The Lure of Duty Free in Livigno

13/09/2026

The road from Bormio to Livigno pushes up through villages and over mountain passes into a remote valley, a small nubbin of Italy slotting into the mountains of Switzerland like a tab on a jigsaw piece.

Parking at Eira Pass

The weather had cooled down a little, the clouds were swirling around us as we drove over the Foscagno pass and through the customs point that marks entry into the duty free zone of Livigno. Beyond the Foscagno pass is the village of Trepalle and the slightly lower Eira pass. This was also the location for our parking for the night. A car park sosta that looks over the road to the ski lifts and in nice weather has views of the surrounding mountains. It’s not a super cheap place to stay the night but still better value than a campsite and hopefully somewhere we could easily access the bike trails.

In the clouds at Eira Pass

You might think we should be happy with the cooler weather and use it as an opportunity to get out and about without overheating, but Paul decided he wanted to chill in the van. I popped out for a short walk up to the viewpoint at the Crap de la Paré where I could survey the town of Livigno below. A woolly hat and pair of gloves was necessary, a first for this trip.

As the day moved into evening the cloud started to rise and we took a post dinner wander up the ski slopes to check out the mountain biking trails. We’d watched people swooping down from the comfort of our motorhome and at one point we’d seen an air ambulance hovering above the mountainside. We found some nice smooth looking trails and a large jumps area. We got our bearings, confirming that we could bike down from our parkup to the base of the Mottolino gondola and get our tickets.

Bike Park Mottolino

Bright and early the following morning we were on the way down the nearest blue run to get to the ticket office. The gondola and it’s stations have been upgraded since we last skied here. The shiny new buildings and cabins were installed in 2024, another winner from the Winter Olympics investment.

Ready to hit the trails

Livigno has obviously put a lot of effort into the Mottolino bike park with a good variety of trails, jumps area and Northshore area. On the other side of the valley are more trails which we didn’t try out on this trip. The trails were reasonably busy, lots of English voices and plenty of kids (the local schools were still on their summer break), We watched some people jumping onto a large airbag, expertly landing without getting entangled in their bikes and nonchalantly bouncing off ready to go again. The following weekend would be an end of season event and they were obviously practising.

We were looking forward to riding the two long blue trails from the top, but sadly the blue enduro trail was closed. I didn’t want to be stuck on the one blue trail all day so, buoyed up by my experience in Pila, I ventured onto the red trails, avoiding the jumps but managing the twists and turns, popping up on the table tops and venturing onto some of the the wooden boards of the north shore zone. Only red trail number 9 defeated us, Paul went to the start of the trail and told me to wait while he sussed out the first section, only for him to push his bike straight back out again and tell me that it was too rocky and steep even for him.

Camping Pemont

Our cool day had just been a momentary blip in the endless sunshine and warmth that has characterised this summer. So by the time we finished our day on the bikes it was warm and sunny again. We had planned to head down and stay in a car park that night so that we could do some duty free shopping the following day, but we’d spotted that the car park was closed. A quick look at P4N indicated that we might find somewhere to stay but that most parking areas have expensive hourly charges. We were too tired to drive around on a search for parking so opted for a couple of nights in a campsite instead.

At Camping Pemont

Camping Pemont is one of a number of campsites in Livigno and is somewhere we’ve stayed while skiing so we knew what we were getting. The pitches aren’t huge, but they gave us the opportunity to get the chairs out and lounge in the sunshine (Paul had a spot in the shade of course). We used the showers (an extra €1) and wandered into the closest part of the town to pick up something for our dinner.

Duty Free Shopping

The following day we ventured into the town proper. It was Saturday, very busy, and the sheer volume of shops was quite exhausting. Paul wanted some Belvedere Vodka so we visited half a dozen duty free shops to see where it was cheapest. We could have gone in twice as many places but we just didn’t have the energy. It was a similar experience with outdoor shops. There were so many that it made our heads spin, we couldn’t keep track of where we’d been and what was a bargain. Fragrance and toiletries, high fashion, consumer electricals…it was a shoppers paradise. Like an enormous outdoor airport. But we aren’t lovers of shopping. A couple of hours was more than enough before we had to escape back to the peace of the campsite.

That afternoon I went for a run, heading along to the lake and reservoir at the north end of the valley. The far end of this lake is in Switzerland and a tunnel leads through the mountain, it’s the alternative way to get to Livigno avoiding the long drive through Italy. My run took me a short way along the eastern edge of the lake before climbing up the mountain back up towards the same point I’d walked to the previous day. I didn’t make it all the way up though as the path was closed part way. It was quite a climb so there wasn’t much chance I would have made it anyway.

Lago di Livigno in the sunshine this time

Our final duty free purchase was made the following morning when we topped up our Diesel and gas at the fuel station on the way out of Livigno. We were driving back the way we had come, past our parking at the Passo di Eira, in a long queue of vehicles who were also leaving on Sunday morning. The fuel stations in Livigno are always busy so we had a bit of a wait for an attendant to top up the LPG. He asked if we were also getting diesel and when we said yes he wrote the cost of the LPG on a scrap of paper for us to take to the cassa (cash desk). We had another wait behind a group of motorbikes before we could fill with diesel. At the cassa my request to pay for both diesel and LPG was met with a bit of bemusement. The staff working inside obviously didn’t have as much experience of motorhomes.