We may or may not have left a lot of time to get to the airport given it was an international flight, but we made it just in time and again seated in premium economy, we were off to Milan! Bit sad to say goodbye to Norway as it had provided heaps of great times and memories, but looking forward to some warmer weather and seeing our friends. The male flight attendant was an old guy and hilarious – made the 2.5hr flight whizz by.
In Milan, we picked up our hire car – a convertible (Peugot 308) given it was going to be nice weather and off we went for about 1.5hrs to Brissago – just over the Swiss border. Now, I’ve driven in Romania where it’s crazy, so I wasn’t too concerned about the Italians and their driving, but still – I was surprised by how bloody fast they go!
On the motorway, the speed limit was 110km/h. After being flown by time and time again, I decided to up my speed to 120 – still they went by super fast. Up to 130 – same thing. I sat on 140km/h for a bit and still had the occasional driver go past (a couple of cars still flew by – have to be doing 180 or more) but ended up dropping back to 130km/h as that seemed the best mix of not going too fast but not creating potential issues by being too slow and in the way.
Once off the motorway, we went down the mountains to follow a rather tight road around Lake Maggiorre which is the lake we’re staying next to. The lake is huuuuuge and various small towns are well set up for holiday makers and so-on. On the other side of the road are enormous mountains where somehow, locals have built houses into. This makes for extreeeemely narrow roads and when you combine tight turns, buses and oncoming traffic, it gets quite hairy!
It was reasonably straight forward though – we found where Biddy & John were staying and were warmly welcomed with a delicious bottle of champagne and a great catch-up over some cheese and deli meats we brought with us. Was great to see them and the house we’re staying in is amazing! On the highside of the road on the top floor of an apartment building, we have an incredible view of the lake right to the other side, the mountains and everything in between. Very lucky!
So last night we ventured down to lake’s edge and found a cool restaurant for dinner. The owner was a top bloke and made us feel very welcome. We ate delicious pasta, one of which was wild boar that he had hunted himself from the forests, then a couple of shared delicious desserts whilst enjoying a couple of bottles of local red wine. Many laughs, many stories told – just a great night and very, very happy to be here!
