Our 'free' campervan friendly spot that we found on our first night at
Madonna di Campiglio turned out to have an overnight parking charge.
Still we got away with it the first night, so why not try again -
however come the morning, we weren't hangin' round... Just in case!!
Anyway, today is another driving day - so it was good to get away
early.
Note to the people who make the road maps, if you put 'no caravan'
icons on some roads - you positively invite us to go that way, because
it's bound to be exciting and give some great views, this seems to be
our philosophy anyway.
Up to the first of three mountain passes today - Passo Tonale at
1883m. Then, before we were hardly down again, straight up to Passo
Gavia at 2,652m. This one proved to be a bit of a handful. A couple
of hairpins into the climb, the road turned to single lane for large
parts of the trip up!!! This caused lots of fun (or havoc), with cars
having to back up or down to let others pass. It was probably a good
thing that the majority of vehicles were motorbikes, or very very keen
cyclists out for a 'bit' of a workout. There were photos in the
Chateau at the top, showing cycle races there whilst it was snowing,
it looked pretty amazing!!
Finally, after passing through Bormio we headed up to Passo di
Foscagno, where at the top is a customs checkpoint - even though there
is one more valley of Italy left before we get to Switzerland?? After
driving past a number of perfume, tobacco and alcohol shops in the
middle of nowhere, it soon it became apparent that - the whole of the
valley we were driving into was a duty free area!!!
All of a sudden, Italy had gone from one of the most expensive
countries to fill up with gas (€1.40+), to one of the cheapest (€0.95)
- for you English, thats £0.75p/litre!!! It was like Christmas :-)
A bit of gas, wine, chocolate and cigarettes (for Marea's mum) later,
the next Christmas present we found was yet another designated free
campervan area with a fantastic view to boot!! And unlike Madonna di
Campiglio this one wasn't going to throw any parking charge surprises.
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