I find myself in a small (10 room) hotel in San Fedele Intelvi CO, Italy at 700 metres elevation just east of Lugano.

After a big hot transport stage it’s 6.15 pm. Just had a swim in their great pool ! I was very lucky as one guest left early €50 including breakfast however first time I’ve splashed out on this trip.

I rode the transport stage on the Autostrada as it was quickest (only around 10€ in tolls) to get here and at the end that tiny windy road besides lake Como that Liz and I drove a few years ago. Would have been easy to get distracted the views over the lake with ferries and surrounding high mountains were something else. The road is barely one vehicle wide and coaches were driving it! So when they met cars they had to reverse. I found myself getting overtaken by locals on scooters so when in Rome ...

Got pretty close (less than 5 km) to my destination aim of Menaggio and filled up with fuel. Looked for some hotels and they were pretty pretty pricey on Google. Realised that I had already ridden several km of the Italian TET going eastwards. Looked for budget hotels in the mountains and 15 km later voila here I am. TET Italy looks absolutely awesome and I’m right on the route here. So waiting for my room to be made up, having a quick swim in their pool, yes really. The host said would I like a drink ? can it get much better than this (but it did ... read on ...).

Will shower and walk into the small village for some traditional Italian food. I parked my baby out of sight and covered her in the new tarp, brought in all my valuables (they can have my smelly clothes). Did some washing in the sink so now the terrace outside my room looks like a Chinese laundry. Wow the room is amazing quality, bathroom crisp clean linen and a veranda with views Liz would love it.

After a short nap I dressed in my shorts and only semi clean T shirt for the five minute walk into town. Passing other run down hotels with paint peeling off the walls - I lucked in big time! Walking into the square past only Italian speaking tourists (yes very much off the tourist trail here...). I looked left and saw a small bar with a motorcycle logo Birra Mondo a small pub specialising in craft beers! and they serve pints ... 12 beers on tap - life can’t get much better...

This morning I awoke around 7 am at the beautiful majestic campsite beside Lago Maggiore the meditative sound of the small waves hitting the rocky shoreline.
The sun was rising over the mountains the other side of the lake so I strolled the 15 metres to take some pictures and video it was simply stunning.
Bit of a noisy camp site last night with karaoke music until the early hours, and a few screaming snotties - Moto ear plugs worked well. I eventually had to get out of the tent around 8 as the tent was like a sauna. Went for a swim in the chilly freshwater lake and as I was standing there I could feel a tingling sensation lots of small fish were nibbling the dead skin off my legs! who needs to go to Vietnam! Then took a nice stroll into town to buy some breakfast. Decided I should back up by pics and video and download the Italy TET to my new Garmin Motorcycle GPS so I now have two forms of navigation. After meeting a rider at HU Switzerland who had just completed the TET Italy he said you need the app.
Really looking forward to tomorrow the real TET starts - all my gadgets are charged and I resisted the strong urge to go back for a third pint as I will need to be on form tomorrow to ride the TET Italy going south west to the Mediterranean.