Day 16 - Passo Tonale and Mendelpass

Monday 22 July 2019

So farewell to Presanella for another year. It’s been great!

Selfie at Camping Presanella

From Temù we head east again along the SS42 and up and over Passo Tonale. At 1,883m it is high but on a much travelled main road with room on the many hairpins and sweepers for big trucks to pass each other with ease.

We pause at the top for the obligatory photos with the famous Tonale monument as a back drop.

The monument at the top of the Tonale Pass


Now we pass from Lombardy into the Trentino region of the Sud Tirol. It is a hybrid area which once belonged to Austria and German is the main language. Even the schools teach in German, the newspaper are written in the German language and the signage is mostly German.
Formerly a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire the area was promised to Italy by the allies in 1915 as part of the Treaty of London, an attempt to persuade Italy to join in the First World War on the side of the Allies.
Although disputed at times Sud Tirol has remained a part of Italy despite 62% of the population being ethnically Austrian and speaking the German language.
Now it enjoys the best part of both cultures. Italian food and German efficiency if you like. 

And I do like. It’s a great region full of wonderful roads and spectacular scenery.

Looking down on Lago di Santa Giustina from the SS42

Our road takes us up the west side of Mendelpass (Passo Mendola in Italian) where we stop for our lunchtime pasta boost.
Pasta at a cafe at the top of Mendelpass


While not a very high pass the eastern side of Mendelpass has it all. Multiple hairpins and perfect asphalt. It even has its own little balcony road section which looks out over the Adige valley across to Bolzano.

It is such a good ride that I leave Mick having a rest at the bottom of the pass and turn round to ride back up to the top and back down again. It takes just 25 minutes for the both-ways trip.

The balcony road section of Mendelpass

After a hot stop-start drag through Bozen aka Bolzano we finally emerge on the old Brenner Pass road. I have ridden over Brenner this way on several occasions, avoiding the extortionate toll charge on the autostrada that now carries all the heavy commercial traffic from Italy into Austria.

It is a lovely road but this time we soon turn off for the long winding road that leads up to the Nigerpass. 

The afternoon is turning to evening so we decide to treat ourselves to a soft bed tonight and soon light upon the Gasthof Laurin in the small village of Tires. It’s a lovely billet. The WiFi is distinctly dodgy but the welcome, the food and the views are excellent.
Gasthof Laurin in Tires (photo lifted from the internet)



Enjoying a Weißbier on the terrace of Gasthof Laurin


As night falls I capture a great picture of the onion dome of the church in Tires, peeping up over the surrounding buildings.

Tyrol is full of these strangely shaped church domes

Good night, sleep tight.

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