Monday, May 16, 2016

A Full Day around the Garda Region

Time and place are catching up with us now.  The daily routine has clearly accelerated as we travel, and our schedules are missing the time allocations to sit each morning or evening and keep the blog up to date.......it has become just too fast-paced.  This is all for the good, but it has put the blog a few days behind.  We will expedite the commentary and try to catch up!

Monday was a chance to slow down a bit and spend the day in San Vigilio and the surrounding towns.  We woke to a beautiful morning and just drifted around the locanda.  It was quiet and peaceful.  The lighting was incredible, so you are going to see way too many photos on this post!

Later in the morning we took a trip down to the town of Lazise.  We had not heard of it before, but saw it on our drive north the day before.  It looked quite interesting as it we could see in driving by that there was a lot of activity inside the ramparts and ancient walls of the city.  The guidebook said it was a bustling attraction, well worth the visit.  Well.......everyone else must have read the same reviews.  There must have been thousands of tourists.......90% of which were German!  No one was speaking Italian......it was all German, even the signage in the stores! 

It was one of the weirder experience we have had.  The town was beautifully reconstructed, but it felt like a Disney theme park, or even more like Epcot.  The difference is that it was all packed into a small reconstructed medieval town on the lake.  It was crazy crowded for a Monday........and we figured many of the German/Austrian folks must be on vacation this week. We actually bought of a couple of things and sat at a nice cafe on the waterfront for a cappuccino, but fairly quickly headed back to San Vigilio for lunch.  Arriving at the Locanda we found that the German tourists had totally overrun the Tavern lunch tables as well.  We went up to the room for a while and finally came down and found a table available around 3:00.  From then on, things calmed down and we had a nice afternoon.

Dinner was amazing.  We planned to tone it down a bit, but the waiter talked us into a special bistecca fiorentina they had on the menu......for two.  It was a massive T-bone that we both agree was the best steak we have ever eaten.  It was huge......check out the pics.  Off to bed full and exhausted!

Morning at San Vigilio
view from our sun room
friendly visitors
this is Barney......we got to meet him and his parents!  quite a swimmer!
view of main dining room
photos of royal visitors.......Prince Charles and Winston Churchill used to come here to paint!
more of the ground floor public rooms
boats docked in the small harbor
main locanda building from the tavern side
overall view of the main building
out on the dock
view of the front......our room on upper left
steps to the water
friendly fish......look closely
not so friendly geese......the big one chased me!
view to the lake through the palazzo courtyard (private)
Mid-day at Lazise
great mosaic in the old ramparts surrounding the city
very busy and a bit overcroweded
a bit on the weird side at times.....
the nicest part was the waterfront promenade
wonderful plants and flowers for sale
and gelato everywhere!
a typical small piazza and cafe.......so many tourists! We don't think anyone lives here
and eyes always watching
the only empty street we could find!
the waterfront
stopping for a cappuccino
nearly got pushed in the water!
nice small harbor area
nothing like a few good onions!
Afternoon & Evening back at San Vigilio

beautiful late afternoon view from our room
peaceful sunset
waiting for the bistecca fiorentina!
here it is!
along with a tray of different artisan salts and pepper.  I hate to say these were addictive.  This must have been a record night for our cholesterol!



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