Ok, finally on Italy. Pictures at
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3HXdk3yr89hiPT6h8 and I made a Google map at
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1fhhXpGIO44dTa6J-W-9i6KGh8Wuw-J4&usp=sharingDay 1 - We got there via an overnight flight through Dublin which let us have a big Irish breakfast during our layover. Flight went smoothly, with some lovely views of the Alps on our way in. From the airport a bus ride to Venice - we're staying at a hotel that's walking distance from the bus depot and near the grand canal which will give us easy access to the Vaporetto (water bus) system. After checking in we go around the corner for our first meal - and food really was one of the highlights of this trip - Sam goes for some mussels and squid ink risotto for me, and first of many, many spritzes, the drink of choice here. After that do what we've heard is the thing to do and that's just wandering the tiny "streets" of Venice. The place really is a photographers dream, every little street/canal is just so picturesque. Anyway, walk over to the nearest plaza which is the Campo Santa Margherita and nearby is the "bridge of fists" where rival gangs would try to fling each other into the canals. On the walk back make a stop for dessert and drinks and then to bed, we've got a big day tomorrow.
Day 2 - This is our do the obligatory tourist things day. We ride the Vaporetto down the Grand Canal to St. Marks square taking in great views all along the way. We have morning tickets for the Doge's Palace which is suitable impressive, especially all the artwork, which is just wall to wall everywhere. Of note to me and we made a point of going, was a special exhibition devoted to Marco Polo - afraid no photos allowed there, but they had maps and journals from his famous travels - really cool stuff. We had some lunch on the Square and then next was St. Mark's itself. There the tour is relatively short, but they do allow photos so there are some at the link above, absolutely beautiful. We have a little bit of time before our next tickets and so go to wandering and find some gelato like you do. Then to the Correr museum, which was kind of odd, because it has several disparate collections without much connection to each other. It was on my list because one of those is on Venetian cartography and includes some truly magnificent globes, kind of sped through the rest as getting museum'd out. After that we want to get outside for awhile, we take the Vaporetto to
the San Michele cemetery, which is on a separate little island. The ride there goes around the southern end of the island so we get some views of parts of Venice we don't otherwise visit. The cemetery itself is lovely, a very quiet and peaceful place, especially after the crowds of St. Mark's. From there a short hop back to the main island and then a long wandering walk back towards the hotel. On the way is dinner at Trattoria Cea which is excellent. We also go over the famed Rialto bridge on the way, though by this time all the shops there are closed, but still, nice views of the canals.
Day 3 - We sleep in a little, give our poor feet a chance to rest, then back to the Vaporetto to the Acaddemia. The Acaddemia is Venice's main art museum, and it is very nicely curated, museum is laid out in an order to take you through the evolution of Venetian art - it is a lot though, I'm not sure I needed this much art, but it does very much help in understanding the art we see elsewhere in the city. We have a tasty lunch nearby with more spritzes. In the afternoon a short boat ride to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore - sadly no tours available, we would've had to book them earlier, there is a large labyrinth here I would've liked to have done. We do however go up to bell tower of the church here for some amazing views, the city wide shots in the pictures are all from here. From there back the main island for more wandering. That includes a stop at the Frari, a large church that has most of its renaissance artwork intact and it's cool to see it in its original context. We also stop to gawk at an impressive toy collection, mostly from the 70's and 80's. Another stop is the "bridge of tits" marking where the brothel district used to be. For food we do several stops, first at a wine bar, mostly just because we needed a break, dinner is at a pizza place, and then a separate gelato place for dessert.
Day 4 - We must bid farewell to Venice, we'll be staying the rest of the trip at an Agritourismo, which is a B&B at a farm. Most of this day though will be spent in Padua which is on the way. To start off we have to return to the airport to pick up our electric rental car. It's our first time with an electric car which will prove a bit of an adventure. This day it's pretty easy though, we find a parking garage near the center city where we can leave it to charge while we wander. I wanted to visit the university here, one of the oldest in the world, largely for its connection to Galileo, it's here that he taught and did his first observations. We aren't able to see too much of the university because classes are in session, but do take a look at the courtyard which reminds me of Oxford and Cambridge with all the coats of arms of the various schools. There's also a little plaque marking where Galileo lived on a very unassuming residential street. Lunch is at a little sandwich shop. In the afternoon we continue on to the Basilica of St. Anthony which is another massive church filled with renaissance artwork. We do a long walk, much of it along a river in town and gawk at an old observatory tower, though it is closed, and then back through town to the car, which involves more gelato. Finally on to our stay place which is in San Pietro, a little town surrounded by vineyards just north of Verona. It is absolutely beautiful, website pictures didn't really do it justice, and they give us wine. In the evening we have the pre-arranged birthday dinner for Sam at Locanda dal Nane and it is truly decadent. The primary wine from this region (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpolicella) is called Amarone and it figures heavily as we have a bottle and it's in most of the dishes, such as the Amarone risotto. We do four courses in all, and stumble our way back home.
Day 5 - In the morning we have a pre-arranged tasting at a nearby winery (FlaTio) that is close enough to walk to, which itself is a pleasant hike through the vineyards. The tasting is fun, a little more involved than a typical tasting here, the host gives us quite a bit of background on both the region and their winemaking methods and the wines themselves are excellent. The afternoon is spent at Aquardens (
https://www.aquardens.it/en/) - there was a meme going around about how there should be adult themed waterparks, and that's what this is. Built over hot springs, there are a wide variety of pools and water features at various temperatures, both inside and out, including a "river" you can kind of float along in, and poolside bars. They also host movies and concerts, though none while we were there. There is also an attached spa which we did take advantage of, both getting massages. All in all very relaxing, there may have been more spritzes involved. For the evening, we went into town to get the obligatory laundry out of the way and picked up some sushi for dinners.
Day 6 - So the plan for today was to drive around Lake Garda, which we do, though not without some hiccups. The day starts out well enough, driving over to the lake and then heading north, the north end of the lake is in the mountains and the scenery is just stunning. Unbeknownst to us however, there is a marathon going around the lake this day going the other way around - so we get to Malcesine and the road is closed - we try to go into the hills a bit to try and get around the main road and end up getting trapped between road closures. So resigned to being stuck until the marathon ends we manage to find a hotel that has an EV charging station that they'll let us use, and there is a restaurant across the street called Le Dase where we have what may be our best meal of the trip, definitely rivals the birthday meal of two days ago. Knowing we have some time to kill we get wine and cheese, and a beef carpaccio appetizer the is large enough to feed an army. Anyway, we do eventually escape Malcesine and continue our drive. Riva del Garda at the north end of the lake where we were originally planning on doing lunch ends up just being a drive through. Heading back south the terrain gets a little crazy. For those that don't know, this is where the opening to Quantum of Solace is filmed (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtJBLevKK6g&ab_channel=JamesBond007) - sadly that particular stretch of road is closed due to roadwork, but we do go through a whole bunch of those pseudo-tunnels that have one side opened to the lake. We stop at Limone which is famous for its lemons and especially limoncello. The town is built into a hillside and the views here are also spectacular, limoncello is had and this is probably were we do our most shopping for souvenirs. Continuing on there's nothing particularly fun, we get stuck in very heavy traffic trying to get around the southwest end of the lake and running low on both light and charge for the car we just head straight home and do a late dinner of leftovers.
Day 7 - Today is spent in nearby Verona. Sadly the morning is wasted dealing with the car. We were kind of lulled into complacency because the first couple of chargings we did were easy, but our luck ran out. The trouble is EV chargers, while plentiful, may or may not be open, may or may not be compatible with your car, and none of them take cards, they each use their own proprietary app to pay, which may or may not be usable for non-EU citizens, and you won't know any of that until you physically go to the charger and try it, most of which are inside pay lots. The car did come with a Shell dongle, but that was connected to a UK-based app which showed 0 locations in Italy. We tried 4-5 locations, including a short term one at a Lidl which gave us just enough charge to look for more chargers. We finally found one at a Hyundai dealer on the outskirts of town, their app didn't work, but amazingly that Shell dongle did. We had lunch at a nearby sandwich shop and then Ubered into town. The afternoon goes well, we gawk at the Arena, smaller, but older than the Colosseum of Rome, and arguably better preserved, it's now used as a concert venue. We also go to La Capitolare (
https://www.bibliotecacapitolare.it/) which claims to be the oldest operating library in the world and they have a small exhibit showing off samples of their collection. Immediately adjacent are a couple of churches, St. Maria Matricolare which has some impressive artwork in it, and St. Elena which is notable for the archeological work there exposing Roman era mosaics. We wander around old town Verona including a bit of river walk and passing the Scaligeri tombs (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaliger_Tombs) - the one time ruling family that put their tombs up in the air so they could keep looking down at their subjects even in death. Happy we were able to salvage most of the day, we have some more gelato and return to our car. For our final meal it is back to Lake Garda to the town of Sirmione which is on a narrow peninsula that stick out into the lake. Dinner is lovely with a view of the sunset and some bonus limoncello.
Day 8 - Our last day is all travel. We return the car with about a 5% charge left. Our Venice to Dublin flight runs a little late, so no time for duty free shopping in Dublin, but we do make our connection and make it home safely.
Things we didn't get to, we had planned to spend more time in Sirmione, there is a castle there and ruins of a roman villa on the very tip of the peninsula. Would have also liked to have squeezed in a 2nd winery, or maybe some hiking, there's also a cool looking cliffside monastery near Lake Garda that was on our list. If we had time for another town it probably would've been Parma to get some cheese and prosciutto.
All in all though a pretty fantastic trip, the food which was pretty great everywhere. On to planning our next adventure, though I don't think any other big trips for me this year. Sam is a different story though, as she went off to Greece without me, a bunch of pictures from that on her FB. We'll see what next year brings.
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