Lake Garda -- post cruise suggestion -- a pictorial travellogue

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 20, 2015

Walk to Castelletto di Brenzone

Today was Tuesday and on this day of the week there is a local market taking place in the little town of Castelleto di Brenzone, which is some miles south of Cassone.

The county of Brenzone starts just south of Cassone and consists of around a dozen small villages, spread out along the lake and the hills.

Originally I had planned to hike to Castelletto through the hills via a very cool abandoned mideval village called Campo. Needless to say – after our strenuous climb into the hills the day before …. This was off the table… so very sadly I wished Campo goodbye and agreed to (only) stroll along the pedestrian walkway along the shore to Castelletto for both ways… and yes -- this time I took sufficient water supplies along.

The walk is easy, always on ground level and open stretches take turns with quaint little villages. There’s always something to see … but the distance is definitely longer than what I looked up streetwise in google maps. The 5 miles one way which I anticipated turned out to be 7 on the windy pedestrian promenade….so after returning to Cassone ….you can imagine we were all pretty pooped ….once again.

Had we taken the even longer trail through the hills … Tanja would have killed me for sure! Good decision. If you are interested in Campo however, there is a pretty, much shorter trail directly from Castelletto, taking about an hour to get there.

Anyway, in Castelletto you find the market right next to the lake, so when you walk along the promenade, you basically stumble right onto it.

It was a small market and we didn’t take one single picture … not because we didn’t find it worthy, but because we were too captured by the local buzzing atmosphere and soon found ourselves surrounded by wildly gesturing and Italian-talking costumers at the vegetable, meat and cheese vendors. There also were clothing, leather goods, shoes and minor accessories for sale… but the most vivid atmosphere definitely was at the vegetable/fruit booth.

It was tricky to buy stuff here… not only because of the positively agitated masses, but we didn’t understand at first why the sales women kept shouting out numbers like forty eight….of course in Italian.

Lol – after a while we found out, that in order to be served, you had to draw a number and wait to be called. I believe we had the 62

yup, it took us a while. Ordering was fun, since we could (had to) try out my Italian …. Quite proud to say it worked!

We had planned to buy all fresh ingredients and prepare a grand meal ourselves today. It ended up being beef (expensive yet fantastic quality!)with tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms with broccoli on the side … Of course prepared with Italian Olive oil. It was delicious. But maybe I was just starved after 14 miles of walking, of which I carried food in a backpack for half the way ;-).

Anyway, we loved the market! It was no tourist in sight and the place was bursting with locals … just what we enjoy most! No spectacular booths, just your every-week local market …. Perfetto!

On Saturday, there would be another market in Malcesine … We planned to visit that one too, since we had so much fun at this little one.

But here are our pictures of the walk to and from Castelletto:

Set one of two:

it was still a little chilly in the morning. The eastern shore of the lake doesn't see the sun till around noon, but it stays till the evening and you get to enjoy nice sunsets ... but I must admit I was a little jealous of the sunny terraces on the western shore at this moment.

this was a fun little sight.

most places were already shut down for the winter ... too bad, can you imagine dining on this pretty terrace?

open panoramic stretches

and cute little harbors

by the way, you can learn all kinds of water activities on the lake (mostly during the summer season). You can even learn how to sail and get a certificate for it!

more to come!

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 20, 2015

chilling on a pole

measly attempt to take a panoramic lake-picture

the lake does open up the further south you go

Three impressions of wildlife right at the lake:

ducks everywhere! It's stricktly forbidden to feed them .... but guess what loads of people do anyway? An interesting duck related Lake Garda fact: There is an advisory to not swim in the lake when the water temperature rises over 25 degrees Celsius, since starting at that temperature hatches a duck-parasite, which will seek and find a comfotable home in your skin and cause a nasty itch for weeks. Yikes.

No southern vacation complete without these guys

Yup, they have snakes here. Water snakes, land snakes ... even poisonous ones. This litte sucker was already dead, lying right on the promenade. Minutes after taking this picture we encountered her very alive bigger brother slithering right across our path into the lake. He was so fast though, that we didn't manage to get a picture. It was very exciting though.

The next day we would visit Monte Baldo. The most spectacular thing to do on the eastern shore of Lake Garda. You can look forward to breathtaking views .... but that's another post.

Stef

nursedibdob · November 20, 2015

So lovely to see these pics. I love Malcesine. Been going there since I was 24 (half my life [emoji15]). My best friend was married in the castle & I was her bridesmaid. I was there this September to celebrate their 5th anniversary 🙂

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 25, 2015

So lovely to see these pics. I love Malcesine. Been going there since I was 24 (half my life [emoji15]). My best friend was married in the castle & I was her bridesmaid. I was there this September to celebrate their 5th anniversary 🙂

:pwhat a beautiful place to get married! Do they live there or did they actually fly in for the event? Anyway it must have been a spectacular happening:).

Stef

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 25, 2015

Wednesday morning – blue skies … perfect weather for a visit to the summit of Monte Baldo.

The temperatures had risen over the last few days, so the snow up there, which had already accumulated, had just melted away the day before. Whoohoo!

We stuffed winterjackets in our backpack and walked to the ground station of the cable car in Malcesine. You can’t miss it, there are signs virtually everywhere. The tickets are a bit expensive, but it’s absolutely worth every penny.

Sigh, the dogs need to be muzzled to be able to ride along… Lena has never ever worn one in all her eleven years … no need to, she’s a sweetheart in each and every situation (well, except that one time when we just got her and she gently stole a cookie from a toddler in a trolley--- oh my God we were so embarrassed.)

We bought a muzzle for the pug as well, which proved to be difficult because of his extremely short nose. Sigh, it would mean a fight to get and keep this thing on him, so we decided on a muzzle-free alternative:

See the puggy?

These cabins hold around 30? people and they slowly turn while being lifted through the air. Very cool, since you get to see the mountain AND the valley with the lake during your ride.

Here’s a view of Malcesine while travelling in the cabin:

Half way up the mountain you have to get off and switch cabins. This is this half-way station seen from above:

And this is the station way up on top of Monte Baldo, where you are spit out to be overwhelmed by stunning scenery.

After just a couple of steps straight ahead:

And when you turn around you see the lake:

Jeesh, Lena IS getting old… she doesn’t even care one bit about the sheep. Unbelievable.

More to come…

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 25, 2015

just sit back and enjoy the scenery:

perfect picnic spot, don't you think?

the little stretch of land leading out into the lake is the Val di Sogno, which we'll talk about later

see the tiny line of people? Their little treck leads to a viewing platform, from which you have a nice view of the northern shore of the lake. It looks quite close, but believe me it takes a while. Anyway, here is the view once you're there:

Another reason for checking out this further off spot are these guys:

They start right from the side of the trail. Very cool to watch them take off right next to you.

a little lake right on top of the mountain .... geesh and those snowy mountains in the background .... It was real cool to experience it. But be careful after snow melts... there are only muddy trails through the grassy plain and it does get extremely!!!! slippery! Tanja fell right underneith that little lake and hurt her wrist. Not badly, but she decided to stay close to the cable car with the dogs, while Tarik and I checked out the Paragliders and the Northern view.

more to come ...

Edited November 25, 2015 by Kreuzfahrtneuling

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 25, 2015

trying to get a good pic of our dogs with a view in the back .... if only Lena wouldn't look so bored.

well, or we'll just take a pic of her back, while it at least seems like she's enjoying the view.

Tarik on top of the world

at least the kid really enjoys the view!

lol, these guys take it for granted I guess. Tanja was stoked ... She's a big fan of two kinds of animals... turtles and ...alpacas! So naturally this unexpected encounter lessened the pain in her wrist substantially.

just another pic, because it was so wonderful to look at it.

one more picture set coming up...

Kreuzfahrtneuling · November 25, 2015

these guys with the walkytalkies (is that right in English?) constantly checked the winds and communicated to the paragliders. Very well organized! Lol -- and the lady in the right was some Russian speaking lady... there were sooo many different languages heard up here... The variety was wonderful!

going back down ... sorry for the blurr.

This little excursion left us with an unforgettable impression of natures grandeur. If you are at Lake Garda .... and if it is only for a day .... plan in 2 hours for this absolutely breathtaking and humbling experience! You won't regret it.

Stef

posso · November 29, 2015

It's food for the eye!

What was the temperature? Could you tell if the locals spoke proper Italian or was it a dialect?

best wishes

Eric Walter

Liverpool

denisey · November 30, 2015

Sigh! How beautiful!

We have a paragliding club near us, it makes my heart stop just to watch them! And yes, walky-talky is the correct term.

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 2, 2015

sorry for the delay everybody .... I haven't abandoned you.

We're not sick either ... nobody died ... all is well. It's just that I have finally found a violin tutor who is willing to teach me on my left handed violin .... She's a pro and she's Russian .... which is just to say she won't tolerate any mmhhh, how do I call that ...non-worthy-improvement? So basically I spend my free time practising instead of review writing. But I'll try to squeeze you in again as soon as possible.

Posso -- the temperature down at the lake was around 12 - 15 degrees Celsius during the day and around 6 - 8 degrees at night. Up on Monte Baldo it was 3 degrees when we were up there.

Stef

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 2, 2015

posso -- oops forgot to answer the dialect question ... They spoke Italian as I know it from my books and cds. At least the parts I understood :D:rolleyes: ... sigh, I definitely have to work on improving that as well .... but the violin is gobbling up all the free time right now... so learning more Italian will sadly have to wait as well.

Stef

samavarcruiser · December 2, 2015

Been there, done that :)

Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

denisey · December 2, 2015

sorry for the delay everybody .... I haven't abandoned you.

We're not sick either ... nobody died ... all is well. It's just that I have finally found a violin tutor who is willing to teach me on my left handed violin .... She's a pro and she's Russian .... which is just to say she won't tolerate any mmhhh, how do I call that ...non-worthy-improvement? So basically I spend my free time practising instead of review writing. But I'll try to squeeze you in again as soon as possible.

Posso -- the temperature down at the lake was around 12 - 15 degrees Celsius during the day and around 6 - 8 degrees at night. Up on Monte Baldo it was 3 degrees when we were up there.

Stef

Stef,

I love that you are always working on becoming that "interesting older person on the bus!"

Waiting patiently!

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 13, 2015

thanks for the patience everybody!

...and denisey ... that bus comment made me blush .... thank you!

I managed to write another post .... here it comes.....

Stef

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 13, 2015

Thursday morning.

Since this would be our last non-weekend-associated day in Italy, we wanted to check out Verona today.

We sort of thought that traffic would be somewhat less insane on such a day… we were travelling in quite the bulky pick up after all and all we could do to minimize possible catastrophies were taken into account.

But before we wanted to check out the city of Romeo and Juliet, we wanted to buy our quite unusual souvenir …. a letter box … an original Italian letter box that is. Those are found basically on every house and we love the old fashioned and classy look. So we wanted to find a home depot store for the locals…surely that would be the place to buy such a gem … not so easy when you’re at Lake Garda, where basically everything is set up merely for the tourists.

But our holiday apartment came with free internet access, so we could google a bit … and found a huge mall in the middle of nowhere somewhere in the further out outskirts of Verona …. Perfect …. That’s where we would be headed anyway.

It was called the “Grande Mela”… no tourists anywhere and tons of locals. We loved it! And we managed to find the construction store and the letter boxes!!!

Here's a picture of the model we chose:

So now, whenever I go out to fetch my mail, I grin and am happy to open up my very own original Italian letter box … Lol .. even the little keys are exotically different. Loving everything about it! Best souvenir ever!

And after spending quite a bit of money at the also present gigantic supermarket, we continued on to Verona itself.

Our navigational thingy can do Italy! Theoretically, that is -- since in big Italian cities there probably won’t ever be a time, where no spontaneous road constructions, wild parking to the point of stuffing complete roads, or other reasons for right on the spot detours occur. So let’s just say that until we parked in the quite nice central parking garage next to a gigantic cemetery, we were vigorously honked at four times and my nerves were stretched to the max.

From the parking lot it is only a 5 minute walk alongside the old city walls to the probably most famous sight in Verona … The Arena.

One of these years I really wanna see an open air Verdi Opera in this structure …. But now we had the dogs along, the festival season was already over and Tarik is no fan of opera anyway.

So we basically just looked at the thing from outside for now. Tarik took a funky picture with his camera:

We didn’t really have a plan on how to tour Verona. All I had was a street map of downtown with the main sights pointed out. We definitely wanted to see the fake balcony …. Yes people --- it ain’t the one in the Shakespeare tragedy. I know it’s tough to swallow, but be brave now: sooo many tourists came along asking for the balcony at the actual Juliet’s house --- Juliet’s house never had a balcony in real life however … so what did they do? Of course they added one to get rid of the stupid balcony question. So we took a look, but didn’t even grant the thing a picture...

This central place was nice to look at though

note the Venetian lion omnipresent and wouldn't it be wonderful to hang out on that terrace way on top above the roofs?

My personal favorite thing about Verona: walking through the narrow lanes a little off the center -- and especially along the river Adige.

The building in the background is the former Castle of the de la Scala family… who also held the castles along Lake Garda, remember?

If you glimpse behind John-mops you’ll notice (or will just have to believe me) that these defensive shooting slits go out TOWARDS the city…mhhhh…

So now I guess is a wonderful time to give you a little history brief… hang in there, we’ll go way back in time…. In the next post.

Stef

spinnaker2 · December 14, 2015

wonderful pictures.

hows the violin coming along?

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 15, 2015

wonderful pictures.
hows the violin coming along?

:rolleyes:Lol -- I'm just returning from my weekly lesson ....

:oI'm giving my best.... but I do get very impatient with myself sometimes. I want too much,too fast (a general problem I guess) and tense up in the process ... so I know I need to take a deep breath, actively relax and try to let it flow.... tense, giddy, impatient old me of course will need hours and hours practising just THAT.... AAAAArgghhhhhh!!!!!!!

But my teacher is semi-happy and not about to throw me out and so I think I'm basically doing okay:cool:.

:)and ... I'm still loving it!

Will not abandon the review though! It'll just take a bit longer. I won't have lessons during the christmas holidays ... so maybe then I can get a bit more writing done. Especially the upcoming history post should be fun to write. I already have the facts, but to bring them in some sort of flowing context will be a task for another day. Until then!

Stef

spinnaker2 · December 15, 2015

We will all be here when you return.

Nice that you still enjoy the violin, an instrument I played as a child.

It gave me a stiff neck, and although I became first violin in our school orchestra, I quickly realized that guitar was trendier. I gave that up too and tried drums.

Now I just listen.

Wanted to mention that we had to put Bromley, our cattle dog, to sleep.

It's a huge void in our life, and our Border collie,Eloise, is also morose.

There is a group of veterinarians who realized that an in home Hospice would fill a niche. They came out to our home and Brommie went quietly to dog heaven surrounded by those who loved her and whom she gave unconditional love.

They are listed at lapoflove online.

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 15, 2015

We will all be here when you return.

Nice that you still enjoy the violin, an instrument I played as a child.

It gave me a stiff neck, and although I became first violin in our school orchestra, I quickly realized that guitar was trendier. I gave that up too and tried drums.

Now I just listen.

Wanted to mention that we had to put Bromley, our cattle dog, to sleep.

It's a huge void in our life, and our Border collie,Eloise, is also morose.

There is a group of veterinarians who realized that an in home Hospice would fill a niche. They came out to our home and Brommie went quietly to dog heaven surrounded by those who loved her and whom she gave unconditional love.

They are listed at lapoflove online.

OMG, I'm so sorry to hear that! It's been half a year that we had to let go of our Border Collie Cody and the void is still humungous. However our other Border Collie Lena is now back to her old self. She got thinner and thinner for 2 months to a point we really got worried (This Irish princess sure loves to eat otherwise) but one day she just turned right back to normal ... no idea why just then. So even if Eloise is suffering now ( which is sooo legitimate) I'm pretty positive she'll deal with it in her own timeframe. Just love her and integrate her into your daily routine as much as possible and I'm sure you'll suffer through this together. She'll be your strength and you'll be hers .... perfect deal.

But ... is it not common in the US for the vet to come to your house when it comes to that last journey?

Thinking of you, your family and Eloise and sending good thoughts.

...and I do feel honored to chat with a former first orchestral violinist (bowing in front of the monitor):)! When I have improved ---- wanna play a duett if we should ever get a chance to meet?

Stef

spinnaker2 · December 15, 2015

Stef,

No vets in my area make house calls.

In fact when the vet diagnosed Brom with Cushing Like syndrome, they basically said nothing they could do to help her except keep her pain free.

I went online and researched, found out about lignans and melatonin. Those two homeopathic remedies helped her in about a month she was symptom free. That lasted for about five or six months.

I also bought a cool bed, which one fills with water, it relieved her panting and she slept there in comfort.

I was a hospice nurse at one time and was determined to help Brom with her journey.

She was fifteen.

Kreuzfahrtneuling · December 15, 2015

Stef,

I was a hospice nurse at one time and was determined to help Brom with her journey.

She was fifteen.

...and help her you did! What a bonus for a doggy to have a hospice nurse for a "mommy".

And I must say that I have the greatest respect for that profession! Thank you for having done that! I couldn't do it --- seeing pets die is bad enough, but humans? The pain of the remaining relatives would give me the rest! I already need to blink back a tear or two sometimes when it comes to these situations with pets and their suffering owners.

Stef

denisey · December 15, 2015

Oh Spinnaker, I am so sorry to hear about your Brom! It always leaves a whole in our hearts when one of our fuzzy friends goes!

:(

denisey · December 15, 2015

I have to say, I love Tarik's funky picture, it would make a great greeting card/ note card!

I am looking forward to more information on Verona...I couldn't talk the husband into going there because of Juliet's balcony...he gets down-right livid when it is mentioned...but if I can show him there are other things of value to see, he might be willing to go next time!

denisey · January 7, 2016

I am hoping when Stef has her big violin concert, she lets us know! I want tickets for that!

:)

Lake Garda -- post cruise suggestion -- a pictorial travellogue

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