Bella Vita - Das gute Leben part 8

I woke up in a very dark room and I remember thinking...where the hell are we? Once the cobwebs cleared I pulled open the large shutters on our window. It was o-dark early...Florence was still sleeping. Unlike many of our hotels this trip Hotel Britagna offered instant coffee and tea in our room, nice for early risers. Sitting at our open window with a cool breeze blowing over the Arno river and the aroma of last evenings chianti coming from the empty bottle near my elbow, I realized my first impression of Florence 3 days prior was way off. Florence is a beautiful city and I'm happy we returned to explore, even for just a short time. We confirmed our previous nights decision to head for Lake Garda on this clear blue Monday morning. We first walked 2 doors down the avenue to a restaurant for breakfast that was included with our hotel, then enjoyed a beautiful morning walk making a loop across the bridges that span the Arno. We wished we had more time to spend in this wonderful city, but it was time to cinch our backpacks and head to the train station.






As I've mentioned before train travel is so easy and reliable, however this morning proved to be a tad bit confusing. The large Firenze Santa Maria Novella station, same one we arrived at from Milan, was full of people and the workers we approached did not speak English. We determined we must get in line to speak with an attendant. We had checked the train schedules and it looked like we would take the train through Bologna and transfer down the line. Our attendant spoke very broken English and was adamant that we were at the wrong station, he repeatedly said we needed to go across the city to Firenze Campo di Marte. Talking through the thick glass Donna did her best trying to describe where we were heading, including writing down notes for the attendant, we must be able to get there from this station?. He was so animated in advising us that we were at the wrong station, kept pointing back and forth at the map repeating Novella...Campo...Campo...Novella, or something like that. He reminded me of Woody Allen. Donna is persistent and we were sure we found a train route from where we were. After many minutes he realized we weren't trekking across town and stopped pointing and pecked away at his computer and finally handed us a train schedule including the route through Bologna. We smiled and said grazie! and he nodded and waved the back of his hand at us then placed his face in the palms of both hands, I had to laugh out loud! I sure wish we could speak Italian! With just literally a couple minutes to spare we were comfortably seated on the correct train!






After changing trains we sat next to a nice Italian man who was visiting his brother on Lake Garda. He actually lives between New York City and Rome and hadn't seen his brother in years, we met the most interesting people on this trip. After a 2 hour train ride we had to decide which of 2 train stations to hop off on the southern shore of Lake Garda....pointing at the map we said Desenzano...Pescheira...Peschiera...Desenzano? We chose Desenzano. Communication with the railway staff in the station was challenging again, so we simply checked our map and decided to walk the mile or so down the residential streets to the waterfront, a taxi would have been nice. Once there we found a ferry dock and fortunately we were an hour early for the last ferry going to Sirmione! Felt like we were participants in The Amazing Race!! Soon we were aboard the mighty m/v Trenton cruising on the largest lake in Italy. It's a beautifully picturesque glacier lake 32 miles long with max depth of 1,100+ feet. The Italian Alps proudly borders its northern shores. A calm flat 20 minute ride soon had us approaching Sirmione. On the ferry we met 3 sisters from Croatia who were on holiday, one lives in California now, they were nice enough to take our rare pic not requiring the tripod, thanks ladies!






I wasn't real sure what we would find in Sirmione which lies within the province of Brescia in the Lombardy region, but we read of interesting ruins from the Roman era, hot springs and of course the Scaliger Castle "Sinking Castle". After an interesting day of travel it was comforting to step off the m/v Trenton and plant our feet firmly on the peninsula. At first glance, BEAUTIFUL! Cobble stone streets, colorful buildings, flowers everywhere, smell of great Italian food perfuming the air...perfect!






We made our way through the Piazza Carducci and down a couple narrow shop lined side streets to the Piazza Castello, home of the Scaliger Castle, what a sight! Our accommodations were at the Hotel degli Oleandri, which sits right next to the castle. What a well run micro hotel, updated, clean comfortable room and the lake views from our large window were stunning.











It was getting late in the afternoon, so after acquiring some good local knowledge from the friendly hotel staff we were in search of food. Found a wonderful cafe next to the castle, Pizzeria Scaligeri, and enjoyed a great pizza and BEER! The atmosphere on their sun filled veranda was just what we were looking for. After fueling up we wandered throughout the small village lined with an incredible amount of shops, cafes and restaurants. Come to find out this is a popular holiday destination, but there weren't that many people during our stay, especially at night.














After our late lunch/dinner we started more exploring. The village is small but offers so much to see and we felt really comfortable and relaxed here. On the advice of our friendly waiter we headed outside of the main village and found a local wine shop, prices were much better than in the heart of the village. We grabbed a bottle of Monte Del Fra 's Valpolicello Ripasso Classico for the room, nice. On the way back to the village we walked along the quiet waterfront, it was pretty much just us and the 7 swans a swimming. It was a calm, relatively warm evening. The sun was beginning to set over the lake and I have to say it just might have been THE most colorful sunset I've ever witnessed. Sitting with our legs dangling over the pier a mom and her young daughter walked over and asked if I'd take their photo, they were Italians on a day trip, but what was fun was to find out the 10 year old was just learning to speak English, she was much better at it than Woody Allen! I wish I could speak Italian.













Back in the village we grabbed some gelato and window shopped a while, then stopped at a cafe for a drink. We only booked the hotel for one night, but during our walk we decided that Sirmione was worthy of more time, but that meant cutting another city off our to do list?! Upon our return to the hotel we inquired about staying an additional night, they said no problem and to let them know what we decided in the morning. Cool, let's sleep on it.












To be continued....ciao!

I have to go and take a nap. I can't keep up with the both of you! LOL! Once again, beautiful pics of the region. If you keep traveling like this, you better learn a few languages.

LBI2SXM, Niente riposo per gli stanchi! well...i'm trying!