I appreciate your kind word Jo; I do my best.

Thanks Longshadow.

Thank you Earnest; much more to come.

Thank you NMGal; Switzerland is beautiful, but we only had one day there on the drive through it. We spent 5 days in Switzerland in 1973 and plan to visit it in the future.

Thank you Kathy; it was a lovely cruise, as was part 2 on the Rhine. I posted a new set earlier today at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-805926-1.html

Thanks Earnest, I'm glad you are enjoying the tour. Ferraris are very special, the only negative in my view is that you can no longer buy one with 3 pedals. However, they are beyond my budget anyway.

Thank you rdemarco.

Thanks for the triple thumbs up nimbushopper.

We returned to our hotel at the end of our final full day at Lake Como and in Italy. We had a delicious dinner in the hotel dining room and then got ready for the next part of our adventure. We left the next morning for a drive across Switzerland to Basel and our Rhine River cruise to Amsterdam. Note that The Swiss border is only about 5km (~3 miles) from the Como ferry terminal and Basel is about the same distance from the German border with Switzerland. See the map below for our route that took us past Lake Lugano and a lunch stop and tour of Lucerne.

After about another hour of driving and enjoying some beautiful Swiss scenery, we drove through the Gotthard Tunnel. The Gotthard Road Tunnel is 16.9 km (10.5 mi) in length below the St Gotthard Pass, a major pass of the Alps. At time of construction, in 1980, it was the longest road tunnel in the world; it is currently the fifth longest. Although it is a motorway tunnel, part of the A2 from Basel to Chiasso, it consists of only one bidirectional tube with two lanes. With a maximum elevation of 1,175 metres (3,855 ft) at the tunnel's highest point, the A2 motorway has the lowest maximum elevation of any direct north-south road through the Alps. The tunnel rises from the northern portal at Göschenen (1,080 m (3,540 ft)) and the culminating point is reached after approximately 8 km (5.0 mi). After 10.3 kilometres (6.4 mi) from the northern portal there is the border between the cantons of Uri and Ticino; after another 6.7 km (4.2 mi), the tunnel ends at the southern portal near Airolo (1,146 m (3,760 ft)). The journey takes about 13 minutes by car, the maximum speed being 80 km/h (50 mph). The Gotthard Road Tunnel is one of the three tunnels that connect the Swiss Plateau to southern Switzerland and run under the Gotthard Massif, the two others being railway tunnels. All three tunnels bypass the Gotthard Pass, an important trade route since the 13th century.

My previous post can be found at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-805858-1.html, while the first post of this series (that includes a map of all of the places where we stopped) can be found at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-801137-1.html

Next up: More of our drive across Switzerland, with a stop in Lucerne

Cruising back to our hotel

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Our trip back to the hotel was at a higher speed than out cruise around the lake to Bellagio

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I took this on our short walk before our final dinner in Italy, after two wonderful weeks in this beautiful country

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From Lake Como to Basel

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Near the Swiss border

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Lake Lugano near Capolago

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We stopped for a short break at a fuel and rest stop after the tunnel that had a couple of interesting metal sculptures

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The view from the fuel/rest stop

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Thank you CCPhotoist, I appreciate it.

Thank you Jo, I'm happy to share. I'm a lucky man.

Thank you Jo.

Thank you Jo; we liked it so much that we went back there last year. The gelato was delicious!

Thank you Jo; Lake Como is a spectacular place.

Thank you Jo. There is so much to see in Italy.