And the time moves on ... part 3

The autostrada bridge collapse in Genoa earlier this year had necessitated a change of plan, but fortuitously I had been reading and watching 'The History of Ireland' and was aware of the role of St Columbanus, who set up a monastery in Bobbio and we had managed to book two nights in the Piacentino in Bobbio itself. As we left France, P told me that I needed to have dipped headlamps on while driving in Italy, but I found the tft screen unreadable which was a problem (and the driver's handbook didn't help; it was only back in the UK that I found the screen brightness adjustment wheel!), so keeping to the speed limit was tricky. It was a bit of struggle getting to Bobbio once we left the autostrada as the signs were not helpful and the only map I had was too small scale to be much help in understanding the size of towns. We finally started crossing Monte Penice near Bobbio and found ourselves amongst dozens of motorcyclists and when we arrived at the town square where the hotel was, it was full of motorcycles. We only found out later that St Columbanus is considered by some to be the patron saint of motorcyclists!

Ponte Vecchio with the Cathedral beyond

The hotel was fine 'though and we were able to leave the car in an enclosed courtyard. The owners did not speak English and Pauline found her Italian was not really good enough yet, but French was a good compromise.The hotel room was nice and old-fashioned and the food was really tasty without being pretentious - just what we had been hoping for but not had earlier in the trip. A local speciality, maccheroni alla bobbiense, is a fond memory. We also had coppa, which reminded us of Corsica. The town itself is charming, from the Ponte Vecchio to the Cathedral and the Abbey. We spent a very pleasant Sunday in the town and could have stayed on, except the South Tyrol called and on Monday morning we left after posting cards.

The basilica of San Colombano

We had the first rain on the way to San Leonardo in Passiria and were running a little short on fuel as we started climbing towards the Jaufen Pass and found the hotel Jägerhof. The South Tyrol is one of the wealthiest regions in the whole EU. It is very picturesque and almost exclusively German speaking, which was no help to P wanting to practice her beginner's Italian! While I slept after the drive P experienced a 'wellness' session which is very popular in the region.

The Jaufen Pass, looking West

Although the hotel was very nice, I did have digestion problems the following day which we put down to my, possibly over-adventurous, choice of  calves head and spinach strudel as a starter the night before. P later also had a stomach upset and that continued for a couple of days, so it was more likely to have been an infective gastroenteritis bug. We had travelled from 20+C to 0C and that may have also had an effect. The next morning, running low on fuel, we were just before the Brenner Pass services when for some unknown reason P directed me off the autostrada. We were able to get back and found fuel just over the border in Austria. Having previously refueled at Vaison La Romaine, we had driven something like 900 Km on a single tank. Austria came and went as we were heading towards Ulm in Germany. That is in part 4.