France to Milan, and Tosca at La Scala

Drove from Embrum to Milan today. The drive up to the border was initially through valleys next to the Durance river which is obviously a kayaking paradise going by the number of slalom courses we saw in the river.

The road then went higher and higher, through Briancon which was on last year's Tour de France route and then into ski towns.

The border was at the highest point of our  journey, about 1,850 metres above sea level. i.e nearly four times as high as the Rimutaka summit!

The journey down into Italy was initially through a continuous series of tunnels and overpasses - the longest tunnel was about 4.5 kms. Then we went across the top of Italy to Milan on the autostrada - an uninspiring trip through industrial cities - very smoggy - but the autostrada was almost a straight line for 100kms - the Romans would be proud!

Our Milan apartment is on the ground floor with the carpark right next to it but we had to squeeze our vehicle through the narrowest gate to get there!

We got dressed up like the locals this evening and went to see Tosca at La Scala. A great performance in what is a magnificent opera house. And afterwards we wandered back to our metro station through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and past the duomo which is lit up beautifully at night.