Stelvio and the Alps...

I arrived back in Milan Sunday afternoon after a 500 km ride back from Croatia.  I took the scenic route from Venice to Milan to avoid the high tolls on the A4 Autostrade.  It was a good choice as the route took me through dozens of vineyards and small towns.  I stopped for lunch and had one of the best pizzas of my life.  It was a prosciutto and mushroom with a perfectly baked crust.  I easily ate the whole pizza - it was delicious.  Since I had skipped breakfast and it was 2:30 in the afternoon I was good and hungry.

I was staying the night with Cristiano and Sabrina who we had met in Mongolia.  Ken and Marybeth came over for dinner and Sabrina cooked up a delicious meal. It was zucchini with a tomato basil sauce, Parmesan and a mozzarella like cheese that isn't mozzarella - but the name escapes me.  I hope I can find that cheese in the US as it really made the dish.  We also had some sparkling red wine that Cristiano and Sabrina happen to have 100 liters of - they are Italian after all.  You can never have too much wine!

On Monday morning Marybeth got on a plane back to the U.S. and Ken and I headed for the Italian Alps - Stelvio and Gavia passes to be exact.  They are both famous passes not to be missed on a motorcycle.  In fact when Ken and I were debating on going that route, Cristiano said we would be STUPID not to go.  The weather was forecasted to be ideal and he said we just need to DO IT - so we did and Cristiano was right.  We would have been stupid to miss these mountian passes.  They were spectacular.  We hit Gavia first and then Stelvio. At the bottom of Stelvio we were just a short distance from Switzerland where we ran some more incredible roads and passes. The Italian passes of Gavia and Stelvio were technical switchbacks where you couldn't get much speed - but the scenery was amazing.  In Switzerland the roads have sweeping turns and are perfectly smooth - lots of fun running at speed.  We got to a camp after dark after a 10 hour day behind the bars.  Tomorrow will be more Swiss alps and then into the French alps.  I hope the weather holds!

Top of Gavia.

Top of Stelvio looking down.

Snowy peak overlooking Stelvio.