Synopsis: Helen, Laura and I holiday in Italy. The first week was sight seeing in Rome and Florence, plus trip to Pisa. The second week (pt 2) was on Lake Garda, plus visits to Verona and Venice.
Sunday 30th August: Today we embarked on a walk in the hills just to the west of Lake Garda, walk 34 – Monte Castello (from book Italian Lakes – Car Tours and Walks).
Navazzo, our walk start pointWe pack a picnic lunch and set off for a place named Navazzo where we park our car by the roadside. The path first took us through the village, past a water fountain, out across fields to where the local church stood, sort of looking back on the village. A lovely setting. We stop a while to look at the church.
Steel cable to steady us (Laura's photo)
The path on from the church followed a track that and was easy to navigate, although we did lose our way a little way out, but corrected ourselves fairly quickly. Soon we were on the hillside walking a narrow but distinct path which was sure underfoot. When we got to around 300 metres from the summit of Monte Castello the walk became more of a climb up a narrow and steep ledge. A steel cable had been pinned to the rock face to be used to steady walkers as they climbed this last section. The views were quite restricted by trees as we climbed this last section to the summit, and it was only when we made it out onto the summit plateau did we finally experience a view out over Lake Garda that quite took our breath away.
The summit of Monte Castello
We were not the only people, there were 3 other couples on the peek. Helen found a visitor book that people who’d reached the top would sign. We were more interested in getting ourselves some food so we settled on some rocks and ate our sandwiches, nuts and biscuits. We ate our lunch in sight of this large cross on the mountain top, which later we were to discover was quite common for this country. A little below this point we’d already come across a little stone icon of the Madonna looking out over Lake Garda. These kinds of religious artefacts were everywhere we went.
Gargnano (courtesy sminky_pinky on Flickr)Setting off from the summit we found the initial descent quite challenging, but once we were back on the path the walking was relatively easy and not too hot, so we made good progress back to the car. We had packed our swimming costumes so we decide to see if we could find a place from which to swim. The place nearest to us was called Gargnano so I parked here and we wondered down into the village. We found this to be a very pretty little place with a small promenade by the water. The beach however was quite small, and although there were a few people swimming we felt a little like intruders and decided to give it a miss. We set off back to our apartment. We decided we would make a swim something of a priority for the following day.
Monday 31st August: Our intention for today was to fit in a swim in Lake Garda. I noticed from a map that I have that Sirmione has some beaches marked. The Rough Guide talks about swimming being possible from here, but that there are some slippery rocks that make getting in and out difficult. We feel we up to that, and as from what I’d heard Sirmione is a very pretty place, we decided to head for here.
Sirmione, guarded by ducksSirmione is situated on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Garda. In fact the town itself is a little island that can only be reached by crossing over a little bridge. The main car park is just outside the main gate for the town. As we walked towards the bridge along the lake shore we find that this bridge is guarded by a castle and mote. The only guard these days are some ducks and ducklings, which didn’t intimidate us.
Sirmione
The streets of Sirmione are narrow and winding. We wended our way through these streets in the direction of the first of the marked beaches. This is a pleasant looking beach, but not large, being only a thin strip of gravel, and was without shade. We decided to move on towards the next beach which was just around the next corner.
Here we found another nice beach, this time with a little grass (if you can call it grass) area behind it with some shade. Here we set up our camp and go for our first swim in the lake. It felt lovely and refreshing to be able to cool off from the constant heat that we’d experienced during the last week. I think we all felt that at last this was an opportunity for us to relax a little.
Laura has an Aquapac, something that she can put her camera in and submerse it in water. We took it in turns to take photos and video in the water, some of which came out well, provided the water wasn’t too whipped up and murky.
After our swim we had a picnic lunch back on the grass and then just lay in the sun. Ok, I have a small confession to make: yes, I did fall asleep for just a while. Well, it had been a very busy week, the first week of our holiday.
Sirmione, view across Lake Garda to our apartmentWhen it came time to go we walked a little way through a park and then out to the tip of the peninsula. From here it was possible to look across Lake Garda in the direction of our apartment set back on the hills. As it was to turn out, this was to prove the most relaxing and restful day of our holiday.
Tuesday 1st September: Our plan for today was to visit Verona. It was reckoned to be about a one and a half hour drive from our apartment. There was a little traffic congestion the final kilometre or so, which did delay us a bit for a time.
Roman arena c. 30ADThe first site we came across was the large arena right in the centre of town. This seems very well preserved. It’s not possible to enter the arena but we got a good view all around it. It is still used to this day, I think mainly for operas. It is the third largest Roman amphitheatre in the world, after the Coliseum in Rome and the theatre at Capua, southern Italy.
Juliet's balcony, but where is she?
From the arena, the other must-do thing in Verona is obviously Juliet’s house, of Shakespeare fame. In Italian Juliet is spelt slightly differently, something like Giuletta, and apparently there was a real woman of that name living here just before the time that Shakespeare came to write his Romeo and Juliet. Hordes of tourists had congregated here, many wanting to stand on the balcony, others wanting to be photographed standing by the bronze Juliet. Apparently one is supposed to rub one of her breasts to become lucky in love. I passed on that one.
Piazza delle Erba - named after Verona's old herb market
There was a lovely little street market nearby. We stopped here and eat some lunch. The buildings all around were very picturesque. One of the buildings had a painted facade. Under an arch hangs a large whalebone. Laura found a stall selling scarves and decides to get herself one for church visits where they are very strict on insisting women cover their shoulders. If you have nothing to do this with they issue with a blue bin liner type sheet of pastic that you are forced to wear, almost as a form of chastisement. I suppose in medieval times you’d have been put in the stocks, so I guess the bin liner is a marginal improvement on that.
Verona and the River Adige
Later in the day we walk towards the site of the Roman amphitheatre, which is just across the river from the main town of Verona. We find that this is a relatively cramped site, and that you have to pay to go in, so we settle upon some sneaked glances of this from the path that ascends the hill nearby. If we had more time we might have liked to have explored more, but by now it was getting late in the day, and we knew we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so we set off back to the car.
Wednesday 2nd September: Today is to be our planned trip to Venice. We had pre-booked train tickets for this day before we left England. The train station of Desenza was only a 40 minute drive away, and I had no problem parking in a car park for free nearby.
Piazza San Marco from the balcony of the basilicaTo think we thought Rome was busy, and it was. But Venice is something else. The place was heaving with people. We were warned that the queue for Saint Mark’s Basilica gets very long later in the day, so we set out for this as soon as we arrive on the square at about 9:45am, but already the queue is long.
St Mark’s Basilica is like no other church or cathedral that I’ve been in. I found its dark and brooding interior slightly oppressive. It has an unusual shape, not the typical nave, chancel and transepts of a traditional Christian church. It has numerous domes that are frescoed with seemingly Byzantine imagery, with gold the dominant colour. The place most reminded me of the mosques that we saw whilst in Istanbul two years ago. The audio guide that we later listened to spoke of Venice having a good deal of trade with the east, so I suppose that explains the image of this place.
You don’t pay to get into St Marks but many of the places that you might wish to visit inside incur a charge. There was a charge to see the altar piece, and amazing mural made our of semi-precious stones, saved from being plundered by Napoleon by some citizen of Venice being willing to hide it in his home, something that would have cost him his life if he had been found out. It is now the largest piece of medieval work of it’s kind in the world. Unfortunately photography is not permitted inside, so you're going to have to go and see for yourself.
Bronze horses from the Hippodrome of ConstantinopleThere was also a charge to go up onto the terrace where the four horses look down on Piazza San Marco. Well, this was something we could hardly skip, so we we off up the many steps to the roof. We felt it was something special to be able to look out over the square from St Mark’s. The various orchestras attached to the cafes and restaurants leading on the square could be heard playing. I presume that have some sort of arrangement whereby they take it in turns to play. Being on the upper heights of St Marks also afforded us a closer look at the ceiling the art work on which is staggeringly beautiful. There are funny high-level wooden walkways spanning the pillars. I was uncertain quite what purpose these serve.
Our visit to St Marks took an hour, longer than we thought it would, which was perhaps measure of just how interesting we found the place to be. I collected my bag (bags aren’t allowed inside the basilica) from the nearby office and we found a place to sit down and rest our legs. We were hungry, so we decided to eat our lunch. We just managed to finish eating before we were asked to move on from the steps on which we were sitting. Apparently sitting down in Piazza San Marco is ‘forbidden’.
Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs)We went to take a look at the Bridge of Sighs, which we could see, but it was very hemmed in by extremely intrusive advertising boards. We couldn’t understand quite why they allow this to happen, as it quite spoils the character of the place.
Ponte Rialto
Our next destination was the Ponte Rialto on the Grand Canal. There were so many people around the bridge that it was quite difficult to move. The canal itself looked very busy too, with boats darting here and there. Even the big canal boat buses, the vaparetto, were moving at quite a lick.
From here we wander around the maze of streets which make up Venice. We were struggling with the navigation, and out of desperation I buy a street map in an effort to improve upon the map in the guide book. In case you’re wondering about my GPS; the tall building and narrow streets meant that it was really struggling to keep a lock on our position.
Houses on the Grand CanalVenice is like no other place, and it was a delight to wander down numerous streets and across some of the many bridges. It is amazing to think that everything all around is built upon wooden piles driven into the mud of the lagoon.
We almost dawdled a bit too long, and suddenly found we’d gone from thinking we had all the time in the world to realising that we’d a train to catch and some distance to walk to get to the railway station. We make good time and arrive at the station with 10 minutes to spare. Our train is waiting for us, so we board and wait to leave. As it happens there’s a technical problem just 5km out and we’re delayed for nearly an hour.
It was a brilliant day. Venice was beautiful. We decide upon rounding the day off with a showing of the Italian Job DVD back at our apartment. Well, we could hardly allow the Italians to have the last word on our day could we? “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”
Thursday 3rd September: Today started with some cloud about and even a little rain. We decide upon doing a drive into the hills that are behind us. There is a route in the book AA Best Drives in the Italian Lakes that we settle upon, route 17: The Northern Shore. We pack a picnic lunch and our swimming costumes and off we set.
We drive out through Nazazzo, the starting place of last Sunday’s walk, and then proceed further into the hills. There’s no let-up in the driving, it’s bend after bend, and these were very sharp and the road quite narrow, so I needed to concentrate hard all the time.
There are many motorcyclists about, mostly German. This is quite obviously a Mecca for motorcyclists. Thankfully the roads are in very good state of repair, and therefore quite comfortable to drive.
Reservoir en route to Lake Idro (Laura's photo)Part way up into the hills we come across a large reservoir where we stop to take a look at the view. The hills all around are very steep it’s surprising anything can grow on them, but they are densely covered with trees. It’s really quite amazing that a road has been carved out of these hills. It really is quite a feat of engineering.
There were just a few remote villages that we came across on our drive. The emphasis is well and truly on the word remote. The felt remote even on our summer visit, quite how remote they are during the winter months, and how they manage to survive, I do not know. I’m fairly sure Tesco don’t deliver up here.
Lago di IdroAs we start to descend we found ourselves coming to our first destination, Lake Idro. It’s nearly 1pm so we decide to stop and eat our lunch. We found a place to park at the end of the lake, and a bench looking out down the length of the lake. It’s rather overcast with low level cloud swirling about the hills all around, but it’s dry and warm.
After lunch we set off for the next stage of our tour, which was to take us to Lake Ledro.
Lago di Ledro (Laura's photo)The scenery we drove through en route was beautiful, and more varied than that of the morning drive. As we approach Lake Ledro the sun breaks through the clouds and the lake looks gorgeous. We found a place to park our car and walked down to the lake. We were originally looking for signs of bronze age dwellings that we’d read had been found around the lake, but were distracted by the look of a nice beach. We decided this looked like a fine place to take a swim, so I went back to the car for our swimming costumes. The place was like a mini resort, even to the point of having fun peddaloes with slides on them. The water was a little bit cooler than we’d imagined it would be, but we did have a pleasant swim.
Varone Falls, a drop of 100 metresThe last part of the tour would take us in the direction of Riva de Garda at the very northern end of Lake Garda. Our plan was to visit the Varone Falls which we’d read about in one of the guide books. We parked up, bought tickets and began to make our way to the falls. We pretty soon realised that we were going to get wet, as other visitors, those in the know, were wearing rain jackets. And yes, sure enough, as we approached the first view point at the lower part of the falls, the water is splashing off the sides of the gorge and creating a swirling mist of water. There was no escaping it.
Helen taking a shower at Varone Falls
The steep sided gorge had been cut away by the water, falling one hundred metres, over a period of many thousands of years. It was possible to see the old water courses from previous times, before the path of water had cut yet deeper back into the side of the gorge.
Finally we set off back to our apartment. The road from Riva de Garda heading south along the western shore took us through countless tunnels. At the northern end of Lake Garda the hills seem to almost come down vertically to the lakeside. The tunnels varied from the modern, wide and well lit to the positively scary. Because the tunnels are arched, the older, darker narrower tunnels force high-sided vehicles towards the centre of the road leaving very little room with which to pass. One coach had stopped at the entrance to a tunnel, the driver seemingly unwilling to enter. Modern coaches are so much higher than older models, and these are right at the limit of what these tunnel roads are able to take.
Friday 4th September: We decide upon doing a couple of ‘easy’ walks from the ‘Italian Lakes – car tours and walks’ book. The first walk was to be walk 33 – Monte Castello (from book Italian Lakes – Car Tours and Walks). Yes, this appears to be yet another Monte Castello, should you have spotted mention of another on the previous walk undertaken on Sunday. I suppose there were quite a few mountain top castles at one time.
Santuario di Montecastello towers over Lake GardaWe parked the car in a small roadside car park and began the walk along a lane that took us up the hillside past numerous religious paintings each enclosed in a mini stone arch. We were soon approaching the church of Santuario di Montecastello which sits on a rocky outcrop that seems to tower over Lake Garda. The most spectacular view is further on up the hill from where it is possible to look down on the church and its setting on the edge of the precipice.
A walk along the precipice (Laura's photo)
There are several places along the walk where the path takes us right to the edge of the steep drop to the lake. The path feels safe and secure; it’s only when we walk the edge and look down do we realise the enormous drop there is to the lake.
We circle around and begin our descent through a woods. It’s nice and cool in the shade and we’re soon down to the road where we see some grass and a picnic table. We collect our car and drive back to this shady spot, but by this time another couple had grabbed the table (what luck!). Anyway, we’re more than happy to take our picnic sitting on the grass which is pleasant and comfortable.in the shade.
A bit to do yet! (Laura’s photo)Our second walk of the day is to be number 31 – Monte Bestone (from book Italian Lakes – Car Tours and Walks). We parked the car near a hotel and walk through the grounds until out the back we start to climb the hillside. Unlike this morning, which was a very busy place to walk, this is completely free of other people. The peace and tranquillity of the place was quite soothing. We draw out onto a high plateau thinking that we’d made the top when we look out across a valley and see another peak, higher than the one we were on, just a little further on. A quick map check confirmed that we had a bit more walking yet to do.
Summit of Monte Bestone, Limonie lies belowThe weather was quite threatening by now, with dark clouds looming over distant hills, and the odd patter of rain. We make the top of Monte Bestone from where we have a lovely view out over the town of Limone and down the northern end of Lake Garda all the way to Riva. We find the obligatory cross at the top of the hill of a silver modern design.
Our last evening at apartment Turelli
We speedily descend the hill thinking the rain might come in at any time, but it never did. In fact the weather cleared up and we had another pleasant evening. We sat out on the terrace to eat our dinner that evening, for the last time taking in the wonderful view we had looking out over Lake Garda. What an extremely pleasant place to stay this had been. I think each of us felt this was a place to which we could quite happily return one day.
Saturday 5th September: We’re up early today for the journey home, setting off from the apartment at 7am as planned. It’s expected to take us about 2 hours to reach Linate airport, and, with a final fuel stop to fill up with petrol, that was how long it took us. The journey was relatively easy to navigate and the going good, at least till we reached Linate airport, which we circled three times looking for the Avis rental office. There was just one little green sign saying car rentals this way. Little wonder we missed it.
There was an automatic check-in at which we were able to get seats next to each other, which was rather lucky, as I’m on a different ticket to them, as they connect with a flight to Stuttgart. We drop our bags and have quite a lot of time to spare before our flight. We snack on some biscuits and drinks, and take a look at some photos and videos on my laptop.
As we flew over the alps we were treated to some splendid views of the snow-capped mountains. How beautiful the sights of Italy had been these last two weeks; we were leaving with the sense that we’d only skimmed the surface, and that there was so much more to see and do. And also, as we flew over London, we had a superb view of central London, easily making out the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.
A sad parting of our ways came as we made our way through Heathrow Terminal 5. I have to go to the baggage collection point whereas Helen and Laura have to follow the route to flight connections. It was the end of what had been a wonderful holiday together. As is the case with all splendid holidays, the time had just flown by. But what memories we took with us as we went our separate ways.
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