Driving home from Pescara, Italy in Alvis Drophead FCO 154.

 

Up.

 

Day Eleven. 14th September.

The drive to the Hotel Beau Rivage, Weggis, Lake Lucerne.

 

See also a carcam stills record of the drive here.

 

There was lots of discussion about routing for the drive today. Simplon Pass, Furka Pass or St Gotthard Pass. Our decision to go via the St Gotthard was influenced by the fact that our car has traversed this road twice before (1996 and 2005), but not going north. As usual we were the last to leave by some margin, but did catch sight of the Harcourt's Duncan further up the coast towards Switzerland. This road has memories for Marilyn as she spent some time at Villa Paradiso, up in the hills above Cannero Riveria, during her childhood.

 

The drive up the side of Lake Maggiore is a delight and there are some spectacular views. We passed through Ascona and  Locarno to pick up the motorway 2. This is a lovely drive and takes you up towards the pass. We had intended to come off the motorway in good time to use the old road 2 over the pass. In the event, we became stuck in a huge traffic jam on the motorway caused by a weird system of lights, presumably to restrict the traffic flow through the tunnel. This meant that the car was far hotter than I would have liked when we finally started the climb over the pass. In hindsight, I should have come off one junction earlier!

 

Once at the top of the main climb you find a viewing point which gives the most spectacular view back down the valley and of the road you have used.  This then was the photo call for our wonderful car on her third trip over the St Gotthard. The actual top of the pass is just a little further on, at 6,900 feet. There was lots of work being done on the road and the descent north was somewhat difficult at times. We then picked up the motorway again to Altdorf. Here we took the cost road up the east and along the north (westwards) of Lake Lucerne. A beautiful drive until we reached Viznau, to find that the rood to Weggis was closed! So near and yet so far. We had to retrace our steps as far as  Brunnen and pick up the motorway 4 to go around the north side of the mountain and  approach Weggis from the north: quite a considerable diversion. Despite this, we arrived at the hotel first with the Websters in the Speed 20 drophead.

 

The viewing point on the St Gotthard Pass.

 

The spectacular view looking south back down the pass.