My Stelvio Trip Report!

3ps

Posted this elsewhere so you might have seen it already....

Here is a trip report of my recent trip to Stelvio/Venice/Lake Garda.



First of all it was my 10th wedding anniversery and my wife always wanted to go somewhere in Italy and I wanted to do Stelvio... so.... it seemed like a good thing to do!



I wasn't keen on fly/drive with an Italian rental when I had my own car so decided to drive there. Needless to say we were short the 2 sprogs for this trip



First port of call was Holyhead, using the Port Tunnel to avoid early rush hour traffic and then Irish Ferries to Holyhead, naturally treating m wife to Club Class seats for that touch of luxury (OK OK we just wanted to grab some snacks!).







I didn't want to put myself or the car under too much pressure on the trip even though I was pretty sure everything was in order, so I decided to stay at a hotel near Dover so I could take my time getting down. I also decided to take the more scenic route through Wales but it was drizzling which ruined it a bit I suppose. Also did a slight detour into Croydon, mate.







Just stayed in a Travelodge, got half price rooms and they are handy when you just want a pillow.



My wife was very nervous about taking the Alfa but it performed flawlessly!



Very early start then to get to Dover:







and on towards Dusseldorf to put the car on an autotrain! (www.dbautozug.de).



Found it no bother and the Germans were typically efficient at processing us and getting me to sign existing damage forms so I couldn't blame them for anything!













OK the first flaw in my extensive planning became apparant here when we discovered we had to share a sleeper cabin!! This is a big no-no for me and I was not pleased. I don't recall it being obvious when I made the booking that you had to share, or that you could buy out the cabin but apparantly that's the way it works. Anyway it was a Dutch lady and her 9 year old son so things weren't too bad and we managed! The train left at about 6pm and was due to arrive in Verona at about 11am the next day. Perfect!







Unloaded to car (to some fanfare) in Verona and started to make our way to Venice. I used to autostrada and the area seemed fairly built up up to me, not what I was expecting. I think we paid €15 in a toll too.







Arriving in Venice was a great relief as the car had made it without issue!!!



One of my main concerns in planning the trip was where to leave the car while at hotels etc. There are obviously large carparks on Venice as you can't drive around it so I booked my into a VIP area for €25/day which isn't too bad. On arrival I pulled into a lane and, as instructed by email, buzzed for assistance. They told me I was in the wrong lane.... gee sorry... and I explained VIP to them and they said somebody would come down. I waited for them for a few mins, shuffling my position around a bit to stop the locals from screaming at me that I was in their way and nobody came. Sent my wife on a recon mission and she found nobody. She pressed the buzzer again and nobody answered. So I just took a ticket and went in and parked as per normal and went to find them. I did eventally and they didn't seem to know anything about me but found my reservation so I eventually got my space. It was just some spaces behind some large grills/gates but nobody could get at the car and teh grills were padlocked so I felt OK about it.



Venice was cool and well worth the trip but you can search the web for tourism info..... We stayed in nice places in general so if anybody wants hotel info etc just contact me.

3ps

Now for the most important part of the trip....Venice to Stelvio

It is about 4 hours drive up to Stelvio so I decided to drive to the base of Stelvio, Prato allo Stelvio, and spend the night there and tackle the pass the next morning.



Stayed in a nice hotel with excellent dinner. Highly recommended.

Car at the hotel:



On the way up I noticed a signpost with the passes and whether open or closed and it listed Stelvio as Open. But then I saw 3 more and it was Closed! Next morning the hotel staff said it was closed!!! ALL THIS WAY FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, there was a chance it would open so I headed on up towards it but no go, blocked. My GPS had died and I had no paper maps on me so I drove around some other mountain roads for a while, then picked up a map and worked out a new route. As marked in red below I backtracked back to Prato allo Stelvio, and up east and north, into Switzerland and up the Umbrail Pass on the other side of Stelvio. This pass was gravelly in places but was perfectly fine.

3ps

From here we got to the top of Stelvio and then down towards Bormio as originally planned.

3ps

From Bormio is was down to Lake Garda for the second leg of the holiday.



This road took alot longer than I thought and I was getting tired, what with having driven around mountain passes all morning!

Also I checked the oil level and it was quite low. I managed to find a garage selling 20/50 mineral and it took quite a bit and I had to keep an eye on it for the rest of the trip.

I had my first real encounter with friendly car fanatics on this leg. We were overtaken by 4 men in a late 80's/ early 90's Merc 500SEL (I think) and the beeped at me, in a friendly way. Their overtaking could have been described as highly dangerous as it was a twisty mountain road but perhaps they are more used to it.

Anwyay, we got stuck a mile or so up the road as two trucks couldnt get passed each other on a bend I had stopped shuffling my position in case I rolled down a cliff and they got out and came over. One guy leaned in and we "conversed" He was wondering if it was a "due litre" to which I replied "no" 1.6 showing 6 on my fingers. He shouted this up to a friend was not impressed and was pointing at the front of my car and indicating disapproval. Anyway we "talked" a bit more and it became clear to me that he was pointing at my dual headlamps. The Junior generally had single headlamps but at the end of the production run it was unified with the GTV styling and had dual. The man up front thought I had a 1.6 with GTV styling which was sacrilige. He obviously didn't realise it was correct. The guy leanign into the car then shouts out "unifacato unifacato!!??" to me which was the term for the unified construction and I nodded yes and he shouted to his friend and all was well again.


Finally, finally got to Desenzano del Garda on the south shore and got the car parked, but it wasn't under cover, but no rain was forecast so no matter. Desenzano was nice and busy which is good for watching the world go by. We didn't like the hotel so I moved us to a much nicer one with covered parking too Did a few boat trips to other towns and also had this to play with for a while:



Only 40HP as I don't have a licence but it could still move!

On the last day of the holiday I did the tour of the lake:

3ps

and then back to Verona to catch the train and do it all in reverse!

Met a nice Norwegian couple in a 2005 Morgan V6 and we have swopped details as we were planning on Norway for a holiday and they were planning on Ireland

Didn't have to share a cabin on the way back as it was lowish season in that direction.

No issues all the way back but got a text from Irish Ferries bringing our boat forward from 1700 to 1400.... bugger as we had to get up at 0530 in Dover!!

Drove for about 2.5 hours and were just south of Birmingham at 0800 so pulled in for some lunch. Got back to the car and I noticed a puddle under the engine. Oh crrrrraaaaaapppp not now...... Wasn't too panicked as the bulk of the holiday was over.

Got a tissue and tested the puddle.... definately coolant.

Traced it to a very bloated and soft coolant hose... the jubilee clip had eaten into it and split it and there was no way I could drive on it. I just took off the pipe and cut the end off and luckily it could still reach. I tightened it enough to keep it on but not such much to rip it again. Bought some coolant in the service area and we were off again

About 20 mins later I was in the middle lane when I noticed that my fan was on. I had installed a red warning light to show me whenever it came on. It rarely comes on except in traffic jams so I thought it was odd. Looked at the temp gauge... HOLY CRAP. Emergency pull over into the hard shoulder. BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER.

Traffiic was mental and it was a narrowish hard shoulder and I couldn't get ut for 3-4 mins. Eventually opened the bonnet and there was coolant EVERYWHERE




The pipe had split again so I gave up and rang the AA. Yer man didn't have a clue. I hope it was his first day on the job.

I found a motorway sign indicating where I was but he rang me back as it wasn't enough for him. I didn't have a clue where I was "I'm on the M6 just after Birmingham. I didn't take the M6 Toll" that was it. Eventually my wife had the brilliant idea of using the video camera to zoom into a sign in the distance and we could make out it was "Exit 7 Walsall". Even this wasn't enough for him and he was asking me did I think I was "about 8 miles from Walsall"...... ????? "I don't have a bloody clue how far Walsall is all I can see is 3 lanes of fast moving traffic and I want out!!!!!!!!!!!"

To their credit they arrived promptly and he had spare hose and clips!!! he cleaned the area a bit and topped it up, made sure there were no airlocks too and we were off!!!! YIPPEEEE

We had no way to get to the boat on time so I just reschedule for the next day and headed for Chester for the afternoon. Then on to Bangor for the Travelodge which was full so back toward LLandudno and we stayed in a very nice new Spa hotel. Painless ferry home the next day.



Well that's it. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and if anybody has any specific Q's just ask here on by PM. In summary, yes you could do a fly/drive for ALOT less but this is the way I wanted to do it and it worked out well. No regrets!

carchaeologist

Nicely done!!An inspiation to others i think!!Nice to see the 76D reg so far from home!!:D

MercMad

Q. What did you use to mop up the coolant from the roadside ??

Dades

Great report!

Does the Alfa's cabon heat up much, or does the cool blower work at all?
Since you've told us you had a video camera we want actual footage (of the car, that is )!

3ps

I am reliably informed that the heater in this model Alfa is the bee's knees, when it works. I flushed my system and spent a not small sum having a new heater valve installed only to find that my heater matrix is clogged, so I have no heat!

The cool blower obviously just blows air and when driving in Italy in 35degree heat you generally just have the windows down!

I do not have much video footage from inside the car and if I do have some it has my wife's commentary and she probably doesn't want it all over the net

unkel

Enjoyed reading your trip report - and the junior looks great!

b.c

congrats on the trip alfas are a good car despite the rumours youre old 205 is still goin strong im planning a road trip although only as far as london at christmas
cheers

3ps

Hi b.c. I was only wondering about the 205 the other day. I assume no work has been needed on the brakes! I knew it was a good car!

It's wierd, two weeks ago somebody posted about their new 1972 merc on here and it was my old car, on Sunday I saw my old W123 merc estate, and today you talk about my old 205!

RobAMerc

3ps - Your trip report is beautifully written and an inspiration.

I particularly liked the story about the truckers - only in Italy!

MercMad

Yes it sounds like a terrific trip for a petrolhead. Glad the car went well, any idea how much mileage you did and how much fuel you used ?

3ps

I did nearly exactly 3000km which is 1875miles.

If I hadn't used the autotrain I would have done 5000kms which is 3125miles so it saved me 1250miles and probably 4 days.

Fuel, well I got my wife to record the mileage and fuel cost etc for most of the trip but I can't find the paper. I think on longer runs I was getting 33-34mpg which is me cruising at 100-110kph. I occassionally did 130 or a bit higher and it was fine but I didn't want to risk things for any prolonged length of time

skibum

Great report, would love to do something similar. Roughly how much did it set you back?

3ps

It cost quite alot, I'll PM you.

But then again... I'm not one for 2* hotels etc.
Anyway it was a 10th wedding anniversery and I wasn't scrimping and saving.

MercMad

3ps wrote: »

It cost quite alot, I'll PM you.

But then again... I'm not one for 2* hotels etc.
Anyway it was a 10th wedding anniversery and I wasn't scrimping and saving.

..........it was a trip of a lifetime, great way to recall your 10th anniversary.

Went went to Spain on a pubcrawl for 4 days for ours and now we cant remember a damn thing about it !!! It was only last May ! :eek:

unkel

3ps wrote: »

it was a 10th wedding anniversery and I wasn't scrimping and saving.

Well fair play to you. Life is short and then you die. I bet you will never regret having spent a few bob on this trip

jozi

Great write up and by the sound of it a unforgettably great trip!

Enjoyed reading it, nice touch with all the maps showing the route!

Arthur Daley

A nice tale. Your Alfa looks the part against that great Italian backdrop.

Maybe next time you'll take it down the Amalfi coast from Napoli.:D

TigerTim

Well done, 3PS. Great trip & great report. No better place to take the Alfa than Italy.

Don't think I'll chance a drive to Japan with the MR2!!!!!.

Well Done,

T.