Stresa

Stresa We left Grenoble at the spritely hour of 7 and started our long journey to Stresa, Italy. After changing st Cambrey we were put on to a bus to Torino (Turin ) which was a bit stressful as we were worried about our bikes, but they had room under the bus and the 3 hour journey went pretty quickly. As soon as you cross the boarder it is as in drivers hands become automatically attatched to the car horn. It brought a smile to my face. At Torino we boarded the first of our three Italian trains to get to Stresa. When we changed at Santhia we were on a one carriage local train, it was a bit of a squash. Then at Arona we had to run with the bike bags and back packs up and down stairs to catch the final train of the day which was pulling into the station. I was looking forward to Stresa so much. 10 years ago I stayed in a town about 10kms away for a few months and fell in love with Stresa. It is situated just over an hour north of Milan, on the shores of Lago Maggorie (major lake). It is also at the base of Mottarone, a small ski fields. Stresa also has three Islands near by with Isola Bella being famous for its gardens. Baz fell in love with its beauty straight away and it was great having a room with a lake view. The cobbled streets are narrow and basically free of cars. It's outside dining is spectacular and plenty of pizza and Gelato to be had. It was great to be in a familiar place and on the second morning I took Baz out on a gentle ride around some of valley's (kept him away from the hills). It brought back some good memories but I was also filled with a bit of regret that I didn't make the most of the opportunities I had back then. The next day I set out to tackle Mottarone. For one reason or another I never got around to doing the whole climb last time I was here, I had been through the villages on the lower slopes on both sides but never to the summit. It is a 21km climb and the last 5kms are pretty tough. There was also one section there that was 20% and nearly went for a kilometer. The first 4kms of the climb are spectacular with the views of the islands and it is the reason i loved this place. I grinded my way up and got the reward of a spectacular view not only Lago Maggorie but another 6 lakes that are visible on a clear day. After a coffee I froze my arse off descending down, in fact I got some paper out of a dumpster at th start of the descent to throw down my top to break the wind. Later in the day Baz and I got the gondala back to the top and had lunch up there which was fantastic. Boris the Bear also loved the view. From the top you could see the Matterhorn. There was also a down hill toboggan ride up the top which was great. I must admit that by the time we got to the bottom in the Gondala I was over Americans. Every time I have been to the USA the people are great but, no offense, when you get them out of the country the whinge at everything. I was over hearing them whinge about things not being in English. For f#%k sake you are in Italy they don't have to put everything in English. Swallow a bag of cement people. Would hate to see them in some parts of Italy where English is almost non existent. Must say that I was vey sad when our time in Stresa came to an end.