Barcelona - Genoa - Bormio

For simplicity, I will summarize the last two days: on Wednesday, we boarded the ferry to Genoa with a two-hour delay. There was a demonstration in Barcelona (I have no idea who was involved) and the traffic was correspondingly chaotic. Although my hotel was only five minutes from the ferry port, it took almost 30 minutes to get there.

The rest was as uneventful as usual. There were an incredible number of motorcyclists on board, of all nationalities.

The GNV ferry was probably an older model, vibrations were mostly felt in the cabin, and the walls transmitted the noise. The food and even the espresso (which is unusual for an Italian ferry company) were rather mediocre. And the internet pass for 14 euros (2 GB) could not be used after 400kB of data consumption. A staff member's comment: 'Your problem.' The risk of repetition is therefore manageable, but that's how it goes when there is no competition.

On Thursday, we quickly left the ferry around 10:30 am and took the well-known winding highway from Genoa through the surrounding mountains into the Po Valley. I also quickly crossed this expansive piece of landscape; the temperatures had already climbed back up to 33 degrees, with a rising trend.

Once around Milan (36 degrees), then towards Brescia and Lake Iseo. Along this, with beautiful weather. I find it baffling how two vehicles on the shore road managed to collide in such a way that one ended up on its side. The result was, of course, a well-maintained, kilometer-long traffic jam. But as a motorcyclist, you simply follow the tow truck to the accident site. As soon as one lane was cleared, all the waiting motorcyclists could pass. The Italian police are definitely more relaxed than ours.

And then, in the end, I rode a pass I didn’t know; the Mortirolo. In Scotland, they would call the road a 'Single Track' because two cars cannot pass each other. Accordingly, you should approach this road with caution and restraint due to the lack of visibility in right turns. However, I was rewarded with wonderful views and more than pleasant temperatures.

On the descent from the Mortirolo, the next traffic jam: a broken-down 24-ton truck with a tow truck of the same size crawling down the pass at a snail's pace. On a straight stretch, I could barely pass by, and I think they took at least three more hours to get down (what this truck was doing on the mountain, on a mountain road with switchbacks, where hardly any car can get through quickly, is completely beyond me).

Arrival at 5:30 pm in Bormio, to finish off there was delicious pizza and two beers!