It was a very long, knee-jerking descent from the summit of Mottarone (1492m), and we were regretting not doing it the other way round, by hiking up and taking the ski lift and cable car down. The views of Lake Maggiore and distant Alps were awesome from the top, and what a great place to find a luge. It's a pity that it doesn't bring you all the way down, but that didn't stop us from queuing up with the kids and having a go. Great fun!

After spending a night in Como we crossed into the Piedmont region and headed for our second big lake, and another room with a balcony. No view of the lake this time though. This area is the playground of the rich, so you need to be able to afford an expensive car before you can even use the car parks at the waterfront hotels. I think we both prefer something more down to earth anyway, and would you believe that we have found the food to be rather disappointing around here. Maybe the decent stuff is only to be found in the top restaurants, or maybe we just chose badly; but either way, Germany wins hands down for food on this trip so far. Who'd have thought!

This is probably as good a point as any in this road trip to make a confession. Earlier this year I discovered that my car had some major mechanical problems and would probably need a new engine. Remembering the words of Neil Young, "better to burn out than to fade away", I turned a blind eye to this minor problem as we drove half way across the continent. So far so good; the only problem being the loss of a wheel trim, but I'd better follow that with a suitable expression like "touch wood", or my blog is in danger of turning into an episode of Top Gear as we attempt to make our way back home.

One more stop at the town of Cannobio towards the top of the lake (as seen in the picture), then back over the high passes of the Alps - fingers crossed!

Posted on 19th February 2015.