It was now time to leave the Venice area and head west and south towards Florence and Pisa. To be able to see a bit more of the countryside, we headed north and west. The first route I chose would take us from Treviso to Trento and down to Breschia. We would get a glimpse of the Dolomite mountains and see some foothills along the way. My driver though, on seeing the route, requested a route further south as he was “concerned” about snow and ice on the road. Route modified, approval received and we were headed towards Castlofranco, Roverto, Lake Garda and Breshia. Little did we know that this route was still going to send us into terrain that my driver was still “concerned” about. This “concern” grew more intense as we started seeing snow capped mountains in the distance. Imagine his reaction when he saw patches of snow, among the trees on the shaded side of the road!!!! The weather, by the way, was clear, sunny, and warm with not a storm cloud to be seen. The passenger meanwhile was blissfully enjoying the scenery and not sharing the driver's concern.
Here is what the passenger saw (I am not sure what the driver was seeing).
Appears to be a new house inside this old castle structure
Getting high enough that the trees are just starting to leaf out now
This is the snow that started increasing the "concern" of the driver
Dolomite mountains seen in the distance
Zoomed in by camera
how close they appeared to the "concerned" driver
Trees here hadn't even started to leaf at all - note how root balls are exposed
A very craggy peak at maximum zoom
Hill top towns
A single home on a hilltop in the forest
pretty valley view
Another castle on a knob, as Bill calls them
Poppies like this grow wild all over the county side
Interesting looking rock face
Finally we had reached Lake Garda, the largest freshwater lake in Italy. It is 30 miles at it's widest X 50 miles long. We would now be driving by the lakeside down it's full length. This was our first view of the lake.
Another town on a hillside, but..............
.................what made them want to build there...............
that's it in the center of the picture below, above the flower boxes
The whole length of Lake Garda is nothing but resorts and camping areas - it must get extremely busy during the summer, and there seemed to be lots of people there even now. It is an ideal place though. There is of course swimming and boating to be done, but also there is sail boarding, kite boarding, rock climbing, adventure parks, amusement parks, trail walking and probably lots of other activities that we did not see.
We finally arrived in Breschia, our stop for the night, tensions high between the driver and navigator. Our room for the night was in the Euro Hotel. This was the TV in the room. It was mounted high on the wall, I couldn't reach it with my arm outstretched, and it had only about a 12" screen. As there was only Italian language TV available, it was not a great concern - music what ever language doesn't have to rely on a screen.
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