Col de Lombarde : My Italian pass

Starting at St Sauveur-sur-Tinee, (510m) I climbed to Isola village (871m) then to Isola2000 (2000m) and finally to the Col de Lombarde (2350m)
On the promise of free WiFi at Isola, I hung around trying to get it to work, but like most free WiFi points in France, it didn’t work. McDonalds is the only reliable free connection here and there are not many in the mountains!
Set off on the main climb at 12pm just as the sun popped out.
The hardest part was the cold.. gradually the layers went on for the last part the hat and gloves. I did have to stop on the way down to warm up and wait for the blood to return to the fingers as using breaks is somewhat less precise when you cant feel your fingers. 

Times like this I miss by beloved tripod. Still, just got another from ebay..

Top of Col de Lombarde (2350m)

Time for a snowball fight?

The crossing into Italy

I feel somewhat robbed of the views on the way down. Not knowing if the drop at the edge of the road was a few meters of a few hundred meters made it a bit tense. Not any barriers in many places. Even so the barriers are only shin height, not much use on a bike..