Pizza, Pasta and Pisa- All roads lead to Roma

We have made it across the grand mountains of the European Alps and are now in Italy. Though we did suffer some delays because our brakes shoes needed replacing. We were very lucky we discovered this problem before we started up the steep mountain roads and we easily found a mechanic who fixed our brakes early the next morning. The night before we stayed in a Aire near some hot springs. It was a nice spot with a playground and while we were there we went for a walk in the woods. We also saw a humming bird pollinating pink flowers while we dropped helicopter seeds off a bridge and watched them spin down and land in the stream water below.


While we waited for the repair to be done we visited a cheese factory owned and run a local cheese Co-operative. At the factory we got to see the cheese room from a raised balcony. Using the large shiny equipment they made a large 45kg hard cheese like a Dutch Gouda but called Beaufort, named after the region. They had 5 tubs for curding the milk, each could hold 500 litres. The also had a lift just for stacking the freshly made cheeses into the pressing racks. After watching and guessing how the cheese was made watched a movie ‘Secrets of the Mountains’ and we learned about the milking and cows, which are kept in barns for the winter and in the summer they are looked after by shepherds high up on the mountains slopes. While they are up there they get milked by a small portable milking sheds.

The repairs went smoothly and we got our camper and drove towards Italy. We stopped for lunch a at an empty picnic spot on a river and finally did an oil change after many attempts.

With the brakes fixed we were ready to head over to Italy. We didn’t want to take the 11 km tunnel under Mt Blanc and skip out all the beautiful mountain vistas. We had to drive slowly up the switchbacks and stop often. That night we stayed at the same height as Mt. Ruapheu. We built a stone hut and slid down the steep rock bank. Because we were up so high it was a cold night but it began with a flaming red sunset. The next day we crossed the border to Italy. We were very slow coming down the other side of the pass. We drove through the Aosta valley and there were lots of old forts and castles of the hillsides.

The farmers drive little three-wheeled trucks around and none of the cars stop at a pedistrian and think they can drive on the left and right. The had to take the windy small roads and went through lots and lots of tunnels. The toll roads go straight over the valleys and under the hills.

Our first night in Italy was down of the mountains in a small town. It was very smoggy and the drivers are crazy. The next day we stayed at Menaggio, Lake Como. We walked along the lake to the tourist office and town square, it was a beautiful clear lake but it was hard to see the hillside towns on the other side of the lake because of the smog.
 
Ps- Mum Titled this one and Pictures Soon