Veneto Adventures, Part II

Two other venues we explored in the Veneto were Lake Garda and Valpolicella.  Everyone has heard of Lake Como, thanks to George Clooney, but many Italians told us to "skip it" and go to Lake Garda instead, and so we did.

Our first trip to the lake was a short day trip drive where we ended up in the little peninsular town of Sirmione.  We parked, strolled through a lovely park and found our way to the preserved castle gate at the peninsula's point.  We passed through the gate and throngs of tourists (not our favorite company, though we, too, share the label) swarmed the area.

Julie, Ian & Sue 

The lake itself is gorgeous and we enjoyed sitting on a bench listening to a street musician play some lovely tunes on her guitar. As in most places, our fondest memory will be of food.

We stumbled upon a lake-side restaurant with tables scattered on a lawn and enjoyed a wonderful fish concoction while watching a toddler, almost Charlie's age, amble about playing with his grandma.  We got a bit homesick.

Ian & Julie on the Gondola

Our second trip to Lake Garda needs to be prefaced with another story.  While attending the opera "Carmen" in Verona, we got to talking to a dear English couple, Julie and Ian, who were sitting beside us and were very excited to be seeing their first opera ever.

They were in Verona only for the evening as they were staying at Lake Garda.  We chatted before the performance, shared our blankets, as it became quite chilly that night, and planned to meet the next day at the lake.

Julie had been to the lake several times and was familiar with the best things to see and do.  She suggested we take the gondola or tram to the top of the mountain in Malcesine and have lunch at one of the alpine restaurants, to which we readily agreed.  When we met them the next day, it was clear that in Malcesine, as with most lakeside towns, the number of tourists is large and parking is a challenge.

Malcesine Castle

After driving here and there where there was supposed to be parking, and almost parking where we would surely have been ticketed, we lucked out and secured a space (the last one available) in the underground lot at the base of the funicular.  Beware, drivers in Europe--driving and finding parking can be most frustrating experiences.

Lake Garda at Malcesine

We all got our tickets and, thanks to Julie, positioned ourselves in the rotating funicular to get the best views as we ascended.

What a gorgeous panorama!  We were able to see much of the lake and surrounding mountains and it was fun to see the town become smaller and smaller as we rose higher and higher.

Malcesine

At the top were sheep and cows, and, even horses.  The views were spectacular but the temperature had dropped significantly at that height, and the sky held ominous dark clouds.  We chose a restaurant and sat outside--at first.

Soon, however, we opted to retreat indoors as a huge cloud moved towards us threatening to engulf us.  We all had a great Austrian themed meal with lots of good beer and sausage.  When we saw the staff of the restaurant begin to rush to bring in outdoor furniture, we decided that maybe we should head back to the funicular.

The threatening cloud

Good idea, but late execution--there was a long line.  We took our place and waited quite a while, getting soaked in the rain that began a few minutes later.  Fortunately we always have a sarong in our back pack and were able to use it as a rain shield.

Down below at lake's edge, the sun was shining, it was warm and beautiful.  On top of the mountain it was cloudy, cold and rainy.  A true Alpine experience for us.

View of Garda from above

When we reached lake level, we walked around the town, took a very interesting tour of the local castle and had perhaps the best gelato ever (Gelateria Cento Per Cento).  We were sad to say goodbye to Julie and Ian, as we had had such a nice time with them, but bid farewell and drove back to Verona. They live in England's Lake Country, and we hope to visit them someday; they made it sound so beautiful and enchanting.

Valpolicella:  A most wonderful day.  In 2013, Erin participated in a yoga retreat which was held in the vineyard/guest house of the aunt of Erin's friend, Miles. Erin was enchanted by the setting and its proprietor, Lucia, and had urged us to visit. Somehow, we never found the time to make the short trip to Valpolicella until the day before we were scheduled to leave Italy. We are so happy that we made the effort, got to meet Lucia, and to see Villa Monteleone.

Antony and Lucia Raimondi came to Valpolicella about 14 years ago with the dream of creating their own vineyard and guest house, Villa Monteleone. Even though Antony passed away a few short years later, Lucia has continued to run the guest house and, perhaps what's more impressive, to operate the vineyard and produce award winning wines.

She welcomed us with open arms, showed us her lovely home and introduced us to her winery.  We passed a couple of hours listening to Lucia, marveling at her story and pluck, and, of course, drinking some of her delicious wine. As we were leaving (naturally with some of her wine!), she invited us back, and we hope that we will be able to visit her again--she is an impressive and gracious lady and the setting is fantastic.

Larry, Lucia & Sue