More lakes

We finished our stint at the lakes & the northern end of Italy.  From Garda we spent a few days out travelling the sights & our 1^st destination was Verona.  Verona was a weird place, where as in Milan I was pleasantly surprised; here I was a little disappointed.  Not to say it was horrible or any thing it just didn’t live up to the expectations.  But then where are they from?   The city is famous almost entirely from an ancient English Author who wrote a fictional play that just happened to be set there, a place (I’m pretty sure) he never even visited.  1 of the most visited tourist spots is Juliette’s balcony, which is place from the mind of a dead play-write about a person who never existed?  The whole place has an air of Disney about it not helped by the thousands of yanks waddling about.  It is also the home of the most complete Roman arena in the world which is still used today, not for the joy of killing Christians (mores the pity) but for fat Italians singing stories or in the case when we were there, a little gay pop stars putting on a concert.  We didn’t bother with Ricky Martin but we did go in & I suppose even I could see how good a night at the opera might be there, shame it didn’t start till July.  Dam it we couldn’t possibly come back!

Where for art thou

Two years ago, on our 1^st wedding anniversary, we spent 5 days in Venice.  We loved it, it is a spectacular place.  As we were so close to it again we couldn’t miss the opportunity to see it again so we popped back for a day trip.  It was every bit as amazing.  I’m not 1 to tell anybody to visit a place, we’re all different & we all know what we like & where we want to go but if you haven’t already been, GO TO VENICE.  There really is no place like it, or even close to it anywhere else in the world.  You don’t need me to tell you what its all about, you already know but seeing it as often as we have on TV, even being there before it is still an incredible place.  We had done all the sights before & didn’t need to go into any of the palaces or cue for the regular sights; we just spent the day ambling about finding the quieter (no such thing as ‘of the beaten track‘ here) parts.  We Kris crossed the labyrinth of streets & canals & must of walked a good few miles but it is well worth it.  We would still go back.

We spent a few more days visiting the lake side towns that surround Garda, got out on the water, took a few thousand more photo’s & drunk lots more booze before we set off for Bergamo.  This is an old town right in the middle of the thigh of Italy.  It’s more medieval than other places in Italy & totally different from the Milan, Verona et al that we’d been to previously.  Built on the top of a big hill it is an ancient collection of streets built behind a 5km wall.  You’re probably getting bored with reading it, I’m certainly getting a bit bored with saying it but it was great.  We had a bit of scare on the way back though.  We were in dire need of fuel & the whole city seemed devoid of petrol.  We did just about cough & splutter into the 1^st & only open garage we see.

On Saturday we drove all the way back to Milan, dropped off our little car, got the bus & then train down to the beach side town of Sesetri Levante.  We are back on the med.  All the towns surrounding Genoa (top left of Italy) kind of merge into 1 making a massive sprawling town built around a road & a train track.  It could be beautiful but its not.  Some of the coves & bays are stunning but the town is never ending & it seems all a bit tainted with commercialism.  It’s going to happen, I know that, but it’s a bit of a pity.  It’s a bit like Italy’s version of the Costa del Sol.  We haven’t been to Portofino or Santa Margareta yet & they are the jewels of the crown of this coast so my opinion may yet change.  Also from here we’re going to visit the Cinque Terre which is another UNESCO world heritage sight made up of 5 little fishing villages built into the mountains perched over the Med.  It’s supposed to be lovely, at the moment we cant see a thing for all the rain!