July 18 – Monday – Today we decided to go to a theme park about 1hr. away from our apartment called Gardaland. Gardaland is a theme park very similar to Disneyland/World. When we arrived in the parking lot, we are directed to a parking lot for vans and campers, which coincidentally is located very near the entrance to the park. The thought came to mind, “that doesn’t happen very often.” Once we enter the park area we see grounds beautifully kept and flowers abound. As well as purchasing entrance passes for all, we also bought the kids express passes for the “Adrenaline rides”. Armed with a map, we were off to find “Raptor” the new ride for 2011, similar to the Manta at Florida’s Sea World. They only had to wait 5 mins. to get on. We found that most people here did not spend the extra money on the express pass, which meant that all the rides the kids wanted to go on with the fast pass were ridden within 10 minutes! Most rides without fast passes had lineups of 30-50 minute wait time. They had a blast on the new ride called the Raptor as well as all the fast roller coasters and water rides with the exception of one.
It was a very hot day today but it was very easy to find shade, which was good. After 5 hours at the park, the kids were ready to go home,
they were tired but satisfied with all the rides they had been on. The three adults were also ready to go. Our guests fall asleep on the way home and we stop to pick up more groceries for the week. Once back at the apartment, everyone helps to unpack groceries while T and Sue get dinner organized. Italian sausage and pasta pomodoro was on the menu and everyone enjoys!
After dinner, T, S, Juliette and J go for a walk in yet another direction of the village and come across a religious shrine in honor of the Madonna built long ago and is now in the middle of a traffic circle. We spend time checking it out and then continue on our walk, enjoying the beautiful greenery and gardens along the way. It is very beautiful and everyone enjoys the time outdoors.
July 19 – Tuesday – This morning the kids sleep in until 8:30 and after breakfast we head to the pool. Our kids are the busy ones at the pool. Everyone else around the pool is older and there to suntan or read. This has to be one of the quietest pool areas we’ve ever come across! Thus, S and T remind them to keep down the noise – something we needed to do fairly often. They did do a pretty good job. M takes the opportunity iof Internet service to catch up on blog posting, as well as check out news etc. After a great morning at the pool catching some rays and enjoying the water, we head up to the apartment for lunch.
This afternoon, checking out a 10th century medieval castello located in the town, Moniga Del Garda is on the agenda. Apparently its one of the best-conserved in the whole Lake Garda area. This is a great opportunity for Sue and the kids to see such an ancient walled structure. After asking directions to the location, T received instructions from a lady in the local bar as well as a lady living on the second floor of an apartment building across the street called out in Italian to T all the directions, yet again, to where the castle was located. She must have been watching us tourists down below and decided we needed help! Armed with useful directions, we hopped back in the van and drove about 3 minutes to our destination.
We spent time walking around and within the walls – checking out where the drawbridge likely was, where the iron-gate that would have come down to close off the entrance was as well as the little settlement.
Across from the castle is the church of San Martino built in the 18th century. Fortunately, the church was open, so we could all go in and have a look around. Like the majority of churches we have been in, they are a work of art. Our guests were very impressed with the beautiful frescoes and the beautiful marble altars.
The floors as well had beautiful mosaic marble designs.
Another lovely experience for our guests - nothing like this had they seen before. This is another lovely little town with local charm.
We stop at a local soccer clubhouse to get water and an ice-cream treat. Now that the kids are watered and treated, we head back to the apartment.
After dinner, T and Sue went out for a walk to explore the village further – we could hear loud music playing, so thought we should check it out. It turns out that there is a fiesta set up for the next couple of days in a field nearby our apartment. There looks like there are some cool things for the kids to do. T and Sue go and inquire about the event and find out cost etc. and times. Armed with the info, we decide that we’ll check it out tomorrow night as it is now raining.
Wednesday, July 20 - There was a thunderstorm during the night waking a few of us. The storm renewed the air and rid the humidity we had been dealing with. We wake to yet another beautiful morning. M, J and Mathieu walked to the local bakery (5 min from the apartment) and picked up a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast, as well as buns for lunch and a couple of treats for the kids. After breakfast, it is time to introduce our guests the local market day experience.
This market is much smaller than others that we have attended, but it still gives Sue, Juliette and Mathieu a taste of the caravan style market. The main street is closed to traffic to accommodate the market vendors. We spend time checking out the merchandise. M and T purchase fresh veggies and fruit for the next couple of days while S, M and Juliette look for deals. Juliette buys a couple of items of clothing and with the help of auntie T barters a bit and shaves off a few euros from the asking price. Mathieu purchased a fine orange watch for 5 Euro, he was impressed that the vendor could alter the band to fit his wrist – pretty funny. M who had been taking it easy the last couple of days (and watching as much of the Tour de France as he could find) took the opportunity to check out the local church in this community, another beautiful work of art with more frescos than we have seen for awhile.
Our apartment does not have washing facilities, so T and S decide this afternoon would be a good opportunity to find the Laundromat. Now, we arm ourselves with Navi on the Iphone and drive off in the direction where we believe there is one. Well, we somehow miss one street, so Navi recalculates and takes us on another journey of a lifetime….. It leads us four-wheeling with a nine-passenger van up a very narrow laneway amongst vineyards. T starts to giggle thinking (Oh no, we doing this again), M is trying to keep the van on the lane hoping that we’re going to reach some pavement soon and Sue thinks – (oh no, we’re in Mexico!) We do indeed reach pavement and make our way toward our target. Finding the Laundromat was another adventure as well. After travelling slowly down the same roads several times we finally locate the address only to find that the term ‘laundromat’ means an industrial cleaning service a hotel or restaurant would use – so we had been given direction to exactly what we asked for (later Google helped us learn that we should have asked for a lavanderia). So, through talking to several employees, being passed off to several employees who spoke/understood better English than the next, T was able to find out that there wasn’t what we think of as a laundromat in that town…. So, we struck out, laughed about the 4X4 experience, M felt T had handled herself quite well and didn’t freak…. We drove back “home”. Now, we had to do our laundry by hand and hang it on every available chair, doorknob and hanger (as we were not allowed to hand any laundry out of our 2nd floor windows). Hanging laundry from windows is a very common sight we have seen in most Italian towns. They do not tend to have dryers here, so where most live in apartments in the cities, that’s the view.
After dinner, we walked over to check out the happenings of the festa. Having scoped out the place the night before, we knew we needed to purchase tickets for anything from beer/wine, food, and children activities. We purchase a bunch of tickets and go in search of activities for the kids.
The first thing they see are giant bubbles floating on a shallow pool of water. They each get into a bubble, get zipped in by the attendants and are rolled into the pool.
It was hilarious to watch each one of them try to get up and move the ball around the pool. They also played in a human fooseball game
– which was very fun to watch and the kids had a blast holding onto their bar and moving in unison with their other bar members to block or kick shots.
They each had a chance to ride a mechanical bull inclusive of wearing the white cowboy hat. Lots of yeehaws and woo-hoos could be heard as each rode the bull and tried in vain to stay on. Of course they went on the huge bouncy castle complete with a slide.
Several hours later we trudged home – another great little Italian community experience.
July 21 – Thursday It’s T’s birthday today – so we all are ready to do whatever she wants. J makes her bed, M does all the laundry and T is very appreciative. Mathieu is not feeling all that well today, so the girls decide it’s a day to go shopping for awhile, and the boys decide to stay at the apartment and watch movies. M drives T, Sue and Juliette to a mall we had passed by the other day, so they can find what deals there are to be had. While trying to decide on the amount of time needed at the mall, T suggested 2 hours, and Sue added, “oh make it 3 as you’ve never been shopping with Juliette before!” So three hours it is. Then M goes back to watch movies with the boys before retracing his steps to pick up the girls.
The girls enjoy the shopping expedition with Sue and Juliette trying on many articles of clothing. Juliette was selecting things for her mom to try on, and she actually found the dress that Sue settled on buying. It was quite amusing to watch Juliette in action, in each store she was armed with multiple articles to try on. Man can that girl shop. By the end of the three hours, she had managed to purchase a fe things.
Once back at the apartment, T and S decide they are going to go for a nice long walk to explore another village as well as take some shots of the lake. It was another very warm day, both enjoying the sunshine and relishing the shade when they came across it. It was wonderful to see the views and vineyards. T found a vineyard where the grapes were turning from the green to red.
Now she realized that the red grapes actually appear as the green ones but just ripen on the vine and harvest time is approaching, so that’s why we couldn’t tell the difference between grape vines. It was a wonderful couple of hours walking along the roadways, finding old churches, admiring the beautiful flowering shrubs and some great viewpoints of Lake Garda.
T relished her birthday present of walking time with her sister without anyone saying they were tired, hot, thirsty, or their legs hurt.
Meanwhile back at the apartment. M, is watching the Tour de France stage 18. Le Tour is now it the mountains we had driven through when we went to Crots, so the scenery is familiar, and its nearing the end of the race and those that are near the overall leader are making their push to take the lead. As M checks out the route for today and the next two days he realizes the race will be decided over these few days, and since today’s stage has the last 23 km as serious uphill today will be a great finish to watch. J and Mathieu decide to watch the final 30 km of the stage with M, and Juliette decides to go to the pool and work on her tan. After the race we all go swimming, and T and S joins us as they are back from their long walk in the hot sun and need to cool off too.
Dinner reservations were made for 7:45 at the Solelune restaurant in the village to celebrate T’s day and everyone was pleased with their choice of meals. We all went away happy and enjoyed our evening out.
July 22 – Friday Today we decide to go to a water-park about an hour away. That does not mean everyone gets up early, just that we know where we are headed. After breakfast and a movie we get the kids into the van by 11:30. It’s a beautiful day, and the drive takes us to an area we have not been yet. This is very flat country that is all farms, some grapes, some beans, and major major corn. We drive into what seems like an area away from any population centers - serious country with only farms - and there is the water-park. We are immediately glad we chose this water-park versus the one near Gardaland – as the parking area could accommodate 4 times as many vehicles as are here – so we should have a good time without long lines at the waterslides.
We pay the entrance fee, and rent a gazebo as well, so we have a place in the shade to store our stuff and have lunch. T and S have decided to bring buns, meat, cheese and fruit for lunch – in spite of the many protestations of the kids. Everyone plops down their stuff and the kids are off. T and S decide to check out the park, while M reads and works on his tan. After a while T and S collect the kids and everyone comes back for some lunch. Then it’s off again to see what the slides are like. This is a large water-park with things for all ages. As well as having some stuff for children, there are slides where an adult must accompany kids, and still others that only adults can go on. While M is still reading and doing a bit of a work-out (as we have finished our 10 week program and decided not to start another 10 weeks until after our next guests from Canada have left for home), the other 5 check out all the things that kids can do when accompanied. Later, M does the big search through the park and eventually finds everyone at some great slides. We all slide for another couple of hours, with the adults occasionally taking a break, and then after 5:00 decide to get an ice cream and head back to the apartment. It’s Friday in the summer, so we have the weekend traffic to tend with, and it takes us an extra 40 minutes to get back. Then as it’s our last night in the apartment, we have a dinner from what is left of the groceries, and start packing up for our move tomorrow. The kids have all had a full day and so there is not much pushback to an early evening. We need to be out of the apartment by 10:00, which should also allow us to go explore the city of Verona before going on to north of Venice to our next apartment, in a castle in the city of Vittorio Veneto.
July 23 – Saturday We awake to see lots of rain. M and T, who had been sleeping on the sofa-bed in the living room this week, had heard much loud thunder in the night, and now we see it is raining hard. So after breakfast we all take stuff to the van and M packs up. Thankfully the van is parked in underground parking, which keeps him dry. We are off right on time, and head to the autostrata hoping that the rain lets up by the time we arrive in Verona. Well, it does not. As we get close to Verona it is still raining hard and conclude that walking around this town to see the key sites, including the 3rd largest Roman amphitheatre in Europe, in rain like this will not be all much fun. So we motor on and plan to stop here when we come back through this way on the trip to Milan when our guests fly home. By the time we are driving near Venice (an hour after passing Verona) the sky clears up.
Next T uses her Iphone to plan out a place to stop for lunch. We have arranged to arrive at our next apartment after 3:00 PM, since we were going to stop in Verona, we have a couple of hours to kill before we can get in. Treviso seems to be the best place to stop, so M takes the first exit to Treviso and we try to find a café. We stop at a small town and all hop out of the van in search of a place to eat. Well we do not know if it is already siesta time (it’s only 12:15) but everywhere we go is closed, or they tell us the kitchen is not open. OK, so we hop back in the van and head back to a near-by mall type place that we had passed after leaving the highway. Luckily we find a pizza place inside, as the kids had been asking for pizza, and a café that served panini and cappuccino for the adults. This place also has a large grocery store so we decide we can kill an hour or so getting groceries, and have that task done before we drive the last 30 minutes to Vittorio Veneto. T enjoyed a neat experience as a young Italian girl about 10 stopped her at the entrance to the grocery store when she heard T speaking English. The young girl was so proud to be able to use some of her limited English skills to ask T some questions. T worked on her Italian as well, because they didn’t always understand her English terms. The girl’s mother also appreciated that T stopped to chat with her daughter. After thanking them for stopping to chat, T went in search of everyone in the grocery store.
Kids fed, and groceries packed, we are back in the van heading to our apartment in a castle. As we stop to pay the highway toll, we get a kick out of the car ahead that has people that have not used a self-serve toll booth in Europe yet - we could not tell where they were from, but the driver of the lead car of two travelling together definitely had not seen one of these before yet was able to laugh at his own expense as he asked for help. It made M remember the first time he ended up in the self-serve line in Switzerland, and also needed help as the written words on the signs meant nothing to him.
Now T brings out the directions issued us by the owner of the castle of how to find it. With T and Juliette in the front reading the directions and helping, M tries to find the right place to turn for the castle. Well we did find a lot of places to turn (the van around) as we could not seem to find the “small roundabout” described in the directions. Next T turned on Navi and put in the address, but it took us to a spot in town that seemed to be a dead-end. So after driving around the town a couple more times we decide to park the van, while M and T go to search on foot the area that Navi had taken us to. Well, we find that Navi was right even though the street was narrow and cobblestone, at the top of the hill is the castle (we should have known). Anyway while T does the apartment review with the agent, M goes and collects the van. When M drives back around the hill to the castle we find that the area we had used to turn around 3 times was “the small roundabout” – we all agree this is the most triangular “roundabout” we have ever seen. Now we unpack the van, and check out this cool castle and grounds – inside the walled area there is about 2-3 full sized soccer fields of space that is now decorated with trees, flowers, and lawn – complete with a beautiful view of the surrounding town and mountains.
There are two apartments we have rented for the week, one sleeps 4 and has a full kitchen, living room, dining room, plus 1 and ½ bathrooms – the other sleeps 2 with a small kitchenette / living-room and full bath – lots of space for the group – and M and T get a private apartment this week!
The kids find an Italian version of Monopoly and immediately start playing, while T and S make dinner. After another lovely Italian dinner the adults settle outside on the deck with a good wine and chat while soaking in the view, while the kids watch a movie. Everyone is enamored with the castle and the surroundings; we are all going to enjoy it here.
July 24 – Sunday We awake to another rainy day, not nearly falling as hard as yesterday morning, yet still wet and chilly. We decide on a lazy day, so the kids play some more Monopoly and watch more movies, while the adults read about the area and the castle history. M chats with the owner and she agrees to cover over after dinner for a drink and to tell us about the history of the castle and the area.
After lunch we decide we should walk around this town rain or shine, so we grab our raincoats and give the travel umbrella’s to our guests and head out to explore some.
We walk under covered walkways and see Vittorio Veneto has much history dating way back to medieval times. We see a number of buildings which at one time had beautiful fresco paintings
which are now faded and in some cases, disappearing. We enjoy looking at the old buildings built in the 15th century and are still occupied by businesses as well as residential apartments. We walk along these arched covered walkways all part of a whole block on either side of the narrow street of the old Serravale. There is a river flowing through town and we walk along one side and T and S admire the architecture and the atmosphere of this old town.
We do stop at a church and check it out. From the outside, the church is very plain, with very tall walls but the inside is anything but plain. Again, there are many altars in the church paying homage to various saints.
As we head back toward the apartment, we come across M sitting at a table along the piazza having a cappuccino, as he had taken a different route along the river along a walking path thereby arriving at the café ahead of the rest of the group. We sit down to join him and the kids and Sue each have ciccolatto cauldo – real hot chocolate thick, creamy and yummy.
Ada, the owner of the castello arrives at 8 pm with a chilled bottle of Prosecco wine – which this area is famous for. T pops the cork and the 4 adults enjoy a wonderful glass of this chilled sparkling wine and listen to the history of the place, while the kids watch another Indian Jones movie. The castle Serravalle, where we are staying was at one time a castle that protected this valley. This was one of the most important (and few) passes through the mountains to the north of Italy, and the castle kept looked out on the only route for 200 km in each direction east-west for about a millennium. Much later, Napoleon made an agreement with the Austrian king and hence decided to no longer use this fortress for military purposes. Ada also brought a map of the original outline of the walled fortress that covered a great deal of area. Today, the walled area is much smaller than when first built. As time passed, and the castle was abandoned, people took rock from the walls to build houses as far away as Venice.
