One Condition · Part 8 of 10

42 degrees Celsius in Lombardy

Day 8 of a motorcycle trip: 357 kilometers from Viareggio through Lombardy's 42 degrees Celsius, along the Gardesana and up into the cooler Trentino.

Lake Garda near Toscolano-Maderno in the late afternoon: calm blue water, a sailboat on the right, on the left the shore with a promenade and a ferry in front of hazy mountains.

From the sea, north. Lisa and I left Viareggio a little before eleven. The day began at the sea and ended 357 kilometers later in Trentino. First to Carrara, then through the Lunigiana, then onto the freeway and over the Apennines to Parma. Beyond Parma the plain began.

Lombardy in August is an oven. The bike’s display showed 42 degrees Celsius, plus haze, no wind, freeway and expressway, and the air that hits you is warmer than your skin. On a naked bike there’s no defense against it. That isn’t a headwind. That’s a hair dryer aimed at your whole body for three hours. Every forty minutes we stopped, drank, poured water over our summer base layers so something would cool, and rode on. That was almost worse than Morocco.

And then the lake

Eventually the Po came, then Brescia, then Salò. From there the Gardesana runs north along the western shore of Lake Garda, via Limone to Riva del Garda. After three hours in the oven there was water next to the road. You’d think that’s where you’d stay.

I didn’t want to stay. On the map I had seen that every kilometer north also brings elevation gain, and with the elevation the degrees drop. Lake Garda sits at 65 meters, Comano Terme at about 400. Nothing was booked yet, so nothing held us at the lake. A hotel a bit farther north suited me: cooler and cheaper. I searched for it at a gas stop on the northern end of Lake Garda and booked it on the way.

It got cooler right behind the lake, in the first hairpins going up. A little before seven we were at the hotel near Comano Terme. We ate, slept, and in the evening I looked at the map.

North of us lay the name that had been waiting on the way home since Pag. I knew it without ever having been there.

A lakeside road runs straight ahead; on the right, behind a parapet wall, Lake Garda stretches to the far shore, with a slender cypress in between; on the asphalt, the shadow of the rider with a raised hand — Around five on the Gardesana between Maderno and Tignale: the lake right beside the road

A lit road tunnel with a rough, unlined rock wall; in the left foreground the rider's arm and glove — A little after five: one of the Gardesana tunnels

A mountain road with a guardrail runs along the hillside, below it a wide valley with towns, behind it mountain ranges under light clouds — Above Riva del Garda, the first hairpins: the Sarca Valley below

A hairpin bend around a grassy island with an olive tree, above it a tall, light-colored rock face — The same climb, higher up: a hairpin beneath the rock face

A country road between a green meadow and a spruce forest, a bus far ahead, behind it wooded mountain slopes in the evening light — Around 6:30 in Trentino, just before Comano Terme

Day 8 in numbers

Item	Value
Distance	357 km
On the road	10:44 a.m. to 6:52 p.m.
From - to	Viareggio - Comano Terme, Trentino
Route	Carrara, Lunigiana, freeway over the Apennines to Parma, Po, Brescia, Salò, Gardesana on the western shore (Limone, Riva del Garda)
Elevation	Lake Garda about 65 m, Comano Terme about 400 m
Heat	42 degrees Celsius in Lombardy (bike display)
Countries	Italy
Overnight	Hotel near Comano Terme

October 27, 2026 · Written by Adrian, put into words by AI.