Already sixty or seventy years ago it was the ultimate summertime dream of millions of Germans to cross the alps under the power of a horizontally opposed air-cooled engine and venture into Italy. My parents lived this dream with their Beetle as a very young couple in the late fifties and early sixties, long before I was born.
I have a horizontally opposed-air cooled engine too, I thought to myself a couple of weeks ago – let’s go to Italy! It wasn’t much effort to talk Mrs. terbang into this idea so we consulted bosco’s site and SD to find suitable airfields. In the end we flew this route. The trip was completely uneventful, so not much to write about, but maybe some of you enjoy the pictures or can even get some inspiration for their next Italy trip.
Our Italian loop
We did it all low level and all VFR to enjoy the scenery – Italy is scenic, for sure. We didn’t preplan the whole route, but decided where to fly next spontaneously, mostly depending on weather. In the end we flew Mannheim (EDFM) – Ravenna (LIDR) – Fano (LIDF) – L’Aquila (LIAP) – Pavullo (LIDP) – Biella (LILE) – Mannheim (EDFM).
Into the mountains
Fernpass
Perfect weather
Already south of Trento
Ravenna is a a touristy town and well worth visiting. However, it seems to be rather short of taxis. We couldn’t get one from the airfield to town, but a friendly fellow pilot gave us a lift. For the other direction our hotel arranged a private car but it was rather expensive for the short ride. Landing and parking for our Mooney was free, though.
Along the coast
Rimini used to be particularly popular with German tourists
Past Cattolica reporting point
Right base 05, Fano
Final 05, Fano
Parked for a night
The runway in Fano is compacted earth, most of the year but it was nice grass when we landed due to the rainy spring they had. You can walk to town or to the beachside hotels from the field as we did, but it’s not a particularly nice walk.
Chiesanuova
Monte Gorzano
Crossing the Abruzzi Apennines
Lago di Campotosto
Final 18, L’Aquila
We rented a car in L’Aquila what turned out to be a bit complicated without speaking Italian but in the end everything went well. We explored the region ground bound for a few days and stayed at an Agriturismo (Italian farm stay, usually offering half board).
Monte Catria
Badia Prataglia
Landing 02 at Pavullo is quite interesting as the off-set final approach follows a valley and there is a built-up hill in the extended centerline, so one can’t see the runway until short final. It’s not difficult but you may want to be prepared to avoid surprises.
Flying overhead Pavullo to join downwind 02
Runway comes in sight again
Now getting on centerline
Still a bit high, but the runway is long
You really don’t have to fly that far out, but I was there for the first time
Pavullo has a really nice airfield with an excellent restaurant. The town is nothing special, but we found the exceptionally good Agriturismo Beneverchio where we stayed for a few days. If you don’t mind an hour’s walk, you don’t need a car.
Even in Italy the weather isn’t always perfect: leaving Pavullo
Landscape is not that spectacular in the Po valley
Approaching Biella airfield in the Piedmont region
Biella was the last Italian airfield we visited on this trip. Landing is free if you refuel and the fuel price is reasonable for Italy. The town is not a major tourist attraction, but it makes for a nice afternoon.
Finding our way into the Aosta valley was a bit tricky that day
Towards Great St Bernard Pass
Grand Combin
Mont Blanc
Sion
Mannheim
I hope these aren’t too many pictures but I haven’t even mentioned all the sites that can be found around every corner in Italy, let alone the excellent food and wine! Anyway, I found still, after all these years, a horizontally opposed air-cooled engine is the ideal source of power to explore Italy 😉
Beautiful !
Great photos and story.
My parents went to Italy for the first time in the early 50s with a horizontally opposed air-cooled engine, crossing the old Brenner Pass road from Natters to Cortina in their Austrian hotel’s VW Bus. I first followed them in that practice a few decades later on an old BMW motorcycle, repeating the Brenner performance for the umteenth time only a month ago. I suppose I’ll do it in my Innsbruck based friend’s Mooney at some point too, he likes to fly to Verona 
@terbang thank you for the lovely report and pictures. Will check @boscomantico’s site.
Thank you mrs and mr Terbang for yet another very nice trip report. Looking at that pic of Rimini beach I don’t think that I’ll be going there in this life. Surely not without a GPS to find my way back to my sunshade.
BTW it was nice to see the mention of Pavullo and the surrounding area as the existence of the airport was a surprise to me when I stumbled across it a couple of years ago
Beautiful
Thank you for posting it.
terbang wrote:
Sion
In the aerial photo of Sion – who knows what the blue water feature is in the lower middle part of the picture??
Yes, its a wave pool of all things!!
You can ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon. https://alaiabay.ch/en/
That was a great report! Thanks.
PS Any numbers for the costs; landing fees, etc?
PS Any numbers for the costs; landing fees, etc?
It was mostly trivial. Ravenna and Biella are free, L‘Aquila was really cheap (outside parking was 10€ a day and hangar only 5€ more, landing negligible), Fano was a bit expensive for a grass field at about 30€ all together. Pavullo is cheap as well, only hangarage is a bit expensive.
