Breakfast was another relaxed affair on the terrace, but today under slightly cloudy skies. The lake takes on a dreamy look in the soft, filtered light.
The plan for today included some scenic driving – firstly the spectacular Strada Della Forra, best known as “The James Bond Road” ! It’s roughly 6 km long, winding through tunnels, hairpin bends and tortuous curves, taking you into the bowels of the mountain, crossing the gorge of the Brasa stream to reach the pretty village village of Pieve in Tremosine (423 m above sea level) . Winston Churchill called it “the eighth wonder of the world” during his visit in 1949. It was also the scene of a great chase in the James Bond film “007 – Quantum of Solace” , in which Daniel Craig drove his Aston Martin at full speed. It’s narrow and popular and ( thank goodness!) is one way for most of it’s length. I have to assume they used clever trick photography to make his chase seem fast because I simply can’t imagine anyone taking it at real speed!!
The first part winds through the tunnels and up the steep cliffs, before you dive into the gorge and pass waterfalls and… lots of tourists stopping to take photos of the cars coming up! I don’t have many photos of the first section as I was videoing the whole thing! And, of course, Neil came good with his musical playlist – we drove the route listening to the James Bond theme. 🙂
As we approached the top we had to dodge several people who were taking photos of the gorge and the cars coming through, one chap even deciding the best shot was from the middle of the road!
At the top of the road we parked in Pieve and walked to the “Punto di Panoramico” to see the view down to the road and lake below. We could see the cars way below, streaming along the edge of the lake andsome winding up the lower section of the James Bond road. The little town was quiet with just a few people having coffee at the nearby cafe, but I believe it gets hammered in the summer.
As the road was strictly One-Way up, we had to find an alternative route to head down and to our next sightseeing destination. We headed on up higher through some tiny towns perched on the steep hillsides before finally turning north and taking the alternative route back down to Limone. Then we set off north along the lake shore until we reached Riva del Garda, the largest town on the lake.
We were headed for Monti di Mezzecorona, in the foothills of the Dolomites, where we were going to ride a much smaller cable car to the top of the cliff where there is a glass floor skywalk and a suspension bridge. Great plan….. but the sightseeing gods weren’t on my side. When I checked Google maps for the route I saw the red “Temporarily Closed” notice and learned that the cable car was closed for renovations! I’m just glad I discovered it before we’d driven the 50 minutes to get there 🙂
So after a little drive along the top of the lake edge we turned around and made our way back to Limone. To be honest,it was a good outcome as we now had leisure to visit the main part of the town in the daylight, when all the little shops were open. We had only been there in the evening up til now and I was glad to have an opportunity to see all the flowers in the full daylight and to do some souvenir shopping.
We found our way to Ristorante Azzuro and sat down for a leisurely late lunch of pizza and ,for me, a Limoncello Spritz. I couldn’t leave the town without sampling some Limoncello – there are hundreds of bottles sold in the town each day! We relaxed over lunch and watched the ferries come and go.
Back in the hotel we tried to catch up with our blogs and I repacked for our departure tomorrow. We’ve really enjoyed Limone, the landscape and scenery are spectacular and the added bonus of sharing it with Jo and Steve has been a real highlight. Tomorrow we pack up and head south again…