Very beautiful Italy
Very beautiful Italy
The species that awaited us on this trip, wins only the island of Madeira in the ranking of Europe. The trip to Italy impressed us very much and, as always, we want to share it with everyone. Like many other trips it all started almost a year ago, it was a hot August day. There was another job. I was sitting near the blue column and came across these promo tickets. It is already a tradition to buy a promo fare from UIA for a year) According to the experience of the Portuguese flight, I was waiting for the cancellation or change of my airline tickets. I had to wait until the end of autumn) Departure time has changed and I UIA agreed to change the return date for free. Now my short promo tickets have turned into a real full-fledged trip. Thanks again to the airline for this change.
As there was no talk of a visa-free date, it was necessary to fly to Hungary to obtain a multi-visa.
But the distance between trips had to be kept to a minimum in case of a short visa. Now I write and see how many movements and miscalculations it took to travel to Italy) It was a difficult task to miscalculate the route. Tickets for the Venice-Rome-Venice train were an order of magnitude more expensive than the Kyiv-Rome-Kyiv plane. That is, it was desirable to exclude central and southern Italy from the route due to unprofitability. But my beloved wife, as always, found the perfect route. Now we have everything ready, you can go on the road!
"Dear passengers, we are preparing to take off, put your electronic devices in flight mode. " And here the Amsterdam number starts calling me. I could not take the phone, and the plane began to take off.
I was hoping that now they would try to call me for the third time, but I had to disconnect.
The trip to Amsterdam is still long, but one nuance, it could not call the hotel, and the booking office that is located there. In general, something went wrong, but it is unclear what exactly.
Verona
The queue at the border seemed big, there was a lot of time to find out who called me. It turned out to be a booking office with a message that our hotel will not be able to accept us. Therefore, the hotel was replaced by a more expensive one at no extra charge. Now it is true that we do not live in the old town, but the rating promised to be good. Quickly wrote off with the hostess. They found out that she was in no hurry to the hotel. In general, we are not in a hurry. From the airport we drove to the city of Mestre, the mainland of Venice. From there they moved to the train to Verona.
The train went once an hour and fortunately the next one left 4 minutes after our arrival. It was necessary to quickly understand how to buy train tickets.
The ticket machine asked me so many questions and tips that could not be missed that when registering in our government agencies, fewer forms need to be filled out. Although the paperwork worked clearly here. Probably half a minute before departure we jumped on a double-decker train. Wheat fields outside the windows. Somewhere near the mountains on the horizon rain clouds are forming. The weather forecast was also quite pessimistic about our plans. But, fortunately, they did not come true in full. The announcer announced that we were in Verona. We got off the train. The landscapes in front of us did not coincide with my idea of Verona, but they were completely different from the concept of "city". Urgently need to catch a GPS point.
Unfortunately, a delay of 30 seconds. And, yes! We successfully caught the point and found out that it was not there. At that moment, the train left the platform. Something about Verona's route is completely out of control.
Fortunately, this was one of Verona's stops, but not the one we needed. Now we are on the outskirts. There was no one at the station. What do we have on the route? I just noticed one of the parks in the distance from the center. But he was not sure that we would have time to visit him, because it is far from the old city. And here we are at a distance. That's strange, so let's start not with the hotel, but with the park.
On the way we picked up a more cozy cafe and began to get acquainted with Italian cuisine. Interesting fact, but since "Italian" pizza is prepared in Ukraine, I like it more. But here, too, it was quite unusual and sometimes even delicious.
Justy's Garden
Bought tickets and loaded backpacks, now we have absolutely nothing. There was an unusual silence in the garden, as if there was nothing outside the city walls. The garden greeted us with winding labyrinths of hedges.
It is a pity, however, that the mazes were not human-sized. It was equally fun to wander through them. The atmosphere of the past years prevailed in the garden itself. Ancient unrestored statues looked very harmonious and seemed to transport you to the past centuries.
There were also the ruins of the castle with a real spiral staircase inside the tower. We went up a spiral staircase a lot of turns and found ourselves again in the garden, or rather on the second floor. From here there were magnificent views of the red roofs of Verona. The bell rang in the city, according to my calculations, it lasted forty minutes.
The garden was gorgeous, and the turtles were lazily basking in the sun in the fountain. In general, a fairy tale.
The road to the hotel lay along the canal surrounding the old town.
Despite the fact that we wanted to take our backpacks to the hotel as soon as possible, we went a long way to see as soon as possible what the walls of the old city are hiding. In general, we immediately liked Verona. Our hotel is located in one of the areas of the modern city. On the way to the hotel we met a lot of bizarre houses, as if everyone was trying to build better than a neighbor.
Our new hotel was in the style of high-tech and minimalism. At least our mansions. At the reception we were told that the usual rooms are over and we will be accommodated in a suite.
View from the private terrace
We had many rooms, our own terrace, a cool bathroom and a bedroom. It was really happy to stay in such a hotel, even at the price of the previous one, because booking pays the difference.
Unfortunately, we have this hotel for only one night. We settled down!
Forward to Verona in the evening! We started with Italian ice cream. Ice cream is delicious.
After the first tasting, we included it in the diet every following day. Unfortunately, I do not like sweets as much as I loved as a child, otherwise I would not leave the ice cream bench. The old town has many different attractions. But even without them it is very cozy to wander the streets.
The most romantic views open from the bridges, so we constantly went in and out of the old town.
You can still walk carefree along the stormy river. Sometimes there are some purring couples. But the brightest thing I remembered was the girl sitting alone over the lake, pensively staring into the darkness.
At first Dasha gave a surprised cry, then I realized that she is not alone, just hugs her so dark-skinned guy that literally dissolves in the twilight.
Even when we understood, I could not see any sequel except his head. Even in the city there is a large amphitheater, probably almost like the Colosseum.
We did not waste time on the amphitheater because it was not the first in our experience. Unexpectedly for us, Verona turned out to be not just a transfer city, but one of the best on our route, and as strange as it may sound, we liked it more than Venice.
But here it may still depend on which city you are more cheerful. In the morning at the hotel we were waiting for the royal-noble breakfast.
From crockery to croissants, everything was very entourage. It never left me feeling like I was in a museum. And as if there was a lot of food, but everything was laid out on plates as if this delicacy in the latest copy for the whole world. The hostess even prepared cubic eggs for us in a very unusual way. In general, our meal was a real art. Before leaving for the route, we once again went to the city to visit the house of Juliet.
The place turned out to be very popular. When the next Juliet went out on the balcony, everyone was very happy. From the outside, one might have thought that this was the Italian election of a minister. Climbing to the balcony was for money, opposite a souvenir shop with the same views, but without a balcony. In the bench, everyone who wanted money was spectacularly embroidered names in capital letters.
Well, Verona, I'm so happy, there are such cool cities in Europe!
Lake Garda
And now the most interesting. Dasha echoed these lakes. The photos were promising, beautiful, but in fact did not convey a tenth of the beauty that awaited us. It took us three hours to get to our first city from Verona with a change. Buses are waiting for each other. We even managed to eat ice cream for short transplants. But the portion far exceeded the time between buses. Therefore, ice cream treats from the outside looked like an Olympic competition in fast food. The lake appeared in front of us an hour and a half before our city, we could not look away from the window. It is perfect, blue, mountain and always different. We passed a beautiful lagoon, a few meters from which was an island. It would be faster to get there.
Malchesini
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We needed to go to the town of Malcesine, but we missed a bit and booked a hotel next door. Topographically, it is usually one city, consisting of two districts located four kilometers away from each other, but at a distance and visually it is completely different cities. The hotel was also on a steep hill. 5 minutes had to go almost on a vertical road. Everything was open in the hotel, go where you want. But there is no one. In addition to lying orange-lemon. I wandered around the area with a tablet to catch Wi-Fi and call the mobile hostess from Skype. With a wild apology, 10 minutes later the hostess ran and took us to a room with another luxurious terrace overlooking the lake.
View from the private terrace
On the other side of the lake we could see our next town. Despite the threatening forecasts, the weather was sunny.
According to the forecast, we were flooded with rain.
Now it was necessary to get to the real Malcesin and climb the cable car. The lift is expensive, 22 euros per person, but theoretically at this price you can take a bus from Verona + lift or have time to get up for 15 euros from 8 to 9 am, sacrificing breakfast and possibly weather. We decided that we might not be able to get up tomorrow, and we didn't want to miss such a chance. So we hurried to the city.
The ascent takes place in a large round car for 44 people. During lifting, the car makes two full turns around its axis. As a result, wherever you stand, you will see both the mountains and the lake. Guys with soft bulky backpacks went up with us. At the top of the mountain, the boys spread their backpacks on the lawn, caught the wind and parachuted far over the lake.
Upstairs, a large rain cloud caught on the other side of the mountain.
Fortunately, in about an hour the cloud cleared.
It was about 15 degrees upstairs, but we were prepared with things. You can walk there for a long time, our festivities dragged on for 3:00.
Although hiking trails can be moved to other mountains. We were at an altitude of over 1700 meters.
Sometimes we met ferrets. I tried several times to pluck the dandelion to blow it, but on the windy surface it instantly evaporated.
It was beautiful, beautiful and beautiful again. Every 10 meters there were views on which I wanted to take a dozen more photos. At the foot of the mountain we were waiting for an ancient tourist town with many narrow streets.
I just got high from every second of this trip. But how can everything be so beautiful? !!
Having bought chewable Haribo, we went to the pier and hung our legs and looked at the lake. Imagine, they even sell Haribo as Italian spaghetti. We ate each piece from different ends. A seagull dried up next to us, and every minute she said plaintively to us: “Pi! - Drink! ”.
Here's an interesting point, beggars are tense, and beggars are very cute. We wandered the streets a lot, looked at the castle and began to walk slowly along the four-kilometer promenade towards our hotel.
On the way we met a green area for paragliders.
In the evening no one sat on it and therefore a small drone was empty over it. The sun began to set over the mountain landscapes and the lake changed its face. Now it was completely different, but just as beautiful.
Although the road was not long at all, we always wanted to make stops just to sit and look at this beauty.
We took a leisurely step to the hotel, when it was completely dark. On the private terrace we were greeted by sunbeds overlooking the night Lemon sul Garda, which shone on the opposite side of the lake. Cosiness. The complete absence of mosquitoes completes the idyll. I was going to post photos on the Internet as if something had exploded in the opposite town. In a minute a magnificent salute began, which lasted 22 minutes! It turned out to be a fireworks festival in Lemon.
We did not know about the festival and came to the conclusion that in this way the city drives away the barn every night. How we arrived at the hotel on time. The sound of the salute was very unusual, because it was reflected from the mountains. Then a real storm began with an equally unusual sound.
It thundered like an avalanche if the mountains were snowy. Sunny in the morning and rare clouds. According to the forecast, it will rain in half an hour. Urgently to the mountains! We have half an hour. These cities do not suffer from a shortage of mountain routes. Fortunately, the rain did not begin, and we were able to make our eight-kilometer hike.
One day, however, the campaign almost failed. Somewhere in the woods nearby, a boar seemed to be drowning. Wild growls began. Dasha and I quickly inspected the trees around and assessed which ones we could climb in case of a meeting. By roaring, we determined that the animal was moving in the opposite direction from us.
Apparently, the boar also decided to see the panorama, so we just followed. The panorama, like the rest of the panorama, was magnificent.
But the long gray snake that awaits us on the way back, somehow not very much.
But, apparently, the snake was not waiting for us, and we easily missed it. More precisely, as it was: she crawled into the thick bushes near the path we had to walk. At the last kilometer we had the last adventure - a big skull of an animal. He was lying so neatly on the stone that when we noticed him, we were very scared. Yes, apparently, no wonder the entrance to our trail was a little fenced) But the forbidden forests have been very fond of us lately. That's it, Malchazin and I are done.
Was there a familiar feeling when you don't want to move on, and suddenly it's not so good there?
Limone sul Garda
Initially, it was a large couple that transports tourists between the two most beautiful cities. The lemon was even more beautiful than the previous one. When we swam up to him, he opened more and more of his beautiful houses and streets.
Later, tourists began to appear.
They walked the streets as if nothing had happened.
You walk in such a beautiful city, how can you walk without opening your mouth? Lemon, Lemon, Lemon! Said the captain and everyone landed. In this city, everyone spoke exclusively German. Italian was not heard at all. Surprisingly, the two cities are separated by a lake, and speak completely different languages. I even had an idea, and suddenly it's Germany or Austria. But on the map it is also Italy. The lemon concept was fully supported in the city.
Lemon decorations everywhere, lemon grocery stores and of course lemon groves.
According to GPS, our hotel Albergo was once a kilometer away. But luckily we came across it much earlier. Large sign "Albergo". Perfectly! We go to the reception.
- Is it Albergo?
- Yes!
- We have a room in your hotel!
- But it is not your hotel
It turned out that the word "Albergo" in Italian translates as "Hotel".
Well, then a short break and back on the road.
Our evening route ran along a mountain river with many rapids and waterfalls.
When it was completely dark, single fireflies began to light up. There was a dark, dense forest nearby. If there are fireflies on the shore, then there should be their colonies in the forest, the eyes just have to get used to it. The idea that in the Black Forest may not even be a black snake came to mind. However, we went deeper. One day two fireflies caught fire. And in half a minute the eyes got used to it and there were already dozens of them.
They flew and flashed a bright green light. It was charming and enchanting. Nowhere in the guides did we see that they are here. We met fireflies in the following place: if you go up the stairs from Limone sul Garda along the path along the river, then the same forest begins there.
On the way back, we wandered the old night city and went to bed.
For breakfast, the host clarified what we would drink - tea or coffee, I ordered a latte, for which I was told cold or hot. The question did not want to go out of my head. Why did he ask that? Gathering all the facts in my head. The Spanish word "leche" and the Italian phrase "preferably con lati" led me to think that I had ordered a glass of milk. And it turned out that I really brought milk, hot milk to the kettle.
Google promises rain again. The sky is thick.
They took umbrellas and went to the mountains, where there were fireflies yesterday. First there was a large two-level waterfall, then, as always, gorgeous views of the lake. The map led us along trails deep into the mountain forests. At first, even tourists happened to follow the same route. When the rain of tourists began, it decreased. We are not proud, we opened umbrellas.
Then the civil road left our route and the GPS showed clearly on the overgrown forest paths. In some places it was necessary to climb over the river on the rocks. It seemed that the rain was already quite heavy and with such a schedule from the hotel just did not get out. The end point was a rock with a waterfall. When we reached the cliffs, we saw a rain cloud on a nearby mountain a hundred meters away. The mountain disappeared from view.
A minute later, another large cloud passed the mountain, and moved directly on us, and not over us, but on us.
The downpour started so strong that I had to stand still with umbrellas for 20 minutes until the downpour started to go out. But I want to say one thing - the beauty and impression of these places will not spoil any rain. It really had its charm. I did catch a cold and get sick that day, but it was even worth it. There were no tourists on the way back to Limon.
It seems that everyone fled in panic from the elements. Only when the rain finally stopped did rare pairs appear. It was a delicious lunch. Our ordered pasta was taken out of the freezer and heated in a microwave oven. Now we knew that it was necessary to clarify the presence of deep-frozen foods before a meal, most often such dishes on the menu were marked with an asterisk. This is the plan for Limon. After milking, the lemon pie bought in the store could be moved on.
Riva del Garda
Each new city on our route was more beautiful than the previous one. Riva took all the best from Malchazini and Limone, and added her own elements. We lived in a cool hotel right in the center. We got off the bus, the view could not look away from the beautiful streets against the backdrop of giant mountains. Somewhere at the height was a temple, just below the castle.
The city is very beautiful. Here again, everyone speaks Italian. At the reception we were met by name and immediately given the keys to our room. A jacuzzi was waiting for us in the room. Great, the situation is already positive. But we will postpone the jacuzzi for the evening. We will not lose precious minutes. The rain also did not intend to lose its precious minutes. We only managed to get to the ice cream parlor. But now we had plenty of time to enjoy Italian delicacies. When the downpour turned to light rain, we began our exploration of the city.
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But this light rain did not want to end and soon turned into a downpour again. But that didn't stop us. It was beautiful! This city has a chic long promenade with islands and bridges.
Groups of ducks and ducklings swim along the lake and its tributaries. Sometimes swans sail away, somewhere in the distance.
The swan was like a regular river tram.
The city center has access to the port, over which rises the tower. The city is like a fairy tale. At some point, what we have been waiting for happens. The cyclone passes and the blue sky appears through the mountains. As a sign of triumph over the lake, the brightest full double rainbow appeared. In total, the rains flooded us for days. But now, according to the forecast, everything is fine from the sky. Everyone stopped to photograph the rainbow. It lasted a very long time and moved smoothly up the mountain.
Only the girl, who was lying motionless in a closed car, did not enjoy it. It was very strange, but we concluded that she was just asleep. Otherwise I would most likely be lying in the trunk. Now nothing prevented us from fully continuing our program. The city was divided by a mountain and all of it will be beautiful landscapes.
Here we start from the mountain. The body was probably shocked. 5 hours ago we were in the mountains in the forests of Lemon, and now we are climbing in Riva. It became a little cool, but for clothes to the hotel decided not to return. The mountain from the city seemed smaller than it turned out to be. Well, at least the GPS warned us that this is the beginning of the mountain range and the trail can be walked for weeks. From the top there were magnificent views of both parts of the Riva. And in the second part you could see how the river passes through the whole town, passes under a beautiful bridge and flows into the lake.
Surprisingly, they caught free Wi-Fi on the mountain.
And even arranged a live broadcast to parents. Riva del Garda deservedly receives the title of the most beautiful city in Europe among those we have seen. We were afraid that we would be bored on the lake for four days, but it was the third, and we did not want to go. In the evening I had a well-deserved jacuzzi and a cold.
The morning began with a royal breakfast. Seeing the range of cakes, fruits and various dishes, I mentally regretted that I could not physically try it all. Sunny weather was waiting for us on the street. Now you can start our final route, for which a trip to Lake Garda was planned.
Hike to Lake Tenno
Looking ahead, I will say that it is more rational to perform this route in reverse order, reaching by bus directly to the lake.
But the bus runs only once a day, around 12 am. And we did not coincide with the plans. First we drove to the city of Varone and went to the gorge.
It was a small ennobled reserve with many colors and classical music. A powerful waterfall fell inside the healthy gorge.
All the air was permeated with small drops, you can't take a picture of the waterfall with a camera. Watching it is also a difficult task. The closer to the water, the stronger it wraps with water spray. It's like a storm in the middle of the ocean. After climbing the gorge, we morally prepared for a long walking route. However, an employee of the reserve told us that you can go directly through the mountains, for this you need to turn left at the fourth table. It sounded strange, there was a cafe with a terrace in the reserve.
There are impassable walls along the terrace, but to the left of the fourth table there was a completely inconspicuous overgrown path. It was unbelievable that it would not end in a dead end. However, the manager was right, GPS even rebuilt our route. It was obvious that we are almost halving the route. Now our route was only through one mountain and three cities.
About an hour later we climbed the track, in front of us was a large castle and the first ancient town.
There is silence in the city, no one. Or rather, once someone looked at me from the window of a closed restaurant, but then ran away. You can see that the city is alive, well-groomed flowers, flower beds, even a motorcycle. But not the soul. Well though not at night we walked through this city. Okay, let's move on. The route was on the left, but our shortened route lay through the next trails.
The next stop was a large cherry tree with a bunch of ripe cherries. Then there were forests, fields and even a green tunnel of trees.
The second town turned out to be even more picturesque than the previous one. It was called Canale di Tenno. There were no locals here either, but single tourists were already wandering.
The town is very old and very beautiful. Corn is being dried on the balconies. In these lake towns you can make films about past centuries. Probably the directors do.
Our whole route was greatly simplified by the fact that every 800 meters there were columns with drinking water. Usually water is a resource that should be saved during the campaign, and here you can drink as much as you want and when you want. It was clear blue sky, beautiful green mountains and a temperature of about 26 degrees.
It was very comfortable with cold water. Since this town was on a hill, it offered magnificent views of the same small towns far below. Lake Tenno literally won our hearts right away. It would seem that we will be surprised by a small lake near the legendary Garda. But here is the color of water!
Is it legal at all?
Go down to the lake faster and walk everywhere. The walk around the lake consisted mainly of the fact that it was impossible to look away from this turquoise. Italy Bravo! You really showed us how beautiful non-island Europe is. At this place we completed our lake part of the route in full. Everyone should see this beauty. I will be happy to answer any questions and share details of our route. Just please come here and see all this beauty.
At 14:20 we were picked up by the only return bus.
Before the return trip to Venice, we ate delicious Italian fast food. It was as delicious as in a good restaurant. The way back was no less beautiful. The bus was riding high mountain serpentines passing all that beauty again. But, unfortunately, housing prices for the night here also broke our records for the price among Europe.
The lake can be reached in three hours from Verona. Now our route lies in Venice. First you need to take a bus to the transfer town of Rovereto. But this will be in the next story; )
