Europe 2026 - France, Switzerland, Italy
Lake Como
Camp site: Resort Le Vele, Lake Como - confirmed Pitch 42, includes electric (15-18 August)
Day 1 - Saturday 15 August
Early rise for the 4 hour (on paper) journey to Lake Como, skipped brekkie and just had a cup of tea / coffee. The first 2 hours climbing incessantly through some of the most stunning scenery we have ever seen - the Susten pass. I got some great drone footage. All this climbing however was making us both quite nervous, that what must go up, must come down at some point and our poor brakes. Finally peaked at nearly 8000 feet and braced for the descent. It seemed to go on forever. High revving in second gear down hairpins and sheer drops was buttock clenching. We finally made it to the Gotthard tunnel - a 16km tunnel boring straight through the huge mountain which was thankfully open to avoid the next 8500 feet pass. From here it was a steady motorway decline into Italy and Lake Como. Como is a stunning lake which is packed at the best of times, but it was utterly rammed due to it being Saturday and Italian Ferragosto day - the Catholic feast of the assumption of Mary where everybody eats out and drinks heavily. My kind of day! Temperatures were now soaring and Mel was suffering. The van touched 46 degrees inside with all windows open, no breeze whatsoever. Mel sat in front of the fan and I went for a swim and to read in the swimming pool for a couple of hours. We went for a walk along the lake front at 8pm, came back for a few beers at the van and Mel knocked up a lovely pasta bolognaise dish in the dark. We tried our best to sleep but the van temperature never dropped below 30 degrees all night. It was a struggle.
Day 2 - Sunday 16 August
We woke very groggy around 9ish with the searing heat starting up again. Couldn’t be arsed cooking in it, so had a cup of tea and coffee and made a packed lunch and walked to the Lake. I found a shady spot under some trees, got my book out - still reading Flea’s autobiography and read, swam, drank water, and ate the cheese and ham sandwiches. Lake Como is slightly warmer than Thun and slightly less pretty and clear, although Lake Thun is pretty much the clearest Lake in Europe, if not the World. Had a wander into the very pretty town of Domaso which is a 15 minute slow walk, not much sign of life anywhere, I assume all of the Italians are hungover. Went into an air conditioned cafe to bring my core temperature below dangerous levels and had a coke and a bottle of water. Then headed to bar paradiso on the beach front for a cold beer. Lovely chilled spot, playing some cracking English 80’s tunes. Sat and read with all the cool dudes. Mel came to me an hour later for a beer and a cheese and ham toastie. We then saw huge clouds rolling in over the mountain. Then a crack of thunder or two. Then flashes of lightning. It seemed far away at least. Within 10 minutes the wind has raised to about 30 mph and the trees were sideways, I left Mel at the bar and made a full on sprint for the 1.5km journey to the camp site in flip flops as the awning was still up. It was chaos - full on storm conditions and I had visions of the awning snapped off, ripping a huge hole in the van. Made it back just in time, had to get a Dutch guy to help me wind it in, then reciprocated the favour when his very large, expensive Quechua air tent as it was collapsing. The rain was biblical and the wind at least 80mph. All of the hotels guests were watching our struggles from their balconies above, it must have been very entertaining to see! 🤣 I stripped off in the van, put some fresh pants on, grabbed a beer from the fridge and whacked on some Pink Floyd listening and watching the huge electrical storm. Mel was marooned somewhere under a cover on the beach with an Italian towel seller and a dutch couple. This went on for at least another hour before it passed. She eventually turned up, visibly shaking from the experience. We booked a table at Ristorante Cinyo for 8pm, got ready and headed out in the rain. Went for a beer and an Aperol at BarH where they strangely kept bringing us food out, we had to check it was free. We had a huge bowl of monkey nuts, a large bowl of crisps, a massive bowl of olives and then they brought a gorgeous tuna steak, how bizarre. The bill was indeed as expected - 14 euros, 8 for the Aperol and 6 for the lovely large dunkel beer. Headed to the restaurant which was very authentic. I had seafood pasta and Mel, pasta with salmon. We also had a fine bottle of Italian white wine and an Aperol for Mel. We even went for a dessert of Sicilian Cannelloni. All was lovely and the bill was 89 euros or £76. Walked home in the rain, now thankfully much cooler - around 26 degrees and slept like a log.