Katy Ereira

The Italian Trip (Part One)

Taking my time over blogging this, I know, but I've been rather busy since I got back - finishing off at one job and moving onto a new one... but that's a story for another day. Onwards!

So like I said, we flew over the Alps to a crystal clear Lake Garda...

We stayed in 3-star half-board accommodation Le Palme which was about what we expected in terms of quality. Basic, but in very good proximity to the lake, ferry and bus services.

On our first full day in Italy we caught a (very fast) ferry boat to Sermione, a spit at the southern end of the lake. We had our first taste of Italian gelato (mine's coffee!) and wandered around an old castle. The below photo is from the castle's tallest tower, looking north out over the lake.

Our next outing took us to fair Verona, where I was accosted by a gladiator and... wait, what is that? (am I being dense?)...

... I can't believe I actually shared that photo (if you look at the next in the series you can see just how genuinely horrified I really was). Despite that hustling, we went on up a watch tower, stood underneath Juliet's balcony (ahem, yeah right - the graffiti was amusing, though!), and traipsed up some hundreds of steps to reach a Geocache with a view.

No visit to Lake Garda is complete without a trip by cable car up Monte Baldo and the views, yet again, did not disappoint.

On the way up it was a beautiful day, hot, but not too hot. When we got to the top we were met by a nice breeze and snow. As we sat down to eat lunch it started thundering. As we reached Malcesine at the bottom it started pouring with rain and the thunderstorm was well and truly on top of us.

There are castle ruins in Garda called Rocca di Garda, up a bit of a mountain. There is a gravel trail that leads up to the top, a steep climb that took about an hour in a dress and sandals as everyone else strolled past us in full hiking gear. I'd advise against it, but there was another Geocache to be had.

To be continued... (in the meantime you can view the full series of Italy photos in my Italy, May 2011 set on Flickr.)