Lago di Garda/Lake Garda: Getting Lost in Malcesine

We drove north along the coast of Lake Garda and discovered the quaint town of Malcesine sitting on a hill overlooking the lake. Artist galleries, shops, cafes and restaurants were nestled in the narrow streets.

The town hugs the Castillo Scaligero, a 13th century fortress that is a prominant landmark.

Here are baby olive trees!!
The mountains seem to jut straight up from the lake, so there are no streches of flat land from the waters edge. For most of the drive the road is narrow and it is straight down on oneside and straight up on the other.

Lake Garda is obviously a big tourist destination and hotels were quite expensive at this time. German seemed to be the second most spoken language after Italian. In my quest to stay in places with "character" I booked a room overlooking the lake in the small town of Pregasina.

It was the most precious hotel, although a bit loud, the rooms were cute and the owners, a short stubby bossy wife and tall skinny overly nervous husband, along with their apparantly "regular" clientel, seemed to come straight off a BBC comedy sitcom.

The Hotel Rosa Alpina (the website looks much more put together than the hotel is actually run) had a marvelous view.

Lago di Garda/Lake Garda: Tooling around Sirmione

We ended our week with a drive up Lago di Garda, stopping at the occasional quaint town. Sirmione is at the very south of the lake, and had a small historical section jutting out away from the loads of hotels and guesthouses. It was busting at it's seams with tourists, especially those who seem to go from white to red instantly in the sun.

Still, the town was very cute and well kept. We had a picnic lunch and admired the blue the water and then strolled through town.

Here mom found an olive tree. Olive oil is a big product of the region and there were trees everywhere.

I never pass up Gelato, especially in Italy!

Someone is getting tired of waiting for us while we looked at the shops!!
Here are some amazingly large lemons!
We took turns playing "Who's Cuter??"

Verona

Really, Italy is just full of beautiful, picturesque towns to wander through. One is simply more stunning than the next. I feel similar about Italy as I do about India, you need more than a lifetime to just see everything!


Since we really only had about 5 days this trip to explore the region, we only had about a day in Verona.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was "set" in Verona, well actually Siena, but you can visit several fictional settings of the play thoughout the city. Here is a statue in honor of Juliet, in the courtyard of her home, under the balcony, where supposedly the star-crossed lovers met.

Needless to say there is some sort of tourist "it brings you good luck to put your hand on her breast" trashy tale... what does that have to do with the play?? Poor girl's right breast could blind you it has been "polished" so many times....poor Romeo is rolling in his crypt.

We enjoyed drinks and a lovely dinner with a view of the Castel San Pietro.

Verona also has several Roman edifices such as the Arena here.

Hot Minute in Vicenza

As I mentioned before, Mondays are slow to start in Italy. We went to Vincenza for only a few hours Monday morning just to stroll around the (empty) streets and admire some architechture.

Veneto Region: Wineries

We did not know that things in Italy are not usually open on Mondays, or at least not until late in the afternoon, which to me seems like a brilliant idea. Many of the Museums in smaller towns seemed to be closed, as well as most of the shops and restaurants.

Our drive from Vicenza to Verona is in the Veneto region, which is one of the foremost producing wine regions in Italy.

I never thought much of Tom-Tom's until we discovered that it provided winery locations. Sure, it had helped us navigate through Italy, find parking, gas stations, our hotels, but WINERIES!!!! Magical!!

Wineries were open on Mondays!

Wineries in Italy are nothing like those in Napa Valley. The prices are very reasonable and apparently they do not get even a fraction of the traffic that Napa gets, if any. At the first winery we stumbled across we were greeted by the barefoot cut-off jeans wearing owner who joined us for a few tastes.


In fact, I am sure this owner was surprised if not confused by my broken linguistic masterpiece question posed using a combination of Italian/Spanish/French/Portuguese ..."Can we taste your wine??"

I am sure he understood, perhaps his puzzled look was because it was before noon.


The landscape was magnificent and we stumbled across several quaint towns and fortresses like this one in Soave.


Through a series of hilly vineyards we followed the strada del vino or "wine road" which featured special road signs providing information on grapes and the wines that they were made into.

The Tom-Tom knows where the wineries are, but the roads to them are often narrow and resembling service roads. Oftentimes we were forced to abandon the mission.

The most appreciated wines in the region come from the provinces of Treviso, Verona, Padova, Venice, and Vicenza. The area around Verona, with its temperate climate and hilly surrounding, is believed to have cultivated grapes since the Bronze Age (I had to look this fact up!).

This day of exploring for me really was one of the highlights of our trip.

Venezia/Venedig/Venice

I really wanted my parents to see Venice.


My pictures are nothing spectacular but no picture really can replace the feeling of being there.


The first time I went to Venice was during the winter break of my academic year abroad which I was spending in Freiburg, Germany. It was right after I had studied Thomas Mann's, Der Tod in Venedig (The Death in Venice). It was February and we took an overnight train. At 6 in the morning we were required to leave our seats because they were reserved. I stumbled into the corridor of the train only to be startled by costumed passengers. It was February, carnival time. There were very few tourists during this season, so we wandered the labyrinth of streets and canals and let our imaginations control our senses as we encountered costumed characters.


Unfortunately on my first trip our cameras were stolen, along with our film....so a second trip was in order!!


Although tourists may have replaced the more intriguing congregation of masked company, Venice still has plenty of places that make it worth the trip. Just walking and admiring the city can leave you enchanted for days. Some friends of ours spent a few days visiting La Biennale, an international art exhibition. After seeing their pictures I could see myself spending a few days there. You can see their experience here.


I was actually surprised by how much cleaner Venice was in comparison to 10 years ago- it seemed less depressed somehow, buildings seemed to have more life or at least there were fewer abandoned ones then I remembered. People always say the canals are dirty and stink in the summer, but I found it to be quite the contrary.


We spent the day roaming the streets, admiring the architecture, had an overpriced lunch and drink on the water, bought souvenirs...a lovely day.


Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries by noon. Bad luck seems to be the case with cameras and Venice. I suppose I will just have to go back again someday.

Grossglockner Strasse: Alpine Flowers

Since I have lived in Austria, I have really become interested in flowers that are found in the Alps. I am a novice; once I get some free time I hope to educate myself a bit more in this area. I am just posting these for now, but as time goes on I will try to provide more information to accompany these pictures. Enjoy! I hope they tempt you to make a visit to the Austrian Alps!!
















What do you see in this last picture!!