Scaring ourselves on Passo Gavia

Once again, we set off bright and early, on our way to the campsite where we’ll be staying for a while, in Peio, in the Stelvio Alps in Italy. As soon as we’d left Lake Zürich, the mountains appeared. The landscape throughout the day was beautiful… typically alpine, with green meadows, wooden chalets and turquoise glacial rivers, below steep and soaring hillsides. However, what we’d expected to be a smooth and pleasant run, soon turned into quite an adventure.

After a while, I realised the sat nav was taking us towards Davos, on a different route from that which I’d expected, and from that suggested by Google Maps. On investigation I noticed there was a train on our route. John remembered he’d read someone’s blog talking about taking their motorhome on a train through a tunnel through a mountain and a bit of research told me it was the Vereina Tunnel. It sounded fun so we decided to go for it, even though it would cost £30… I suppose we’ll save some fuel!

The 12-mile long Vereina Tunnel is the longest single-track narrow gauge railway in the world. It passes through the mountains between Klosters and Sagliains, taking about 18 minutes. As we waited for our train, I made a coffee, then we were loaded into rusty looking open metal carriages. It was quite weird sitting in Molly Moho travelling in the dark through the tunnel.

Back out into the daylight, we continued following the sat nav, which has all of Molly’s details… height, width, weight and so on… so we assumed the selected route was suitable for her, but we hadn’t considered the cost. All of a sudden, we ended up in a queue facing a toll tunnel that we weren’t expecting. This one was going to cost us another £20!

The 2.5 mile Livigno Tunnel is a privately-run, single lane road tunnel, regulated by traffic lights. Having passed through the dark and narrow tunnel, we paid the fee and crossed the border into Italy, where there was a sign for the Stelvio National Park. Seeing that, it felt as though we were almost at our destination but the sat nav still said we still had a few hours to go and, little did we know, there were more dramas to come.

The roads twisted around lakes, along rivers, through tunnels and galleries protecting the roads from rockfall, and up and down hairpin bends with scary, vertiginous drops. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful. I started smiling as soon as we reached the mountains… in my happy place!

From Livignio, we travelled up and over Passo Eira (2208m), followed by Passo Foscagno (2291m). After these, we dropped down into Bormio and headed up to Passo Gavia (2621m). This is where our journey became hair-raising and we wished we’d taken more notice of the route the sat nav had chosen and checked it out!

Passo Gavia had been closed for the morning for cyclists to use the pass, traffic free. It was open as we arrived but dozens of cyclists were still on their way down, and lots of motorcyclists were out for a Sunday blast. We passed through old villages with roads so narrow the buildings were almost touching Molly on either side. In places, cobbled streets made everything inside the motorhome rattle.

After Santa Caterina, we climbed the 12 miles to the high mountain pass, twisting and turning around 10 tight hairpins and endless other bends as the road seemed to get narrower and narrower. There were few passing places and John said he felt as though he was in some sort of video game, with bikes, motorbikes and cars flying downhill towards him, which he had to avoid hitting!

We pulled over at the top of the pass so John could have a rest, and I could take some photos. It had been sunny in the valleys but up at over 2600m (Snowdon is 1085m), the cloud was low, it was cold and wet, and just as I got out of Molly, it started hailing. I must have looked ridiculous in my shorts and flip flops!

After a short break, we headed off down the other side of the pass, hoping the worst was over. No such luck! The road was still very narrow, with over a dozen more hairpins to negotiate. The drops on John’s side were really steep, long and rocky and, in many places, there were no safety barriers. There were fewer cyclists now, but many more cars and motorbikes. In places there were traffic jams as everyone tried to squeeze past each other without hitting the rocks or going over the edge. I was a nervous wreck… my hands shaking… and I could hear John deep breathing to keep himself calm.

He did really well anticipating issues… pulling over to let traffic behind pass whenever there was a lay-by or gravel verge, and waiting where the road was wider so traffic coming the opposite way could get through. Eventually the road flattened and widened. We have never been so pleased to see a white line in the middle of a road!

We had one more pass to go, which was Passo Tonale (1883m). This proved to be far less of a problem because the road was wider, and there were fewer hairpins and less height gain. There was just one more drama to go. We missed the entrance to the campsite and ended up going to the village higher up the valley. Then, the heavens opened in a torrential downpour as we pitched up. What next?! 🤣

We’re now settled in Peio for the next 5-7 days… we haven’t decided yet… planning to do some walking and hoping to get good enough weather to get up into the mountains. Fingers crossed. At least John and Molly get a rest from driving for now!

PS No good photos showing the Gavia Pass because I was either too scared to think about taking any or it wasn’t possible to stop safely!

PPS Not us, thank goodness! https://www.gazzettadellevalli.it/cronaca/ponte-di-legno-camper-in-bilico-su-un-dirupo-della-strada-del-gavia-437010/

PPPS We spend a lot of time in mountainous areas and we’re very used to travelling high mountain passes and hairpin bends. Driving on these roads may seem reckless to some, but we have a system that’s always kept us safe, as it did yesterday, despite being scary at times. I follow the map to alert John to the bends ahead, John constantly considers other traffic and thinks ahead, staying out of the way when needed, and we both watch for safe places to pull over and for hazards ahead. That said, if we’d seen a sign warning that the Gavia Pass was single lane in many places, we would have reconsidered driving over it.