The ferry arrives on-time in Genova. With the help of a tugboat, we find our way into the port like an oversized log.
This process takes a while and whilst everybody else is on the upper deck watching our arrival in Genova, I, having seen this process last time, I stay in the bar and get a piping hot coffee and a cornetto, fresh from the oven. With this I’m ready to start my day – the only one in Italy this trip -and drive home.
No-one seems to care about any reduction of the virus’ spead when the time came to leave the ferry.
TW560 was doing well when I got back to deck C and without having to wait too long, I left the ferry’s bowels and drove into yet another beautiful day.
I was curious how the checks entering Italy would look like – care to guess?
Exactly: virtually none at all. I was stopped by the border force to ask some questions about the TWIKE, nothing else.
As I have driven this stretch and indeed been to Italy many, many times before and wanted to get back home today to allow me a day of acclimatization, I’m going to drive all the way on the Autostrada and Swiss motorway. #gogogo
Very quickly, I cross the Apennines and find myself in the featureless Pianura, at 95kph with cruise control engaged and me streaming a longplay mix to my headphones.
From time to time, I enter a service station to get yet another of those delicious Italian Espressos.
I cross the Pianura in around an hour and am already close to Milan – keeping a mindful eye on motor, battery and electronics temperatures.
I needn’t have worried about the temperatures, as the next few toll booths were completely full and saw me waiting over half an hour to be able to get to the next section.
A thing I always like is the fact that the Swiss Alps are visible from Milan and give me some reference to how far away from the border I am.
I’ve planned to charge my TWIKE whilst still in Italy – this allows me to eat whilst still in Italy – yum! I drive to the first charging station…and find it to have been upgraded, but not yet operational, although the enel X app was showing it as such. (mind you, this is the app by the operator itself, not some roaming provider. I would expect the provider itself to be able to handle downtimes and such in the app…but no.)
I drive to the next station – here the newer version of the charging point has been put in place and is active. With a swipe on the app I get the charge going and the current maximum of 7.1kW flow into the batteries after just 4 mins of ramping up.
With this, I’m ready for lunch and wander off, leaving my TWIKE to do its job.
I find a nearby pizzeria and enjoy some beer with my food.
Back to the TWIKE a little over an hour later, I find the other charging station has decided to stop working…
I still maintain that the designers of these products do not test their products in the real world. Just like the last design with LCD screens that would turn black at just 60°C which the screen would easily be at due to the Italian sun, I would like to show you how this charging station’s southern-facing part looks like already.
With my batteries at around 85%, I make my way back home. The Tessin region of Switzerland is exceptionally beautiful!
On the way up to the Gotthard, I see a warning that there is some traffic and waiting time. It’s still faster to go this route, even with the traffic, so I stay on the A1.
The further I drive into the valley, the greyer the skies get. This seems weird after all these weeks with deep blue skies. Also, I’ve had to put on a jacket, as temperatures tumbled to 17°C.
The wait was indeed around an hour – no problem: I had a documentary to watch during this time 🙂
For me, entering the Gotthard tunnel is always a treat. Nearly 17km of straight and level road with perfect road surfaces and wildly varying temperatures – up to around 40°C from which ever temperature is present outside.
On the other side of the tunnel, I get treated to the best of grey, cold and wet. Only 160km to go – I push onward, feeling slightly cold already!
The rest of the trip is utterly uneventful. Less and less people look across or give me a thumbs-up: We’re in Switzerland and everybody knows the TWIKE around here.
I arrive at home late afternoon and take the same picture as I took 8 weeks ago: The road to Portugal starts at my doorstep…and ends here, too.
What a trip it was!
5840km, 38.4Wh/km, total 224kWh. My epic digital nomad PoC trip across Europe has come to an end. The 18th TWIKE adventure in 16 years has been the most enjoyable yet! …and I’m looking forward to my next trip already 🙂
I left 5840km ago with run-down tyres and was enjoying the slicks all the way – how do they look like now?
In need of a change! That’s what they look like – Andi from ksenotek has been notified that TW560 is in need of some TLC – a future entry, surely 🙂
Here come the stats for today:
Signing off from TDP2021! See you soon!