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Italy 2008 - San Benedetto del Tronto - Part 1

missyd

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Here it is! My first summer trip report! Hope you like it!

Click on pics for bigger size.

The holidays in Italy the first two weeks of September 2008 didn't start as planned. My mom felt seriously ill just
a few day before departure to Italy. I hoped for a fast recovery but no in the end she had to stay
in hospital for some 2 weeks in total. Her heart had a slight problem. She is a little bit
overweight and a not cured out flu made her very weak. I didn't want to go alone to Italy
as we had planned to spend together 2 weeks in Italy as always.
But to my surprise she said go alone on holidays without me!
So on a sunny saturday end of August after visiting mom for the last time in hospital I started around 14:00 my 520miles
trip to San Benedetto del Tronto (to see where it is in Italy search for San Benedetto del Tronto on Google Maps) which is
located right in the middle of italy on the coast of adriatic sea. Part of it on normal roads and the rest on freeways.
The first you have to do to reach Italy from Switzerland is to drive across the swiss alps. You can take the freeway with
the 11mile long Gotthard tunnel which I hate. So this time I opted for a route over 3 passes. The 1st is the Julier the
second the Bernina and the last one the passo d'Aprica in italy.
First is the Julier pass which leads to St. Moritz. This pass is open all year round!

I did not take many pics during the travel as I was running late and I wanted to reach the italian freeway before darkness.

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^^ This is just on top of the Julier pass. The romans used this pass! There are 2 roman columns nearby.

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^^ I already passed St. Moritz. This is the famous Morteratsch glacier. I'm on the road to the Bernina pass.

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^^ A few miles farther up the Bernina you see the Piz Lagalp (piz=peak) and its gondola station. Its resort for freeriders.
No chairs and no TBar lifts ... just one big gondola.

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^^ Sunset in the mountains is always nice! The electrical line are from the narrow gauge rack railway named
Rhaetian Railway.

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^^ The Diavolezza gondola! Its another small resort for freeriders. 1 Gondola and 1 chairlift. On top is
a hotel with a spa at 3000m above seal level!

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^^ Diavolezza Gondola .....

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^^ Fading light makes photography very difficult. Sadly I can't name the peaks.

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^^ Light and clouds ... I'm nearing the italian border.

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^^ in the meantime I passed the italian border with no problems (smuggled 2weeks supply of
cigarettes...) on the way to Tirano you may see the Rhaetian Railway running on the streets! Very nice
if you take care not getting in the way of it.

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^^ This is the church of Aprica. The village and its ski resort is located on top of the passo d'Aprica.
Little traffic and larger roads leads to very fast driving up and down. And I know this road very good.
Its not the first time I drive here!

After the passo d'Aprica it got dark. The road is large and you can drive well over the max. speedlimit.
Just keep your eyes open for the polizia (police) or the Carabinieri (military police). Fines are hefty!
The next pictures will be at sunrise! 2008 was a very warm year in Italy and at 02:00 in the morning temps
where still in the 80°F!!!! So I drove on the very nicely maintained italian freeways in direction of
San Benedetto del Tronto. There is a toll for the freeways in italy. I drove the whole night with some breaks
for a cup of fine italian coffee and the toilets.
Never got tired and in the end I decided to sleep a couple of hours some 30miles from San Benedetto del Tronto.
I normally park the car near a service station on the freeway and off I go to sleep in my car. But for people
that are afraid of thefts and robberies should sleep in a hotel!!! I am never afraid at night in Italy.
BTW I have done the same travel in one go last year. Just didn't get tired!

Part 2 will be posted soon.
 

missyd

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hmm .... trip reports shouldn't have more than 10-12 pictures ....
I used already 11 .... leaves 1 for the rest of the TR .... :noidea:

I think maybe I should save them in a blog or something similar and post just the link here????:noidea::noidea::(:rolleyes:
 

missyd

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks!!!! I'll decided to go through my pics again and do some sort of picture sets like 'Sunrise', 'Mountains' etc with some info for each picture. It wont be a real trip report anymore but so I wont bring the forum server to a standstill .... :smile:
 

missyd

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Here is the link for my flickr photo album. I will post more pics during the next few days ..... some 100-150 pics I choose.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/k2lottaluv/sets

A) click on the San Benedetto 2008 album
B) for a diashow click on icon to the top right (in diashow modus click on info icon for the description of the picture)

I spend some days at the beach some I drove around for hours and hours discovering the place. I know the surroundings and San Benedetto as good as I know my home town!!!! I drive around with a good roadmap. I would never ever use a GPS-Navigator. The real nice small one lane roads ... you'll find them on roadmaps or even hiking maps. I also very often went to the port to watch the work in the docks (free access) and speak with the men working there. Sometimes I saw the trawlers turning back after a nights fishing and went to see the unloading of the fish.
I drove 2 times into the Appenine mountains. Campo Imperatore is there. A flat valley up in the mountains with cows, sheep and horses roaming free on the burnt grassland. The place is just fantastic!
If you like shopping Italy is the place to be. In 2008 I was overweight and shopping for clothes was a no-no. I decided to loose weight after the hollidays. The hotel is a 3star directly on the beach! Fantastic place with very friendly staff and hotel manager. Food was excellent. I had full board. There are a few bars, icecream parlors and some amusements nearby. The seafront walk is over 3miles long and leads from Porto d'Ascoli to San Benedetto. Shops are open till midnight in summer. In september they close around 8 o'clock as there are just no more tourists around in the evening.

San Benedetto del Tronto is the city of the palms! No other town in Italy has as much palms as San Benedetto d.T. I was here for holidays the first time in my life in 1964! The pics from my dad shows very small palms. Today they have grown very big! I just love it.
I must confess that italy is some sort of my real native country! Only in italy I feel very well relaxed and happy. Switzerland is just ok for skiing .....


All pics have a comment and description. I know its not like a trip report but I do not have another solution at the moment. I am in other forums and posting 30-40 pics per posting is no problem .... never mind!
 

VTskiDiva

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Wow! Your pictures are always so beautiful! Thank you for sharing! Viewing your pictures makes me feel more like Im there! Wonderful!
 

missyd

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks a lot VTskidiva!!! I haven't had the time to upload all pictures .... must do it as soon as possible.:becky:
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hmm .... trip reports shouldn't have more than 10-12 pictures ....
I used already 11 .... leaves 1 for the rest of the TR .... :noidea:

I think maybe I should save them in a blog or something similar and post just the link here????:noidea::noidea::(:rolleyes:
Missyd, IIRC there are only 10-12 pics per post, not per thread. Unless things have changed, you should be able to post as many as you want, in post after post after post.......:bounce:
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Missyd, IIRC there are only 10-12 pics per post, not per thread. Unless things have changed, you should be able to post as many as you want, in post after post after post.......:bounce:

For non-ski trip reports, we're limiting it to ten per thread.
 

missyd

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Jep .... 1-2 times a year I go to the same place in Italy ... its like a second hometown for me. Just returned saturday from another weeks rest there! :becky:
 

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