Fangio is alive and everywhere on the Autostrade…

…into the Alps

18.01.2024 - 18.01.2024 4 °C

Today we are off to the ski slopes, to Selva di Val Gardena. It’s about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Milan, which we thought would be pretty easy, mostly freeways and “Autostrade” toll roads. First up though, we popped out for a quick breakfast at the place across the road before we finished packing up. Cameron’s wardrobe was decidedly more waterproof despite the weather being a lot better. Fuelled up, we finished packing all our bags and called a taxi to take us to the rental car office. As usual, it was a game of Tetris getting all the bags into the little VW station wagon that arrived, but we managed to squeeze ourselves and the bags in.

Waterproof wardrobe option today…

After a false start with the taxi driver putting the wrong address into her GPS, we arrived at the rental car office. Sean had booked an Audi A5 due to the luggage situation, however we were told that we had received an ‘upgrade’ to an Alfa Romeo Stevia. Said car was parked directly outside the office, and we could see it was clearly smaller than the Audi we had booked, so we asked for a ‘downgrade’ to our original Audi, but of course, there was no Audi available. So an even tighter game of Tetris ensued, and Sean and Cameron managed to get all the bags in while I sorted out all the paperwork. Luckily Cameron is at home with being crushed by baggage in cars, and we managed to switch the car language from Italian to English, got Apple CarPlay to work with the help of YouTube, plugged in the address of our apartment in Selva, so we were all good to go.

Sean elected to drive first, despite feeling very under the weather with what we suspect is conjunctivitis. Nevertheless off we went. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony of Dad telling me as a teenager “Never trust a man who drives an Alfa” as I looked over at Sean behind the wheel. Bit late for that now, I thought. I guess technically he had planned to drive an Audi so…

Would you trust this man?

Getting out of Milan was pretty easy and before long we were on to the Autostrade. The toll road system in Italy is weird and there are plenty of traps for the youngsters:
Trap #1: as you enter the toll road, you have to drive up to a ticket booth and take a ticket. This means you need to be well and truly close enough to the ticket booth to reach out and grab it. Neither Sean nor I managed this and had to half climb out the window to grab the ticket.
Trap #2: when you exit the toll road, you insert the ticket into the ticket booth machine, then pay the toll. Again, you need to be very close to the machine…which we both failed to do, see Trap #1 above.
Trap #3: “Carte” means card. Don’t accidentally go down the “cash” lane. That means you not only have to insert your ticket, but then you have to insert cash. Luckily a nameless genius (me) brought cash with us. Unfortunately said genius did not have exact change, which means the driver has to scramble to collect the change as the coins spit into the change tray in the ticket booth machine before the boom gate comes down. There was a lot of hanging out of the window. See Trap #1 above.

Weird ticket madness

Anyway, we got on and off the Autostrade - there were multiple - all ok. What none of us were prepared for was sharing the road with Fangio wannabes for 3 1/2 hours and more trucks than I’ve seen in my entire lifetime. In their minds the 130km/h speed limit is just a suggestion, indicators - what are they for?, and the faster you’re going, the closer you should tailgate. Mumma mia!!

After 3 hours of this madness, we were off the Autostrada and winding our way up the mountain roads. We had switched drivers by this time, so I had the joys of navigating the chicanes and blind corners. I took my time as while the roads were lovely and clear, the snow was building up around us (yippeee!), much to the annoyance of the would-be Fangios behind me I am sure. Finally we arrived at our accommodation with our nerves a bit frayed - nothing an Aperol Spritz wouldn’t fix - and tried the park the car. Sean managed to park in front of the apartment, only to see the car slide out of the car park and back onto the road. Luckily we were then allowed to park in the car park under the building, although we can’t leave it there as it will cost 40 Euros per day if we do!

Cameron in front of our apartment block

Our host Olivia showed us up to our apartment which is lovely, very Alpine and close to everything. The village of Selva is stunning, unbelievably picturesque and the snow looks fabulous. Once we had unpacked, we realised it was about 4pm and we had barely eaten since our coffee and pastry for breakfast, so we needed some dinner. Also Sean’s eyes were looking awful, so I decided to ask Olivia to help us find a doctor - which she did and even walked us down to his clinic. We were lucky the clinic was empty, so he was able to see Sean straight away. About ten minutes later, Sean emerged, confirming it was in fact conjunctivitis, having had a needle in his backside and with a script for some antibiotic eye drops. Hopefully he improves in the coming days.

Get me out there!

Cameron had discovered that her ski jacket has literally fallen apart, so we had to go shopping for a new one (any excuse will do!). After trying on a few with the help of a saleslady who had a few words of English and me using the few fragments of German I haven’t forgotten, she settled on a smart looking new one, plus a matching fleece and a beanie. There was so much lovely ski gear in that shop, and there are many many tempting ski (and other) shops here, if it weren’t for the skiing, a dangerous shopping trip could ensue. Then it was off to the supermarket, which is the most unbelievable supermarket - its contents rival that fabulous Peck deli in Milan. We trundled home with our goodies, dosed up Sean with his antibiotics and realised we were very hungry. So Cameron and I volunteered to go out and pick up pizza for dinner…and we may have needed an Aperol while we waited to soothe our nerves from the drive up.

Shopping results