Road trip Italy
10-09-2018, 09:02 AM
#1
Advanced PassionFord User
Thread Starter
Road trip Italy
Long time, no see.
Some of you might have read my "recent" thread about my visit in your country ages ago. ( Road trip GB )
Been busy a lot but I still own my XR2. Hoping to get it back on the road next year!?
Well... some new pictures for you. I drove down to the upper adriatic sea so my mother can stay there for a week for a late summer beach holiday. I went back the same day but being alone in the car I wanted to take some lonely mountain passes instead of going home via Tauernautobahn.
So it's been 920 km (~400 south and the rest home) and 16 and a half hour on the road (with three small 15 min breaks, 4:45h to the sea, the rest to get home again)!
Southern part of the Alps in the Veneto
On the southern serpentine road to Piancavallo... somewhere down in the mist is the sea
Yes, this bridge is meant to be crossed by CARS! (west of Lago di Barcis)
Monte Raut
On the Forcella di Pala Barzana
Fiume Tagliamento - The Tagliameto river... I've crossed twice every time I was in Italy
Monte Amariana
VERY steep hillside (above Ampezzo - not CORTINA d'Ampezzo!)
Is this one of these weird mirrors that were built to bring sun down the alpine valleys during the wintertime?
Monte Verzegnis left, Monte Valcalda right
Monte Sesilis
Chapel on Passo Pura
My trusty rocket for the trip... Mothers 1.25 '09 Fiesta. Healthy 60 bhp. Yes, the XR2 and my Fiesta ST (2.0 150 bhp) are quicker, but it's not that bad as the Zetec-S likes to rev and the gearbox ratios fit the engine set-up. Suspension is good and cornering speed and acceleration in 2nd gear is fine to be quite quick up the mountains and to annoy (and mostly get annoyed by) much bigger and stronger cars and motorbikes. And MPG is MUCH better than with the ST.
Lago di Sauris. YES, that really is the colour of the water!
When you want to get to the lake, you'll have to drive through one of those holes...
Terza Grande
Monte Brentoni and Terza Grande, very famous mountains for hiking and climbing
South of Lago di Misurina (the 1956 olympic speed skating event took place on the lake. Just imagine... a cheap open-air event in the olympics. No expensive stadium :O ), left Monte Piana, Cima Bulla and right one of the most famous mountains in the Dolomites: Drei Zinnen (Tre Cime di Lavaredo)
Misurina Lake with Docesana San Bernardo and Gruppo del Sorapiss in the background
Dürrensee (Lago di Landro) with Monte Cristallo
Some of you might have read my "recent" thread about my visit in your country ages ago. ( Road trip GB )
Been busy a lot but I still own my XR2. Hoping to get it back on the road next year!?
Well... some new pictures for you. I drove down to the upper adriatic sea so my mother can stay there for a week for a late summer beach holiday. I went back the same day but being alone in the car I wanted to take some lonely mountain passes instead of going home via Tauernautobahn.
So it's been 920 km (~400 south and the rest home) and 16 and a half hour on the road (with three small 15 min breaks, 4:45h to the sea, the rest to get home again)!
Southern part of the Alps in the Veneto
On the southern serpentine road to Piancavallo... somewhere down in the mist is the sea
Yes, this bridge is meant to be crossed by CARS! (west of Lago di Barcis)
Monte Raut
On the Forcella di Pala Barzana
Fiume Tagliamento - The Tagliameto river... I've crossed twice every time I was in Italy
Monte Amariana
VERY steep hillside (above Ampezzo - not CORTINA d'Ampezzo!)
Is this one of these weird mirrors that were built to bring sun down the alpine valleys during the wintertime?
Monte Verzegnis left, Monte Valcalda right
Monte Sesilis
Chapel on Passo Pura
My trusty rocket for the trip... Mothers 1.25 '09 Fiesta. Healthy 60 bhp. Yes, the XR2 and my Fiesta ST (2.0 150 bhp) are quicker, but it's not that bad as the Zetec-S likes to rev and the gearbox ratios fit the engine set-up. Suspension is good and cornering speed and acceleration in 2nd gear is fine to be quite quick up the mountains and to annoy (and mostly get annoyed by) much bigger and stronger cars and motorbikes. And MPG is MUCH better than with the ST.
Lago di Sauris. YES, that really is the colour of the water!
When you want to get to the lake, you'll have to drive through one of those holes...
Terza Grande
Monte Brentoni and Terza Grande, very famous mountains for hiking and climbing
South of Lago di Misurina (the 1956 olympic speed skating event took place on the lake. Just imagine... a cheap open-air event in the olympics. No expensive stadium :O ), left Monte Piana, Cima Bulla and right one of the most famous mountains in the Dolomites: Drei Zinnen (Tre Cime di Lavaredo)
Misurina Lake with Docesana San Bernardo and Gruppo del Sorapiss in the background
Dürrensee (Lago di Landro) with Monte Cristallo
Last edited by XR2; 10-09-2018 at 09:18 AM.
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STeve (11-09-2018)
16-09-2018, 09:56 PM
#5
Advanced PassionFord User
Thread Starter
Well... one week is over now and I had to drive "down" to the sea again in order to bring my mother back home.
A little bit shorter than the route I went one week ago but still nice to drive. Although I have to admit... Monte Zoncolan was not much fun. Great view but... well... just read "details of the climb". :O https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Zoncolan
Imagine having to use 1st gear for the last ~2 miles. Same going down or you'd fry your brakes... still started to smell when I reached the western starting point in Ovaro.
https://goo.gl/maps/PUa6V3uztM62
Pics will follow soon!
A little bit shorter than the route I went one week ago but still nice to drive. Although I have to admit... Monte Zoncolan was not much fun. Great view but... well... just read "details of the climb". :O https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Zoncolan
Imagine having to use 1st gear for the last ~2 miles. Same going down or you'd fry your brakes... still started to smell when I reached the western starting point in Ovaro.
https://goo.gl/maps/PUa6V3uztM62
Pics will follow soon!
16-09-2018, 11:09 PM
#6
Advanced PassionFord User
Thread Starter
Well then... here we go.
I left home early at about 5:20 AM.
Short rest at Elisabethsee (Lake Elisabeth) on the Felbertauern road. Drove past MANY times, stopped there for the first time. Would be a real nice place... without the road in the background. Still quite cold and the mountains covered with clouds and fog.
War grave cemetery on the Plöckenpass (Passo di Monte Croce Carnico) road. When talking about the first world war people probably think about Verdun, millions killed, chemical warfare and the first appearance of "modern military eqipment" like machine guns, airplanes and tanks. But what happend on the Italian Front (Italians call it "Grande Guerra", the big war and the Italian Front is called "Guerra Bianca", the white war) between 1915 and 1918 was very different and not less fearsome. Well... hard to find words. So many people had to spend their lifes for no good reason.
On top of the Plöcken Pass... weather is getting better!
Torrente But, left arm of Fiume Tagliamento
Chiesa di San Nicolò near Sutrio
Sutrio and Chiesa Di Ognissanti in the background
Yes, the road runs THROUGH the hotel. Or they built the hotel (over/across?) the road. Dunno.
Looks harmless from here. I grew up in the Alps but this is probably one of the toughest roads I've ever seen... when talking about gradient, especially over quite a long distance. (Monte Zoncolan)
But the view from top of Monte Zoncolan was great!
I've been there AGES ago. We were on our way to our beach holidays when the motorway between the Austrian/Italian border and Venice mostly was a traffic jam because of the G7 Summit in Venice. So we tried our luck on B-Roads. There must be a slide somewhere... wearing a hooded sweater (no one had a hooded sweater... except me!) on the same place. Just with a different car (must have been a red MK2 Jetta 1.8). If it was in Scotland, I would have had a can of Irn Bru. But Lemon Soda is an Italian classic!
(on the SP1 between Chiaicis and Pozzis)
Many abandoned buildings there. The area must have seen much better days
.
Chiesa Pielungo
I left home early at about 5:20 AM.
Short rest at Elisabethsee (Lake Elisabeth) on the Felbertauern road. Drove past MANY times, stopped there for the first time. Would be a real nice place... without the road in the background. Still quite cold and the mountains covered with clouds and fog.
War grave cemetery on the Plöckenpass (Passo di Monte Croce Carnico) road. When talking about the first world war people probably think about Verdun, millions killed, chemical warfare and the first appearance of "modern military eqipment" like machine guns, airplanes and tanks. But what happend on the Italian Front (Italians call it "Grande Guerra", the big war and the Italian Front is called "Guerra Bianca", the white war) between 1915 and 1918 was very different and not less fearsome. Well... hard to find words. So many people had to spend their lifes for no good reason.
On top of the Plöcken Pass... weather is getting better!
Torrente But, left arm of Fiume Tagliamento
Chiesa di San Nicolò near Sutrio
Sutrio and Chiesa Di Ognissanti in the background
Yes, the road runs THROUGH the hotel. Or they built the hotel (over/across?) the road. Dunno.
Looks harmless from here. I grew up in the Alps but this is probably one of the toughest roads I've ever seen... when talking about gradient, especially over quite a long distance. (Monte Zoncolan)
But the view from top of Monte Zoncolan was great!
I've been there AGES ago. We were on our way to our beach holidays when the motorway between the Austrian/Italian border and Venice mostly was a traffic jam because of the G7 Summit in Venice. So we tried our luck on B-Roads. There must be a slide somewhere... wearing a hooded sweater (no one had a hooded sweater... except me!) on the same place. Just with a different car (must have been a red MK2 Jetta 1.8). If it was in Scotland, I would have had a can of Irn Bru. But Lemon Soda is an Italian classic!
(on the SP1 between Chiaicis and Pozzis)
Many abandoned buildings there. The area must have seen much better days
.
Chiesa Pielungo
Last edited by XR2; 17-09-2018 at 07:49 AM.
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17-09-2018, 07:20 AM
#9
Advanced PassionFord User
Thread Starter
Thanks guys. There were many more beautiful things along the road like impressive churches and clock towers, mountains, rivers, old buildings, abandoned buildings, beautiful gardens and typical italian villages with narrow streets but I just didn't have the time to stop every time I saw something nice. And tbh I have to admit it's not THAT special for me as I've seen all of this before and it's just a three hour drive to get there for me. And I see alpine mountains every day when I wake up in the morning. 
Oh if someone was wondering what m.1750 s.l.m. means... it's metres above sea level (metri sul livello del mare)
And I am already thinking about a short trip to this part of Italy in the ST. Yesterday I wished I had much more engine power very often... some of those motorbike drivers REALLY annoyed me. I was much quicker around the corners (even in mothers 1,25 litre standard Fiesta with no lowering springs, 195/50 rubber and 9 year old tyres) but well... acceleration. You know.
Was missing the 2 litre roar
Oh if someone was wondering what m.1750 s.l.m. means... it's metres above sea level (metri sul livello del mare)
And I am already thinking about a short trip to this part of Italy in the ST. Yesterday I wished I had much more engine power very often... some of those motorbike drivers REALLY annoyed me. I was much quicker around the corners (even in mothers 1,25 litre standard Fiesta with no lowering springs, 195/50 rubber and 9 year old tyres) but well... acceleration. You know.
Was missing the 2 litre roar
The following users liked this post:
STeve (17-09-2018)
The following users liked this post:
STeve (17-09-2018)
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