Glorious Gavia!

Wow, what a day! A super comfy bed enjoyed last night and a solo breakfast without any other guests visible in the hotel this morning! It was then over to the bike hire shop to collect my trusty friend for the next few days.

My plan was to get to the top of the snow covered Stelvio so off I spun. However I was thwarted roughly half way up when a policeman stopped me with a signal of a giant X with his hands meaning closed, stop! There's been a landslide which obviously has resulted in emergency roadworks. We muddled together a conversation with his limited English and my nonexistent Italian, and he confirmed it would remain this way until around June 15th!

I promptly retraced my steps and headed for the Gavia, something I also knew was snow covered! However, despite having to crawl under a road closed barrier, I made it to the top! The rain began around half way and it bucketed it good and proper. However, it stopped as I reached the summit which you could just about see behind the enormous walls of snow built by the ploughs. Immediately after the summit the snow hasn't been cleared and there's no way you're going anywhere!

I enjoyed the descent back down, grateful the roads had dried out quickly, and then decided I'd nip back up to the halfway point of the Stelvio to enjoy a drink and snack with a view. I stopped just before seeing my policeman friend again though!!!

And there you have, an unusually long and rambling blip. My apologies!!