The Alps - France/Italy border

Wendy at 3000 metres.

The first year we started motorhoming we took the van down to the bottom of France, with a view to nipping across the border into Italy. This was in May. We figured that we would just pop across the Alps and take in a bit of scenery on the way. The satnav said we would be there comfortably within a few hours.

Three days later we arrived in Italy after an unexpected mini-break at 3000 metres! To our surprise, even though the temperature was well into the 20s, and even though we were in shorts and t-shirts, most of the passes were still closed due to snow. We've come on a bit since those days and have learnt to be much more respectful of the mountains. 

Alpine campsite on the Italian side.

Driving in the Alps is as amazing as you might suspect, with narrow winding roads, very steep inclines and declines and dramatic drops over the side. Our old van was getting very hot as we reached the top of various peaks, and the brakes were burning very hot at the bottom. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted.

The one advantage of our unexpected delay there was that there weren't many people around and we got the aires pretty much to ourselves. We also had a priceless moment when we went for a walk at over 3000 metres (still in shorts and t-shirts) and scared the living daylights out of three local skiers who clearly didn't expect to see anyone on the footpaths.

We steered on the side of caution and limited our walk to the way-marked paths where the snow had cleared. We stopped at the point where the thick layers of icy snow have fairly large streams running beneath them!

Our route took us through via Briancon, Vars, Montegenevra (on the border where we spent a couple of nights in the aire) and ultimately into the beautiful Italian city of Cuneo.

More information: www.montgenevre.com, www.vars.com and 

www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/piedmont/cuneo.html

Peschiera Del Garda and Lake Garda

Peschiera Del Garda at night.

One of our favourite haunts in Italy is Peschiera Del Garda. As the name suggests it is slap bang on the shores of Lake Garda. In fact it is right at the bottom of the Lake and is the site of a sixteenth century island fortress. It's a very relaxed place for shopping, eating and general pottering around. At night all the cafes and restaurants light up to magical effect.


More information on the town: www.lakegarda.com/peschiera.php

We like it for its close proximity to some of Italy's finest cities including Verona and even Venice. It is also a fantastic place just to spend your time on a sunny day around the lake.

Lake Garda.

Lake Garda is the largest of the lakes in Italy being over 50km long at up to 17 kilometres wide. Although it's a really popular tourist hotspot, assuming you don't go in the height of August, there is plenty of room to enjoy the lake and to find a pitch on numerous campsites that actually border the lake.

More information on Lake Garda can be found at:
http://www.visitgarda.com/en/lake-garda-data/?s=313

We can recommend either of these campsites close to the town and train station and on the shores of the lake: www.campingdelgarda.it/ and http://www.campingbutterfly.it/EN/Default.aspx