A Short Drive from Tirano to Bellano

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After yesterday’s exciting drive over the Stelvio Pass you could consider today’s short drive boring. We are not expecting anything amazing but we need to get to Bellano for three nights of relaxation on Lake Como. Checking out the various routes we could take it was tempting to go via the Bernina Pass, St Moritz and the Maloja Pass. We have done that before. So the short route it is.

We leave the key under the red carpet, feeling the eyes of a hundred grandmothers watching us, leave a thank you text for Jessica and head away. We stop briefly at a Lidl supermarket but the car park is full so we carry on. We’ll find some lunch somewhere else.

The drive through to Sondrio is pleasant enough with many apple orchards on the flat and grapes growing up the northern hillsides of the valley. Sondrio is the main Centre in this valley so we stop for a coffee and a walk about. We make a brief stop at the information Centre where three students are using their holiday time interacting with tourists like us. They are really pleasant and informative. They refuse our offer of talking to someone about getting paid for their work. They have obviously volunteered to work through their holidays. Perhaps their reward is a chance to learn a second language. A friendly lady sold us some panini breads in a panificio. She carefully cut them so we could add our own fillings later.

Finding a shady spot for lunch was our next challenge. Fortunately it is lunch time and car parks tend to empty out. We find a spot under a tree, and with the air conditioner on, we enjoy a fresh panini in the comfort of our car. The peaches are pretty good as well. Why can’t we get peaches this good from our supermarket in an area where they are being grown by the hectares?

Time to move on. Not far down the road we discover a new retail centre with an underground car park. Perfect. A chance to use the facilities, check out the latest in home wares, and fill the grocery bag for our next three days. We’ve decided we need a new kettle, a coffee machine, special tongs for meat and pasta, the list goes on and on. Just as well we have an extra 10 kg each in baggage allowance. Amazing how time goes when you are having fun. We need to move on.

The drive towards the head of Lake Como takes us across flat land covered in blueberries. Wouldn’t it be nice to stop, pick, and eat. We take the quick way to Bellano on a highway above the lake. For about 20 kilometres we get brief glimpses of the lake as we go from one tunnel to the next. As we emerge from one long tunnel there is a quick turn off to Bellano before the road disappears into the next tunnel. We wind our way down the zig zag road to the town on the lakeside. We have about 30 minutes to spare so time for a gelato. This shop could be our favourite over the next few days.

A quick phone call to our hostess and time to drive to our apartment. The surprises begin. First we need to drive up the hill. Nineteen tight hairpin bends later we arrive at our destination high in the hills above Bellano. Just as well we had a practice drive yesterday. We are met by a bubbly, very friendly woman, Paola. Our car is okay where it is but we need to move it to a location by the church after we unpack. We are taken into a small hamlet of buildings stuck to a rocky ledge, a bit like our house in Alexandra, NZ. The buildings are very old. We enter our building, climb some very old steps, walk along a hallway that is bricked like the old village roads and into the apartment. Our mouths drop. We need to sit a moment. What an incredible sight. Here in this centuries old building is the most modern looking apartment. We are in heaven. Our hostess produces a bottle of chilled wine for later. We are shown the pantry to be used and in the fridge a bowl of the nicest, biggest, juiciest blueberries. Yum!

We settle in for the night. It would be too much effort to drive back down the hill for a meal. We look at our meagre supplies and decide we have enough for a light meal tonight. We need to plan our days so there is only one return trip down the hill to the town below. The evening is hot, the AC is cool, and the beer is wet. What a pleasant way to spend the evening. Tomorrow we have a boat trip planned.

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Photos

Sondrio
Town centre

Bellano
Lake Como waterfront.