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On Monday morning the hurd left Santa Cristina di Valgardena for Merano. The route would take us over a number of beautiful passes in the Val Gardena area. We drove a loop around the Marmolada mountain range. We had not counted with the amount of traffic generated by participants of the Maratona, a hiking event which ended the day before. So the first two hours were a bit slow and frustrating, but soon the roads cleared and the pace was back up.

The Dolomites may not be as high as the Western Alps, but they make up for that with dramatic rock formations and steep valleys. As the drizzle of the morning started to clear, blue skies formed the background to some stunning scenery, as you can see in Nick Taylor's photo, taken from Hamish Franklin's 2.7 RS.

The roads on the Italian side of the Alps are sometimes rough, compared to the French alpine roads, but all that adds to the experience of driving some of the oldest routes in Europe. Valgardena is one of the most extensive skiing areas in Europe in winter time and I recognize some of the ski station names from an epic student holiday with my fraternity in the early 80'. All these roads were covered under the snow at the time and now they backon through emerald green meadows.

As we had run into some delays during the morning, the route to Merano was cut a bit short. Before lunch the group had fallen apart in traffic and we started calling around to gather the troops for a bite. Steven Harris had somehow gotten well ahead of us and was starting to feel lonely by the time we reached him on the phone, believing he was way back! Simon and Tracey in Silverado joined us in the hunt for Steven and after some tinkering with the TomTom we managed to pinpoint his location at a roadside restaurant. It was just after 2 when we got there, so the kitchen could only produce pizza, but this being Italy, even the snacks taste great.

Just when we ordered a coffee the other half of the troop arrived, having had there lunch at an earlier point on the route. Off we were to our hotel in the outskirts of Merano.

In the hotel parking lot Hamish and Nick went to work on bleeding the brakes, whilst Ronald help Simon reopen the front lid which had been closed with a box sitting on top of the spare tire… This caused the safety latch to catch and it wouldn't release! Some creative spannering solved the issue and we laughed it off over a beer.

Merano has always been a gateway to the Alps, already in Roman times and its buildings reveal a prosperous past. We walked to the centre under a threatening sky and as the evening progressed, thunder and lightning were the backdrop to our dinner by the river. Nobody felt like walking back so a taxi was found. It only took 8, we tought, so 3 stayed behind. Then the door opened and 2 more were squeezed in. As the driver was helping out on the right side, Simon ran around the front, jumped behind the wheel and closed the door. You should have seen the taxi driver's face when he found his seat taken! After a good laugh Simon was shoved in the rear and we all made it home on the same ride.

Tuesday we headed for the Stelvio and Gavia passes. The climb was a major stretch of road and as were seemingly near the top, around the corner appeared anothe wall with road attached and at least another 400 meters of elevation to cover. Once we reached the summit we met some British GT3s who had been going up and down the pass since 6am. And we thought our trip was a slightly mad adventure!

We took lunch on the way down to Bormio and the faster drivers continued their trip through a forrest along the plotted route and the others went down the provincial road to Vercurago. This road took us through a tunnel section on the highway which felt like it was 60 km long with only an occasional interruption. As we popped out the other end, the Como lake was to our right and the beer very near on this hot day!

Photo's by Nick Taylor and Mrs S.

More next week.

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