Failed trip to Passo Maniva

Autumn is very pretty at the moment.

We have had quite a few days of heavy rain lately. Last night we went for a pizza with some friends and could see that the rain had fallen as snow on the mountains surrounding Ponte Caffaro. The near full moon and clear skies shining on the snow suggested that we were in top of a massive cake which had been iced by a heavy handed baker.

After mopping the floors and other tedious stuff we quite liked the idea of looking at the snow in a more intimate setting. To satisfy this need we set off for Passo Maniva. Having crossed the pass in full sun last August, seeing it in snow today seemed like a wizard wheeze.

The road from Ponte Caffaro to Bagolino was clear of snow so we felt that we might pull it off. The sign to Passo Croci Domini suggested that that pass was closed but no mention of Passo Maniva. As we climbed upwards we were delighted to see the snow on the trees and on the mountain tops. Yes, there was a little snow on the road but nothing to bother intrepid souls like us.

The road to Passo Maniva is quite narrow and has hairpin bends and some hairy drops. The snow plough had been quite effective up to a point but, rather foolishly, we didn’t stop where the snow plough had stopped. In fact we arrived at the conclusion that turning back was not an option any more, things were not looking too good really. Just below the pass we did find a place where we could turn around, admittedly by turning the steering wheel to full lock and flooring the throttle to rotate. Even so the snow did look fabulous.

When collecting the logs from the cantina to light the fire one of our neighbours told me that we were mentioned on prime time national TV last night. There is a  quiz programme called L’eredita which has a true/false round in it, the contestant thought that the idea of walking to Italy from the UK was so bonkers that it must be false.