1996 - Northern Italy
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| 1996 - Northern Italy
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 Introduction Places to Visit Timeframe Transportation Planning Itinerary Lodging |
The two of us in a rental car touring the north of Italy from the southern Riviera to the Alps. Levanto (and the Cinque Terre), Bilbao (Lucca), Torri di Benaco (Garda Lake), Vigiljoch (Alps), Merano, and Schoengrund, in the Appenzell area of Switzerland. October. This was a working holiday, as we went to Merano to gather information for the beginnings of this web site.
Italy: Levanto (and the Cinque Terre), Bilbao (Lucca), Torri di Benaco (Garda Lake), Italian Alps (Vigiljoch and Merano).
Switzerland: Schoengrund (Appenzell area).
We went in October. It was rainy a lot of the time, but there were some beautiful days as well. We even had a little snow in the mountains of Italy. It was gorgeous. Other than when it was snowing, the temperature ranged from cool to comfortable.
We flew into Zürich as we have in the past and picked up our rental car there (it being MUCH less expensive to rent a car in Switzerland than in Italy. At least at the time of our trip, the rental agencies required you to buy extra insurance if you rent in Italy, on top of higher rental rates.) We then drove down through the now-familiar St. Gotthard pass and into Italy, driving all the way to our first stop at Levanto on the southern end of the Riviera. On our return we drove back to Switzerland, staying our last night in the Appenzell region, not too far from the Zürich airport where we returned our rental car and flew home.
We still like the places we find in the Charming Small Hotel Guides, and used this to find most of our lodgings.
Our hotel reservations were made by fax or over the telephone. A few places required a deposit but most of them said the reservation was enough to hold the room. None of them wanted a credit card to guarantee the room.
We booked our car reservation over the phone through Hertz, and paid for it in advance. This assured us of no rate fluctuations and we didn't have to worry about another bill at the end of the trip.
Day 1 Saturday: Arrived in Zürich and drove all the way down to Levanto, Italy, via the St. Gotthard pass. It was a long drive and we were tired when we arrived at our hotel, but we managed to stay awake for a nice dinner in town.
Days 2-3 Sunday - Monday: Southern Riviera. Spent a day walking around Levanto. The next day we walked to the train station for the short hop down to Corniglia, the middle of the 5 villages that make up the Cinque Terre. It was beginning to rain as we arrived and walked up the hundreds of steps to the top of the hill where the village sits. (We heard later that there is an elevator somewhere but we hadn't seen it.) By the time we reached the top it was pouring so we stopped for lunch in a nice little restaurant on the square. Then we hiked (in the internittant rain) to the next village north, Vernazza, where we met up with our friends Bill and Linda for dinner. The sky cleared up by the time we were ready to take the train back to Levanto. To read a story about the hike, click here.
Days 4-5, Tuesday - Wednesday: Bilbao (near Lucca) Drove to the small town of Bilbao just outside Lucca, where we foung the Villa Casanova, our destination for the next few nights. Visited the walled city of Lucca. It was nice, but having been to other walled towns, there was nothing really special to grab our interest. We decided to leave a day early and stop in Lake Garda on the way to Vigiljoch.
Day 6, Thursday: Lake Garda. After a beautiful drive through the Appenines, and a wonderful lunch in Abetone at the summit (porcini mushrooms were in season), we made our way to Lake Garda and searched for a place to stay. We found the Hotel Gardesana in Torre di Benaco. It was lovely and fit our budget so we took it. Had a lovely meal on the balcony overlooking the small harbor and a moonlight stroll down the lake shore. The next morning we had a great breakfast again on the balcony then took off for Vigiljoch and the Alps (but not before purchasing a wonderful leather belt at a local merchant - the Italian belts are superior to any purchased in the States - you can shorten them from the buckle end without anymore trouble than undoing a screw, cutting the leather, then replacing the screw, and the leather is first class).
Days 7-9, Friday - Sunday: Vigiljoch. We enjoyed the beautiful drive up the eastern shore of Lake Garda and through the mountains to Lana, where we left our car in the garage at the foot of the funivia and were whisked up the mountain in the late afternoon. We spent the next two days hiking through the mountains on the wonderful network of alpine footpaths.
Days 10-14, Monday - Friday: Merano. This was the working part of our working vacation. We spent several days at Gapp Touristik in Lana, getting them connected to the Internet and collecting information for the start of this web site. I took a day trip into Bolzano on the train to visit the Tourist Information Office and came back with a number of brochures and leaflets. Les got a bad sinus infection and had a an interesting adventure with the Italian health care system.
Day 15, Saturday: Schoengrund. After a prolonged lunch we managed eventually to get away from the Graf and Paul for the drive to Switzerland, via Austria. It was a lovely but long drive and it was after dark when we finally arrived. We had a late supper, chatted with our host a little, then went to bed. The next morning we went down to a sumptuous feast of a breakfast (being Sunday they had a special spread), then were on our way to the airport for our flight home. When we went out to our car we were struck with the beauty of the valley, having arrived in the dark. This is definitely a place we plan to return to. (We are returning in 2004 - stay tuned for more!)
Lodging
A Portafortuna star () denotes a hotel we've stayed at before.
| Levanto Hotel Nazionale | Nice small hotel in this busy Riviera town. The people here were very nice, the food was excellent and you could walk to the sea and the train station. Would we stay here again? Yes | Tel +39 0187.80.81.02 Fax +39 0187.80.09.01 |
| Bilbao (Lucca) Villa Casanova | Old villa in the countryside outside Lucca. The food was pretty bad and the beds were terrible, but the people were friendly and we found a great pizzeria nearby. Would we stay here again? No |  |
| Torri di Benaco (Garda Lake) Hotel Gardesana | Lovely medium-sized hotel right on the lake. It has a nice restaurant with good food and a balcony overlooking the harbor. Would we stay here again? Yes | Tel. +39 045.722.54.11 Fax +39 045.722.57.71 |
| Lana/VigiljochHotel Vigiljoch*** | This fantastic mountain inn accessible only by cable car has, alas, closed its doors as of November, 1999. This was our fourth time to stay here. Would we stay here again? Definitely (if we could) | |
| MeranoHotel Graf von Meran*** | Very nice town hotel in historic building with a friendly staff and good food. Would we stay here again? Definitely | Tel: +39 0473.564.350 Fax: +39 0473.561.410 |
| Schoengrund Hotel Kröne (website is in German) | Cozy mountain inn with a lively restaurant, good food and a fantastic Sunday breakfast/brunch. Would we stay here again? Definitely | Tel: +41 71-361-1166 Fax: +41 71-361-1161 |
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Last modified: 04/08/2004 08:29:02 PM
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