Travels on M/V Santorini

Monday, June 3, 2019

Italy, Part II

Riva, at the very top of Lake Garda, is a 3.5 hour trip from Desenzano on the high speed ferry. It is a beautiful trip with breathtaking scenery and ever changing topography.

Malcesine a winter ski resort

Optimist Class Sail Regatta 2019 with 1055 young helmsmen from 30 nations - largest in the world!

The regatta is held here because there is always wind

Beautiful Riva with the lousy Italian food

Leaving Riva behind

Approaching village of Lazise

Plaque on Lazise's gate

Lazise's harbor

Passing the Roman villa on Sirmioni on our return from Lazise

Wednesday April 24 - Saturday April 27 It took us about a half hour to walk to the Desenzano train station (up-hill the entire way schlepping luggage) for the short ride into Venice. It was an easy ride on the Vaporetto (water bus) from the San Lucia train station to San Marco and a short walk to our hotel Violino D’Oro. The only challenge was dragging the luggage up and down the steps of the two bridges with the number of tourists jostling us. We were rewarded upon arrival at the hotel by a warm welcome, fabulous view of the Moise Canal and a complimentary bottle of Prosecco.

The view from our hotel Violino D'Oro

San Marco's famous square

Another view of San Marco

"No Mafia, Venice is Sacred" A water taxi in the foreground

We took a side trip, taking an early morning train to Padua and an all day cruise on the canal boat, il Burchiello, back to Venice. il Burchiello, navigated several locks - we are old hands at passing through locks,and we glided by villages and many villas built by 16th to 18th century wealthy Venetians as summer homes. The Venetians traveled to and from their villas in private and lavishly appointed canal boats. The guided tour includes visits to five Villas and their gardens and a stop in the village of Oriago for lunch. About 100 people were on the boat, we were the only English speakers. As a result, we had one of the two tour guides, Olympia, giving us what was virtually a private tour!

Beginning the tour at canal in Padua

Villa Foscarini Rossi

Karl has long wanted a house with a pool table

Villa Pisani

Napoleon ousted the owners and took Villa Pisani for his own

The garden maze

For our final night in Venice, we wanted a quiet, out of the way trattoria; our concierge, Luca, recommended Trattoria alla Scala. It was perfect! The owner, Mr. Salvatore, is a friend of staff at the hotel. It is family owned and run. Since Luca had called ahead, we were ushered to a primo table in the corner of the dining room and presented with a complimentary glass of Prosecco. Mr. Salvatore sat at a table near the door shucking fresh mollusks and keeping an eye on the operation.

Saturday April 27 Our departure time from the hotel was a half hour before breakfast service but Luca opened the door for us to go in and help ourselves to cappuccino and the buffet. It was a short walk to the canal and the water taxi taking us to Marco Polo airport for our flight back to Paris. We hardly heard a spoken word of native English the entire trip and even then the accent was Irish or Australian. Our very few French and Italian words were met, at times, by equally few English words of our host countrymen. We managed to understand and be understood and everyone was friendly and kind. We savored every moment of the trip and will cherish our memories.

Our last views of Venice from the water taxi

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Italy

Wednesday April 10 - Friday April 12 Romantik Hotel Villa Pagoda is in Nervi Genoa at the top of a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea the coastline bending to the east and the Cinque Terre, Italy’s famous cliff towns. Genoa and the Cinque Terre are in Liguria, famous for its olive oil, pesto, focaccia and seafood. The city is rich in art, architecture and palaces that bear witness to the Republic of Genoa’s power and wealth during the 16th and 17th centuries. Though as in Provence, we were most awed by the natural scenery. Take a look!

Romantik Hotel Villa Pagoda

The balcony, upper left is our room

The Mediterranean is obscured by mist

Martini and Antipasti, poolside !!

A walk on the Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi, a little over two mile long promenade path that begins or ends at the hotel (depending on your perspective); with Nervi harbor and village center at the other end.

Gropallo Tower at the point ahead

Descending to the harbor and main part of the city

Saturday April 13 - Tuesday April 23 Our trip by train from Genoa to Desenzano Del Garda via Milan was uneventful. We were fortunate to be picked up at the train station by Ida and Paulo, the sister and brother-in-law of the owner of the apartment we have rented for the next eleven days. They showed us around the apartment and gave us a walking tour of the town, including the wine shop where we are able to have our 750 ml bottles filled from the taps of local Ligurian wines for 3 euros (just under $3.50). The apartment is a delight and if you are so inclined, you can check it out on VRBO search for Desenzano, Italy the apartment name is Carpe Diem. There is a view of Lake Garda from every window and from the bed! Carpe Diem includes a very private terrace with views of the Lake, of course, and also the Castle on the hill just above us. We enjoyed al fresco lunches there. We actually had a fair number of meals “at home” with ingredients purchased at the small supermarket, farmer’s market, bakeries and neighborhood grocer. We are so impressed by the quality of food and wine and low prices in both Italy and France. Restaurants were also reasonable and of high quality - great fresh food, great service and ambiance. We spent less on food in a month away than we spend at home in a week.

Garda is the largest lake in Italy, created by receding glaciers. The ferry dock is a few blocks from the apartment and provided a great way to travel to other villages on the Lake. Desenzano is at the lower and widest portion of the Lake open and airy, while Riva at the northern, narrow end of the Lake is hemmed in by mountains. The nearest village, Sirmione, is famous for the ruins of a Roman villa. Every village seems to have it’s own medieval castle to guard it from invaders. The farthest village Riva del Garda was part of the Republic of Venice until 1815 when it became part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After WWI it became part of the Republic of Italy. Riva is the only place we had bad Italian wine and food - we should have ordered a beer and the Schnitzel like all the German tourists!