposed to indulge in the spa treatments and zen atmosphere however we passed on these. Mind you the bed was the most comfortable hotel bed I have ever slept in so that was a plus – not so sure of the bright orange leather though. It did have a lovely view down the town toward a lake at the bottom of the valley. This area can’t seem to make up its mind what country it wants to be – German, Swiss or Italian as all the signs are as much in German as they are Italian and a lot of the language spoken is German as well. And then there are the cows on the hill with their cowbells melodiously clinking as they head home in the evening.
We had dinner at the hotel – I was a bit worried it might be alfalfa sprouts and tofu or something similar but the menu was very nice. We had a drink in the bar first – which changed colour from purple to pink to bright green to blue to orange – then ended up in a room which looked like Geppeto’s workshop from Pinocchio ! Thankfully the food was excellent – we had a local red wine which the waiter put on a show in presenting, we shared a wild game terrine with fried mushrooms, Adrienne had steak and I had venison – all extremely delicious!
We finished the evening chanting wellness themes and meditating to Gregorian chants – Only joking !!