Sirmione, Como and Arrivederci to Italy

Leaving our farm Agriturismo just east of Verona yesterday, we headed about an hour away to Sirmione, a peninsula in Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy.  We were to meet up with Luca Bertazzi, a colleague of Alice's at INFORMS Journal on Computing.  Luca and Alice had not met and Luca teaches at nearby University of Brescia.  He suggested this place to meet and it proved perfect on this late Saturday morning with superb spring weather.

He grew up nearby and showed us the quaint old town, the castle area, the historic church and where the ruins of the Roman villa are.  Mainly we enjoyed the spring day and the scenic lake views.  This is a popular spot with Italian tourists and day trippers and they were in abundance.  We stopped by a wine shop where Luca recommended the local white wine, which we purchased.  We could not resist a bottle of red too.  Luca was so nice to give up most of his Saturday to meet up with us and show us this special Italian lake spot, to which we hope we can return one day.

Alice with Luca Bertazzi in Sirmione on Lake Garda

Alice and Randy in front of the medieval castle

A view across Lake Garda

Two mallards by the lake

Wild swans also were in the lake and came ashore

The lake water was exceedingly clear

Some of the wild swans

The natural beauty of the pennisula

The ancient church, sadly closed, but we could peer into to see the frescoes which were reminiscent of those in Goreme, Capadoccia, Turkey

A close up of the huge and beautiful swan

 

Italians make the most of this scenic town during the spring Saturday morning

Alice and Luca at a scenic spot in the old town

The castle name

The town within the castle

The castle walls are very thick

This vendor was selling lemons, kumquats and some fruit that looked like giant lemons but were completely different

We saw a (very ughly) Rolls Royce in the parking lot at Sirmione

And a quite good looking Ferrari

We then headed for the Lake Como area.  We drove with fairly heavy traffic around Lake Como up from Lecco to Bellagio thence to Como.  We stayed that evening at a splendid villa cum bed and breakfast.  We were the first Americans to stay and our hostess, Anna Maria, gave us a special rate.  She also cooked a wonderful dinner for us.  Her breakfast was special including homemade yoghurt and croissants.  The room was quite luxe and there was a very nice lounge for the guests.  The others staying were a Swiss couple with young daughter and small dog and a Dutch couple with their son, who looked to be in his early 20's.  We really lucked out as this place was comfortable and relaxing and we were treated to two memorable meals (our last in Italy :-( ).  We did not see George Clooney but understand his villa is on the west side of Lake Como (not that close to where we traveled and stayed).

At the rest area along the Italian motorway (autostrada) we found the King of Beers in this unusual (to us) label for sale

Our villa home for the night in Lake Como - a comfortable room with fantastic breakfast for 75 Euro

Alice drank white wine and caught up with some work upon arrival

The comfortable guest living room which we took full advantage of

Our friendly hostess Anna Maria shows off the Tyrolean stove in the main area of the B&B which gently heats the entire space

The dinner cooked just for the two of us by Anna Maria started with a salad that included air dried beef

The salad was served with these yummy pizza variations using puff pastry

The main course was fettuccine with chesnuts

Desert was a chocolate crepe served with ice cream.  Randy also got a bonus desert of chocolate cake with ice cream.

The bountiful breakfast featured Anna Maria's yoghurt and croissants along with a strawberry and custard puff pastry combination.  Anna Maria is model thin but she sure can cook and some of it is pretty rich stuff!

Randy tucks in to fortify himself for the day

The cute Tibetan terrier of the Swiss couple

Outside in the morning sunshine a chicken exercises in the lawn