It was quiet at the top of the sacred mountain of Varese, and I had a good nights sleep.
After a solid breakfast I was soon on my way. Walking up the mountain yesterday, I was thinking I could have taken the bus and funicular up and walked down today. Today the bus departures were irregular, with mostly times the kids needed the bus to get to school, and currently the funicular wasn’t in operation apart from weekends. So it was good I’d walked up.
I didn’t fancy walking down the cobbled Sacred Way, so I’d decided to take an alternative path down the mountain, saving 2km in relation to going the same way down the same way I came up. I had of course considered that it would be a steep descent, but not steep and with loose rock. It took me one hour to get down the 2 km – I was so slow going down that my watch registered 15min walking and 45 minutes rest. I was walking 95% of the time, just not quickly!
I passed through Rasa di Varese, from where I could hear a brass band playing yesterday afternoon whilst up on Sacro Monte. Down in the valley there was a mix of back roads and dirt tracks through a forest.
I reached Brinzio, before starting today’s biggest climb which took me close to Mount Sere, with 19% elevation at its steepest on a stone road. It was a beautiful forest, very green. A long relatively flat plateau led to another “dangerous”, rocky descent into Ganna.
After surviving today’s final downhill, it would be pretty flat the rest of the day. It was a pleasant walk along the small lake Largo Ghirla, before I took a break in a bar at the end of the lake.
I left Ghirla on small back roads, passing through a urban area, before hitting the busy Via Statale, which at least had a pavement the whole stretch.
A nice path along a small river gave a nice break from the main road, but I was soon back on it and the descent into Ponte Tresa, with some nice views over the town on the border to Switzerland sitting nicely on Lake Lugano.
I reached the room I had rented at 3.30pm, the time agreed with the owner when I booked. However, they sent me an sms that they couldn’t come before 5pm. So I went directly to a launderette and washed my clothes.
Ponte Tresa is on the border between Italy and Switzerland, and is full of supermarkets catering Swiss tourists crossing the border to shop, many Asian stores – with no fewer than 12 sushi restaurants, several Asian supermarkets and Ramen shops – all owned by Chinese I was told.
I was tempted and went to one of the sushi places, but it wasn’t very good. I could feel a change in the weather. It was colder than it had been for some days.
A short 23km day with a bit too much road walking for my liking, but nice along the lake and through the forest, despite the strenuous climb and descent. Tomorrow I enter Switzerland, and will be greeted with rain all day.