Italy - day 3

On Thursday, our last day, we woke to a cloudy morning, but the view of the lake was still beautiful. And we hoped that because of the clouds the day would be a bit less hot than the one before.

After a big breakfast we drove off, first towards the North and then East almost to the town of Rovereto and then along the river Adige towards South. We drove through many pretty villages and stunning scenery. I still regret we didn't stop a couple of times and take some photos.

We arrived to Verona at around noon. We drove through Porte Nuova, which is actually a very old town entrance, and found a parking space near the old centre of Verona. We walked through Porte Pentagona...

... and saw many palaces...

... and arrived to Arena di Verona. There were thousands of tourists everywhere and it was impossible  to make a photo without them.

In summer there are concerts and other events held in Arena. We didn't go inside, not just because of quite big entrance fee, but we also knew we didn't have time to see everything we would like to.

We walked through the narrow streets and there were so many beautiful old buildings. I have to admit that we didn't do much research about the architecture and history, so we don't know what the buildings are. Nonetheless, they were very worthy of photographing.

It was again a very hot day, so Captain used every opportunity to rest.

The river Adige.

This house is supposedly the house where Juliet lived...

... and this is the famous balcony. While the existence of both families - Capulet and Montague - is historic fact, there are no evidences that either Juliet or Romeo really existed.

After couple of hours we got tired of waking in scorching sun. On the way back to the car we passed more pretty buildings...

... and made a stop at a bistro. It was too hot for lunch, but just right for a big ice cream.

From Verona we took the highway and after three hours made a stop in Monfalcone. And from there it took us only another hour to get home.

Our Italy trip was short, but we saw and experienced so much in three days. We will definitely have to return to Lago di Garda, there is still so much to be seen. But maybe we'll try to pick less warm weather and will probably avoid the most crowded places.

Italy - day 2

Next day, after a big breakfast, we started our tour around the lake. We wanted to see the Strada della Forra first, the scenic road that is literally carved through the rocks. We drove through the hills on the West side of the lake, and everywhere were pretty views.

As we neared the gorge, along with several bikers, we saw the sign that said that the road is closed because of the roadworks for the whole week. What a luck! We still drove to the roadblock ...

... and then walked into the gorge to at least make some photos. What we saw was really wild and spectacular, so we will definitely have to come back.

This road is the only way to get back to the coastal road and since it was closed, we had to drive back all the way to Limone. We stopped a couple of times to enjoy the views.

Then we drove along the coastal road towards South, through many pretty small villages and towns. Our next stop was historic town of Sirmione. It must be the most touristy place at the lake, we couldn't believe the number of cars and buses parked outside of the old town. And it took us half of an hour to find a free parking space, even though it was 2 EUR per hour. We were a bit annoyed by it all, but I was determined to see the old town. It is built on a half-island, that is connected with mainland by a very narrow strip of land. On our walk to the old town we saw the remains of old wooden pier, that the nature started to claim back.

The entrance to the old town is well protected and very pretty.

It was getting really hot and the best way to fight the heat in Italy is a big ice cream. We ate it in a small park, sitting on a shady bench. Then we walked through the old town, and it was very beautiful.

We didn't walk to the remains of the fortress at the end of the peninsula, it was just too hot for it. We returned to our car and drove to the next place I wanted to see - Pesciera del Garda. We only walked around very little, it was still so hot. This is the view towards South, where the river Mincio is flowing out of the lake...

... also under this embankment ...

... with the town at the other side.

The town is built on the river and there is many canals and small islands and embankments. Here is the beginning of Muncio river once more with heron watching over it.

We drove on along the East bank of the lake towards North and our next stop was Torri del Benaco. It is again a small historic town with lots of pretty buildings. The green climbing plant with white blooms on the right in the photo is jasmine, it was smelling unbelievably sweet. We would even smell it from our car just driving by.

The town has a nice small harbour...

... and a castle, of course.

I'm not sure who these statues represent, looks like some older man reading to a young boy. And the captain.

This is how the castle looks like from the southern side...

... and there are many lemon trees there. I assume the construction above the trees can be used to protect the lemons from the frost.

We drove a bit further and made a stop at the lake for a small picnic. It was not easy to find a place where there was access to the water and where we could park without having to pay for it.

Before returning to Limone we made a detour to Lago di Ledro. It's much smaller lake, but it lays higher among the mountains. It is very pretty and up there it was much cooler than near lake Garda.

After all this driving and sightseeing we were starving. We managed to get to the restaurant nearest to our hotel and got some delicious pizza (again) and lasagna and couple of beers. A great ending to a great day.

Italy - day 1

Last week we finally made a road trip to Lake Garda. It's been on my to-do list for many years now, but somehow it was never the right time to do it or there was something else that had higher priority. Even this year we had problems finding 3 days for the trip, but I'm really glad we did. I divided photos in three parts, so there will be three posts, so they will be easier to read and foremost easier and faster to write.

We drove off on Tuesday morning, not as early as we planned, and decided to travel on local roads, not on highways. I'm not sure if it was such a great decision, since it took us quite a long time to get to Portogruaro, due to very heavy traffic and lots of roadworks. We made a stop not only to take a look at the town, but also because we were tired of slow driving in heavy traffic on such a hot day. Portogruaro made it all worth it. First we found a free parking, then we discovered a very pretty old town, and found some delicious ice cream. Funny how little it takes sometimes.

After the ice cream we were ready to explore the town a bit, despite the heath. This is Portogruaro town house...

... and this the leaning church tower - the palm directly in front of it and the lamp posts are vertical and if you look closely there's the metal rod connecting the tower to the church and keeping it from ending up on top of the church.

There is a lot of small rivers in the town ...

... surrounded by lovely old buildings.

And near those streams I discovered plenty of beautiful Banded demoiselles or pasastih bleščavcev (Calopteryx splendens). This is a male sitting on a branch ...

... and here are two females sitting on nearby bamboo.

This might be an especially dark specimen of the Banded demoiselles, but I'm not sure, could be some other species of demoiselles. His head looks quite hairy and scary.

This female landed next to me on the gras so I had to make some photos. She is missing two of her legs and has a dent near her tail, probably result of some attack.

The bamboo near the stream.

There were ducks in the water as well.

I was really impressed by Portogruaro, it is definitely worth the visit. Even if you are not a dragonfly fan like me. There is still a lot we haven't seen so we will have to come back.

We continued our journey towards the hills and after couple of hours of driving saw a castle on nearby hill. We drove there to see it, but the road up the hill was closed for cars. So we had a picnic in the shade near the mansion below the hill - under the cypress tree on the left ...

... and took the photo of the castle on our way back to main road. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the place where the castle is.

The road through the hills was more interesting and fun than the first part of our trip, we drove to Trento and then to Riva di Garda, and a little later arrived in our hotel Villa Margherita in a small town of Limone sul Garda. And it was even more pretty than on the photos on booking.com! These two photos are taken from parking lot next to the hotel...

... and this one from the restaurant Al Tamas less than a kilometer to the south from the hotel. We had a great meal there, pizza and pasta of course, and couple of beers and tiramisu and brownies with ice cream. And we were surprised by very moderate prices, the location and the view are obviously for free.

Back at the hotel we were sitting on our balcony, admiring the views and discussing the day, that was so full of events and impressions. And another full day lay ahead - the plan was to drive around the lake and stop at all the most beautiful spots.