Had a good run in the Morgan yesterday with Francesca in the passenger seat. We went up to San Moritz, on to Zernez, took the Munt la Schera tunnel to Livigno where we had lunch, the Foscagno Pass to Bormeo where we met Alis, who was there for the weekend, and then on home.  A total of over 350 km after a couple of side excursions. http://goo.gl/maps/POisg

We had a forecast of a cloudy day with the possibility of storms late in the afternoon but first thing in the morning there was not a cloud in the sky. Off we went, top down and sidescreens off and wearing fairly light clothing because it was quite warm. I took a light jacket and Franci took a fleece (actually the zip out liner of her Morgan jacket) in case it got a bit cool. Just as well! By the time we got to our lunch stop at Livigno is was decidedly cool and the heater was turned on.

We had a great run up through Chiavenna, into Switzerland and on to San Moritz and Zernez, except for being stuck behind a camper on the top half of the Maloja Pass 🙁  The twin waterfall near the road from Chiavenna to the Swiss border was running very strongly and was really spectacular.

Things were a little slower after Zernez because there was some sort of bicycle run coming the other way. I saw one with a number in the 900s so there were probably about a thousand of them!

It was the first time I had taken the Munt la Schera tunnel to Livigno. The toll, paid at the far side, was €21. Traffic is one way alternating every 15 minutes. Livigno is always pleasant to visit and we wandered around looking at the shops and selected a restaurant to have lunch. By this point the temperature was dropping and I nearly went back to the car for my jacket.

After pause at the Bormeo Botanic Gardens, off the road to Stelvio, Alis gave Franci her jacket and we joined the general stream of traffic heading south.  At a certain point the weekend traffic started building up and then started a stop-start crawl. At that point the clouds looked really threatening and we pulled off the road and managed to get the sidescreens on and the hood up as the rain started. Well I have never seen rain so heavy, it was coming down in biblical proportions, and there was a really strong wind too. Several times the traffic stopped where there were tall trees beside the road and I was seriously worried that one of them may come down.

At a certain point I had had enough of the stop start traffic and decided to exit the main road, cross the river, and take the road down the other side of the river. I crossed under the railway and coming out the other side I did not see that the road was covered in storm water to a depth of about 15 cm or more. I hit it at about 50 kph and it was like driving under a waterfall. I could not see anything! Fortunately the road was fairly straight but there was a wall to my right and I managed to slow down without hitting anything. Amazingly not a drop of water entered the car but I later discovered that the new dual tone FIAMM horns that I fitted last week had been totally flooded and gurgled instead of honking. Hopefully they will eventually dry out!

The last 55 km of the trip home took us over 2 hours because of the heavy traffic. I have to say that by the time we arrived home we were well and truly “cooked”.  Alis left Bormeo 2 hours after us but by the time she arrived the traffic had cleared and she arrived home less than an hour after we did.

We heard this morning that with the storm passing through Livigno the temperature dropped to 2 degrees and they had some snow last night. I’m glad we were down at a lower altitude when we got caught in it.

I would do the trip again without hesitation. It is fairly tiring because of the many curves but the roads are generally good and the vistas are spectacular. However I would avoid doing it again on a Sunday. The traffic returning from the mountains towards Milan is just too heavy.