Sirmione, with its Scalinger Castle, is the jewel of Lake Garda. Sirmione occupies a peninsula jutting into Lake Garda. We cycled to the castle walls and continued on foot from there. We followed the pedestrian coastal path towards the Roman era ruins known as the Grottos, past geothermal waters and beaches. The tip of the peninsula is known as "Jamaica Beach". We then made our way back down the peninsula, grocery shopping along the way, before returning to our B&B for afternoon coffees. We strolled along the lakefront near our accommodation before once again turning our attention towards consumption: beer and chips, pasta, ice-cream, and Limoncello. Having already seen the sights the day before, we had a relaxing second day in Sirmione. We had breakfast included with our stay and then once again took advantage of the B&B's bicycles, cycling along the beaches and eventually back to the castle gates. With some "downtime", we experimented with new ways to consume our Limoncello: making "high-test" radler, and adding it to limone sorbetto.
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Although Milan is a big city with much to offer, we were there for its magnificent Duomo and the subway took us right to it. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is basically a really fancy shopping mall that links the Piazza del Duomo to the Piazza della Scala (Opera). Castello Sforzesco We wandered around much of central Milan and Parco Sempione before taking the subway back to our accommodation.
Ferries criss-cross Como Lake connecting all points of interest. We made the short trip across the lake to Varenna and wandered around the town. Our next ferry transported us across the lake to Menaggio. We enjoyed some hazelnut ice-cream while in Menaggio, then took a third ferry back to Bellagio. Having completed our sightseeing, we went grocery shopping and took advantage of having our own kitchen. We ended up having gnocchi, squash ravioli, coffee and cookies, potato chips, lemon gelato, and Italian beer, and tea.
My first objective was to take my own photo of the view down Salita Serbelloni past Aperitivi Et Al; you can see the results below. After quickly completing my mission, we walked all around Bellagio, going to Punta Spartivento at the end point. We saw San Giacomo Church and checked out several shops. We ate doner kebab and spicy salami pizza. We stayed two nights in a huge apartment right next to the Gardens of Villa Melzi. The lakeside walk from Bellagio is lovely and our apartment featured an electric Bialetti. We checked out the riverside San Giovanni Beach.
A 30 minute train took us to Como where we saw the Piazza Cavour and caught the slow passenger ferry to Bellagio. The more than two hour ferry made many stops along the way, affording us gorgeous views and plenty of photo opportunities. We admired the beauty of Como Lake and marveled at the wealth in evidence along its shores.
Lugano is all about its lovely lakeshore, so we strolled the promenade all the way past Parco Ciani before heading back through the city, spending our final Swiss Francs (mostly on chocolate) along the way.
Morning coffee proceeded a scenic train ride over lush mountains, past winding roads, through tunnels, and over river canyons. Our station stop's graffiti décor offered stark contrast to the natural beauty of the surrounding area. We were welcomed to our Locarno accommodation with some coffee, then we headed straight to the city's main square, the Piazza Grande. We explored the small tourist city centre and checked out the "Walk of Fame" on our way to the waterfront. Many celebrities of note have visited and performed in Locarno, including: Roxette, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Elton John, Carlos Santana, and Bryan Adams. Castello Visconteo We happened to be there for the final night of the "City of Guitars" festival, so we ate dinner in the square and checked out some live acts. Later, we continued to listen from our nearby room while enjoying coffee and chocolate for dessert. #pizzainthepiazza #locoinlocarno
The weather in the morning made us even more appreciative of the previous day's blue sky, as the Matterhorn was not at all visible through the thick fog and cloud... just as well that we were moving on! It took us all morning, and into the early afternoon, to reach our Airbnb apartment in Stresa, Italy, with its unique rooftop bedroom with views. Once settled, we quickly headed off to catch a boat to the main attractions, the lake's beautiful garden islands. The islands are very close and are serviced by regular ferries and water taxis. Our first, and primary, stop was Isola Bella, famous for Palazzo Borromeo and its accompanying Italianate baroque garden. In 1670, Count Vitaliano Borromeo decided to create a "place of delights". The palace includes six grottoes covered with pebbles, tufa rock, stucco, and marble designed to provide cool relief from the hot summer weather. The palace displays a puppet theatre and several huge tapestries, some of which amused me. The gardens centrepiece is the Teatro Massimo and its ten terraces. We walked the narrow streets of the tiny village of Vicolo del Fornello. The boat made a stop at Isola Superiore de Pescateri, but we opted not to disembark at the touristy island of restaurants, cafes, and shopping. We continued to Isola Madre to visit its 16th century mansion (begun in 1518) and its English garden established in the early 1800s. The mansion houses two puppet theatres from between the 17th and 19th centuries. Many of the puppets were simply creepy. In front of the mansion is the enormous, famous "Cypress of Kashmir". The ferry made another stop on the mainland before taking us to the tourist centre of Stresa. We wandered the crowded streets for awhile before walking past the fancy waterfront hotels, along the lakeshore, and back to our accommodation. Beer, coffee, and chocolates completed another fine day.
We spent the morning travelling to Zermatt, arguably Switzerland's most famous resort town, located below the iconic Matterhorn. We checked out Hinterdorf, the most historic part of town with buildings built between the 15th and 19th centuries. Most were used as stables and barns, for grain storage, or as small homes. In fact, Zermatt is much smaller than we'd anticipated, and the tourist section is smaller still, so we wandered around most of it in a short time. Our full day in Zermatt was dedicated to hiking and getting better views of the Matterhorn. Clouds had swirled around and past it all afternoon the day before, obstructing views and effective photography. We were so happy to wake up to beautiful, clear blue skies. We hiked through the tiny community of Findeln. We made it to Sunnegga! We'd earned some rest and recreation at Leisee Lake. Despite a considerable amount of hiking, we made it back to our hotel room by noon! That gave us all afternoon to enjoy ice-cream, beer, quiche, and coffee. LOL We walked through the town centre all the way to the far end and back again, as well as doing some window shopping.
The views from the train between Lucerne and Interlaken offered hints of the beauty to come as we headed to the Swiss countryside. When we arrived at Interlaken we learned that our Eurail pass was accepted on the Lake Brienz boat which was leaving in under 7 minutes... After what turned out to be three hours on the lake, we took a 20 minute train to Lauterbrunner, then a cablecar to Grutschalp, and a final 15 minute train up to our mountain destination, Murren. When we reached Chalet Fontana, we discovered that we had a large bedroom with a wonderful view. We decided to walk down to the village of Gimmelwald (and back up again) before enjoying our afternoon coffee and chocolates. In the early evening, we wandered around the idyllic town of Murren. Afterwards, I enjoyed a beer while watching the clouds gather and eventually become a thunderstorm that lasted most of the night. I woke early to clearing skies and magnificent beckoning views. After running around taking early morning photos, it was great to have a nice breakfast included with our stay. It was even better to have the wonderful company of Jim and Sarah from Mississippi and Brad from Hawaii. Brad treated us to such a fantastic ukulele performance that we made him promise to play again in the evening. We inadvertently took the long way around to reach Allmendhubel atop Murren. We then deliberately hiked the North Face Trail to Schiltap for its impressive views of the North faces of the Bernese Alps. The hike features excellent views of the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau and their glaciers. We got close enough to have decent views of Schilthorn peak above us. Murren and its surrounding area provided the postcard perfect images that we'd envisioned and hoped to see when dreaming of Switzerland. My cheap, delicious ice cold lager went down perfectly after a long hike in the warm sunshine. We then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon that included coffees. We were disappointed with the community sports complex's (not so) hot tub, though. After dinner we enjoyed more coffee before Brad entertained us once again with his exceptional ukulele skills. Murren was so nice that I felt compelled to take one last shot as we left.
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