The weather was in the mid 80s so we decided to head to a lake for the day. We have many lakes close by to choose from. This time, we chose Lago di Garda (Lake Garda). We have been to Lake Garda before but this time we went to Sirmione. Sirmione is on a peninsula and the dominant feature is Scaligero Castle. We took a tour of the outside of the castle and the views from the towers were fantastic.  I wish they had tours of the inside of the castle but they do not.  It felt like we were on a sea, not a lake. The water was very clear and many shades of blue and green.

I’m always the one taking pictures so I got some funny ones of Andy in the castle.

The cute town is located within the castle walls.  You have to walk over the drawbridge to get there. It was hot and humid so it was difficult to see the mountains across the lake. It was very crowded and got more so as the day went on.  I’d like to go back during the week so I can really look around the shops!

We ate lunch and had some cocktails sitting outside by the lake. It felt nice and reminded me of eating outside on Keuka Lake.

Anyone considering a trip to Italy should consider coming North to see the lakes. They are spectacular!

I met our neighbors across the street. Kind of. I was walking the dogs last night and I saw an older man stopped on his bicycle talking to a woman on the sidewalk. When they saw me they pointed and talked louder, in Italian. I smiled because I didn’t know what they were saying (I’ve only had 4 lessons!). The woman was talking to me so I told her that I didn’t speak Italian well. She said (in broken English) “Got postcard from USA. Is it yours?” I shook my head and said “Si”. She ran to her house and came out with a postcard that said the Finger Lakes on it. I said “Si, si, grazie!”. (See how good I’m getting at speaking Italian?)

My Dad sends us postcards from home. We really enjoy getting them. The first one he sent never made it because I didn’t tell him to put ITALY on it. Oops. Andy thinks it ended up in Maryland somewhere. My Dad numbers them now, so we have two-six. The postcards take a least two weeks to get to us. The mail system here is unreliable and expensive. We have to have a lock on our mailbox for fear of theft and everyone says not to get packages delivered through the mail and to use FedEx. Amazon deliveries are non-existent. Yes, I’m dying but we are saving a lot of money!

I’d like to send postcards back but I haven’t yet figured out the post office. You have to take a numbered ticket when you walk in the door and you have to know which counter to get the ticket from and it is all too confusing for me. When I can speak Italian better, I will figure it out!

I guess our neighbors know us as the Americans. Probably because we wear tee shirts and shorts on hot days. Italian don’t. It can be 70 outside and they are still wearing their puffy coats and scarves. We are from upstate NY so 70 is hot to us. It has only gotten to 80 a couple of times here so maybe they are waiting for the really hot weather?

Anyway, thanks Dad for sending the postcards. We really look forward to getting them! I’ll return the favor soon.

Hiking/walking in Italy is no joke. Everything interesting is uphill! But once you get to the top, the views are amazing. We took the dogs to Montevecchia to hike and look around. It was beautiful. We hiked up these steps to get to the Shrine of Madonna del Carmelo (at the top of the second pic).  We lit a candle and enjoyed the view. There were many athletes there running the steps for exercise. I let Sully pull me up!

These steps were tame compared to the path we later took. Hiking on the uneven cobbles definitely give your ankles a work out.  There was a guy on a unicycle on the path. I think he was there just to shame us.  We only hiked a little way and then turned around because we are so gun shy from the hike we took over Easter. We plan to get a map of the trails before we go wandering off next time. We were better prepared for this hike (see the backpack). 🙂

 

A lot of the streets in Italy are closed to most cars (remember the ZTLs) so its easy to walk through them. Most of the cars are really small here because the streets are so narrow. Many times we need to pull over to let someone else pass.

The views were stunning. I seem to say that a lot but it’s true. It is so beautiful here. We came across these cottages and I wanted to move in.

The coolest part were the individual tents serving wine and beer! It was a nice refreshing reward! We tasted and then bought some wine from a local lady who grows the vines in terraced vineyards in Montevecchia. She harvests by hand and makes Chardonnay and Merlot in limited quantity.

 

Montevecchia is only about 15 minutes away from our house so we plan to go back when the sky is clear. We could barely make out the Milan skyline in the distance.

We go to Lago di Como (Lake Como) a lot. We live less than an hour away and its a beautiful drive. Last weekend we went to Lecco on Lake Como. One of the reasons why we were excited to come to Italy was so that Andy wouldn’t have his two plus hour commute every day to get to and from work (Penn Yan to Ithaca). We now live literally 10 minutes away from where he works but if you catch the train crossing than its 20 minutes and I always catch the train! When we first found out that we were moving here I wanted to live in Lecco because it is on the lake but then he would have had a two plus hour commute again. Having a shorter commute was more important so we live in Biassono.

Lake Como is shaped like an upside-down Y. They say it looks like a man walking. Andy found these magnets in a store and changed one to look like Keuka Lake. Ha Ha! Lake Como even has a Nessi monster like Keuka too.

It’s fun to drive to one of these lake towns, eat lunch outside and walk around. Shopping in Lecco is like shopping in an outdoor mall. There were many stores to chose from and they were only a block from the lake.

The towns on Lake Como are connected by a ferry service. We are headed back to Lake Como on Wednesday to spend the day. We will probably start in Como and then take the ferry to Varenna and Bellagio. We found that parking is easiest in Varenna so sometimes we will put the car on the ferry to park it in Varenna and then hop back on the ferry to go somewhere else and come back to get the car later. Varenna and Bellagio are my favorite Lake Como towns. So far…

 

Andy picked out our house as I was still in Penn Yan. He did a great job. Our house is really cool. It has three floors, three bedrooms, three baths and two fireplaces.  He made sure that it has air-conditioning and a washer and a dryer. The yard is fenced in which is great for the dogs. All the houses here are fenced and gated. I guess there is a big problem with robberies. All the windows and doors have shutters that have to be closed when we leave the house. Italy is not know for violent crime but they will break in and you have to beware of pick pockets in crowded tourist areas. You can see one of our guard dogs looking through the gate!

The house is way too big for us but it will be nice when we have family and friends visit because it sleeps 8 comfortably. There is a weird room downstairs that is called the “tavern”. It looks like a tavern with a wet bar and a fireplace. We don’t use it at all. The cat’s litter box is down there.

We call this “Billy’s Room” because he was the first one to stay in it!

The laundry room is way too big and it has a full bath. Italians do not use clothes dryers. They hang everything (including their under garments) from their porches and balconies. It’s weird. The washers and dryers are so small here. We are really spoiled in the US with our massive washers and dryers.

The upstairs bath is huge. The kitchen is a separate room with it’s own door.
It does have heat but it does not have air-conditioning so I’m curious to see how hot it will be in the summer. The dishwasher is full sized but the stove and refrigerator are apartment sized which is hard to get used to when you are a food hoarder like me. In the Bath Road house I had two full size refrigerator/freezer combos and one full size refrigerator and one full size freezer in the the garage. I also had a full pantry stuffed to the rafters with food. That was fun to clean out when we moved. Not.  I shopped at BJs Wholesale Club weekly to feed my addiction. Now, we go to the Esselunga (grocery store) every couple of days because I can’t stock up. Maybe this adventure will break my food hoarding addiction?

This house has a lot of cool features. The gutter down spouts are gargoyles. There is a porch balcony off of each bedroom. It really has a park like setting with all of the gardens and flowering trees. I can’t wait until the roses bloom. The wisteria looks beautiful.

On a clear day, you can see the mountains from our house. I think they are the Dolomites which are part of the Italian Alps. Most days we can not see them because of the smog/fog.

We’ve all settled in nicely.