12 September '05, Monday.
After our stay at the "Palacio", we drove into the village of Desenzano del Garda. Finding a parking place, we ventured through the streets and alley ways just to get a feel for the place. Other than that, we went looking for the usual TI and internet. Finding the TI and then heading up the street we found, with good instructions, the internet. We are always excited to find the emails from home, and this was no exception. Opening each and everyone is always a "family affair". After reading all the great news, and answering most, I got to work to up-load to the web. Now I've got a problem... It turns out that the program that I am using to write my journals on this new "French" computer isn't recognized with the one that I am trying to use here at the internet cafe (in this case, the Western Union office). I was fit to be tied... After trying every possible way I and the young lady who was in charge could imagine, I had to leave rejected. Now I've got more work cut out for me... How in the hell am I going to make all this work on this silly "French" computer??? Well I couldn't set right down then and get things all settled, as we were on our way to the next site that we wanted to see this morning. About 20 miles up the lake is the village of Sirmione. Now at the very end of a long peninsula sits the walled village with the Sirmione Castle. This was what we had come for this morning...it was closed...what do you mean..."closed"? I wont go through all the details, but it was and we just decided that that was just "hunky dorry" with us as well. We did get a chance to leave some money behind in the village...you know, things like an "GELATTO" (great ice cream cones) and parking... It wasn't at all negative, as we really did have a good time, even with out getting into "another" castle. Two hours spent there and we were underway again. This time we are continuing our route along the coastline of Lake Garda, all the way to Malcesine. Now Malcesine is about an another hour up the coast. We had been told about this "wonderful" campground that is real close to the village of Malcesine, so we could have an easy walk right into town. As we entered the town our eyes are jumping from one sign to the next, looking for our campground sign. Just as we entered the heart of the town, Louise called out "there it is"..."No, it couldn't be, it's too close" (I couldn't see it.). With a good point of the finger in my face, I saw that I was going to have to make a quick turn and down a very steep drive. Yep, here it is..."not bad, fact is, really good"..."I'll bet it's expensive"..."I don't care" (she says..). All checked in and we are "happy campers". It wasn't even expensive...$18 Euros (expensive is when it gets above $25). Seeing as how we are parked right in town, we immediately headed out just to see what this "village" had to offer. Right away it started to show us that this was something "special". Within 25 yards and we were passing under a low and long rock gate that lead us into the "village". No traffic (except those of us on foot) and all the "streets were cobbled with rocks from the lake...a white stone with a black stone accent. All the buildings date back to the 15-16th century and there is even a little castle that overlooks the whole thing. Everything is on a hillside that slopes to the lake...winding from right to left and angles beyond that...everything towards the lake. I was a happy camper with all the photo opportunities, and there are lots. After about an hour walking and 30 minutes people watching while we had a glass of wine at the marina, we headed back to the van for dinner. Just before we were to exit through the "gate", we came across an interesting pastry. Apparently it is exclusive to this area and comes from as far back as the 15th century. It's about the size of a baseball. It looks like they take pastry strips that have different fillings (like chocolate, champagne, etc.), then roll them into the ball. After baking, they put a coating of flavoring on the top. Actually it was pretty good, and something that you would enjoy, but not all the time. We took it home for our dinner desert. Later when it got dark, we headed back to see just what was lit up for another picture op. This little Italian village is wonderful, and we diffinately will have more to see tomorrow...
After our stay at the "Palacio", we drove into the village of Desenzano del Garda. Finding a parking place, we ventured through the streets and alley ways just to get a feel for the place. Other than that, we went looking for the usual TI and internet. Finding the TI and then heading up the street we found, with good instructions, the internet. We are always excited to find the emails from home, and this was no exception. Opening each and everyone is always a "family affair". After reading all the great news, and answering most, I got to work to up-load to the web. Now I've got a problem... It turns out that the program that I am using to write my journals on this new "French" computer isn't recognized with the one that I am trying to use here at the internet cafe (in this case, the Western Union office). I was fit to be tied... After trying every possible way I and the young lady who was in charge could imagine, I had to leave rejected. Now I've got more work cut out for me... How in the hell am I going to make all this work on this silly "French" computer??? Well I couldn't set right down then and get things all settled, as we were on our way to the next site that we wanted to see this morning. About 20 miles up the lake is the village of Sirmione. Now at the very end of a long peninsula sits the walled village with the Sirmione Castle. This was what we had come for this morning...it was closed...what do you mean..."closed"? I wont go through all the details, but it was and we just decided that that was just "hunky dorry" with us as well. We did get a chance to leave some money behind in the village...you know, things like an "GELATTO" (great ice cream cones) and parking... It wasn't at all negative, as we really did have a good time, even with out getting into "another" castle. Two hours spent there and we were underway again. This time we are continuing our route along the coastline of Lake Garda, all the way to Malcesine. Now Malcesine is about an another hour up the coast. We had been told about this "wonderful" campground that is real close to the village of Malcesine, so we could have an easy walk right into town. As we entered the town our eyes are jumping from one sign to the next, looking for our campground sign. Just as we entered the heart of the town, Louise called out "there it is"..."No, it couldn't be, it's too close" (I couldn't see it.). With a good point of the finger in my face, I saw that I was going to have to make a quick turn and down a very steep drive. Yep, here it is..."not bad, fact is, really good"..."I'll bet it's expensive"..."I don't care" (she says..). All checked in and we are "happy campers". It wasn't even expensive...$18 Euros (expensive is when it gets above $25). Seeing as how we are parked right in town, we immediately headed out just to see what this "village" had to offer. Right away it started to show us that this was something "special". Within 25 yards and we were passing under a low and long rock gate that lead us into the "village". No traffic (except those of us on foot) and all the "streets were cobbled with rocks from the lake...a white stone with a black stone accent. All the buildings date back to the 15-16th century and there is even a little castle that overlooks the whole thing. Everything is on a hillside that slopes to the lake...winding from right to left and angles beyond that...everything towards the lake. I was a happy camper with all the photo opportunities, and there are lots. After about an hour walking and 30 minutes people watching while we had a glass of wine at the marina, we headed back to the van for dinner. Just before we were to exit through the "gate", we came across an interesting pastry. Apparently it is exclusive to this area and comes from as far back as the 15th century. It's about the size of a baseball. It looks like they take pastry strips that have different fillings (like chocolate, champagne, etc.), then roll them into the ball. After baking, they put a coating of flavoring on the top. Actually it was pretty good, and something that you would enjoy, but not all the time. We took it home for our dinner desert. Later when it got dark, we headed back to see just what was lit up for another picture op. This little Italian village is wonderful, and we diffinately will have more to see tomorrow...
RSS Feed
