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Day 22: If you look at a map and see how far we have travelled in one day, you might mistakenly think that we'd had a rather slack driving day... However, I'm on a honeymoon with Jeremy Clarkson, ahem, Ben Gainsford, who has been really looking forward to driving along the Stelvio Pass (à la Top Gear). Adding an extra 3.5 hours onto our journey, we set off for Stelvio at nearly 2800m (second highest pass in the Alps).
The drive to Stelvio National Park was beautiful, surrounded by mountains and punctuated by little Austrian influenced towns (and German road signs!) Soon we began the 15km ascent starting, slightly alarming, at turn 47. The road was narrow, the turns tight and the drop ever steeper (and more stunning). I'm so glad Ben was driving!! An hour later we reached the pass relieved (Jen) and excited like a small puppy (Ben). We celebrated with German beer and a Bratwurst and sauerkraut roll!
The descent had fewer tight turns but more tunnels and roads too narrow for two vehicles - although oncoming traffic showed no signs of slowing or giving way! We wound our way down - 37 turns in total - and proceeded to a local town to catch our breathe. No matter the time of day, even if everything else seems shut, we've discovered there's always one place open - a gelateria. This one was also a bar and heaving at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon!
I (Jen) took over the driving and we began our journey to Lake d'Iseo for our stay. Again, beautiful mountainous driving and then a stunning lake where we arrived in time to see the sun setting. Just outside Iseo, we reached our hotel - Relais Mirabella. I'm always a bit nervous when we arrive somewhere as I'm waiting for the dud hotel. This was not it! Views of the lake, bottle of bubbly and strawberries, swimming pool (forgotten about that!) and wonderful friendly staff. We had a delicious three course meal in the hotel's restaurant overlooking the lake (we had the best table in the place!) before a well deserved nights rest...
Thank you Maca and Eileen for this amazing place!
J&B xx
PS we forgot our thank yesterday for Villa Madruzzo in Trento - THANK YOU TOBY!! X
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