The European Chronicles 2022.12. Back To Italia!

August 20, 2022

The European Chronicles 2022.12. Back To Italia!

Heading to Lago di Como - Slowly

It was time to work my way to Casa Olea on Lago di Como, but I'm in no rush. Leaving Austria, I've got a nice route planned over a couple of passes, ending in Arte Terme, Italy.

A nice ride; what I should have done was add the Nockalmstrasse again, but in the other direction...a missed opportunity, duh. Next time.

But before I leave Austria, I have to tell you the story of Maria Himmelfahrt.

When I returned from the Nockalmstrasse loop, the hotel front desk clerk told me that the restaurant would be closed that evening "for a celebration." No problem, thanks for letting me know. Shower, change, stroll into town...thought I'd pick up some wine/cheese/snacks at the local Billa, a grocery store. Closed. Everything else in town closed too...this is a Monday evening. WTF?

At breakfast the next morning, I ask the waitress if yesterday was an Austrian holiday, and is that why the restaurant, the Billa and everything else was closed. "Yes, for Maria Himmelfahrt."

I'll jump in, "who's that?" I ask.

"The mother of Jesus."

Oops.

When she returns, I apologize if I've offended her in any way, and explain that I'm not religious. She laughs and says, "neither am I, but I do like the day off!" 15 August, that's the day, a national holiday in Austria. Now you know.

Maria Himmelfahrt

Stumbled upon a couple of parasails coming down, managed to catch one on video.

Crossed into Italia at Passo Monte Croce Carnico

That's Mia up ahead on the right. Behind me is this windmill.

The border also has a large marble marker.

Here:

After you come down the pass...

....there's a wooden serpent sculpture on the side of the road.

Reminded me of Borrego Springs, but I think Ginger got the better of this one...

Still pretty cool.

The Hotel Alla Fonte which, for some reason, TomTom has about 1500 meters down the road. Pretty good restaurant and just completed covered Moto parking.

Mia is quickly joined by her ten new best friends.

Mostly Germans heading back to north of Frankfurt...and were similarly unimpressed with Vrsic. "Shit road" was the comment I remember. 😂

The next day is bright, sunny and beautiful; I've got a "small roads" loop ride planned. Gear up, mount the TomTom, fire Mia up...all my routes are gone. My "places" are there, but the routes...gone, including today's ride. They were there last night.

Back to the hotel's wifi, log out, log in, reboot, rebuild the route...nothing. I can't get any route to sync from the MyDrive portal to the device itself. After about 30 minutes of cursing, I try the "send stops" option, where only the waypoints are sent to the device...that works instantly. That will do for today's ride, but I can see a frustrating evening ahead. Back to the bike...

The above is here:

Very few places to pull over for a photo...these are 2-way roads...so here's a google street view.

Eventually, things open up, Sella di Rioda

Back at the hotel, India's contribution to an international gathering.

And I swear, KTMs (those orange bikes) are beaten with an ugly stick, hard. Can't even post a photo...bleagh.

The view from my room, this house has a rooster. Yup.

Whole loop:

Turn my attention to the TomTom. After futzing around rebooting, having a spritz, signing in and out again, decide to bite the bullet and do a "factory reset" which will delete all my saved points of interest...hotels, passes, "stuff," and "cannot be undone" which comes up on the screen in big, red letters. One, two, three, Do It!

Sign back into MyDrive and, boom, everything is there again. Europe map loads right up. Bluetooth the phone and my headphone dongle, all good. Build a new route and that syncs up immediately. No idea, but glad it is working again.

The rooster wakes me to impending storms, this rolls in over breakfast, replete with thunder and lightning.

7:37 am

Exactly six minutes later.

Think I'll have another cappuccino.

Starts to clear in about an hour, and it is actually a very pleasant morning...for a little while. Several more storms fire up, and I'm basically stuck in them, moving from rain to effing pouring.

Seeking shelter and a coffee at Hotel Argentina, like everyone else that was planning to be outside.

Just rode thru the red. Ugh.

Lots of cloud drama.

Passo Falzarego

Passo Fedaia-Marmolada

Unfortunately, it was in and out of heavy rain all the way to Hotel Ideal Park in Laives, just south of Bolzano.

Underground parking, it was nice to off load Mia in the dry.

By the time I got checked in and everything up to the room, the storm had passed by.

One reason was because I spent about 20 minutes talking to the couple that owned the white VW Id4 parked next to Mia.

They are from Norway, where EVs now outsell ICE vehicles, and love it. See the panel on the post? That's a charging station provided by the hotel. In fact, the TomTom now shows charging points and I had to turn that feature off here in Europe because there are so many; it causes "map clutter." Virtually all the hotels I've stayed at have had multiple charge points, readily accessible. With easy overnight charging and the shorter distances in Europe, range really isn't an issue. Traveling with an EV here would be easy, in contrast to the US west, which requires you to stay only on interstates, at least with the current infrastructure.

This hotel is the Thomas' English Muffin of hotels, nooks and crannies everywhere. There are multiple underground levels, lots of elevators and stairways, and "half levels." Great, interesting use of space.

Of course,