Wednesday 30 June 2003. It's the first full day of our holiday in Italy and we have walked from our hotel at Riva del Garda across the top end of Lake Garda to the town of Torbole.
The temperature is somewhere in the mid 30s centigrade and as we arrive in the middle of the day it is approaching 40 degrees. We have walked the 3 kilometres from Riva and are hot and ready for a sit down and a drink.
Riva is the northern terminus for all the ferries that go up and down the 30 mile length of Lake Garda and Torbole is the first stop for any ferries that call in there. Some of them just head south without calling at Torbole.
Even away from the lake Torbole is a very attractive town. The northern end of the lake is in the shadow of mountains on either side, we are not all that far from the Dolomite Mountains between Italy and Austria and will be seeing them at closer quarters during the week!
That, coupled with some tall buildings and narrow streets, means that shade can be readily found but I wasn't convinced that there was much respite from the heat even in the shady spots!
Still, they were fun to explore once we had realised that motorists' understanding of pedestrian crossing markings are not quite the same as in the UK. In the UK most drivers give way to pedestrians and let them cross. Here they seem to get a strange light in their eyes that is the Italian equivalent of [TARGET SIGHTED!] and they will happily whizz past you with bare inches to spare ... or spear...
Seperated pavements for pedestrians are not necessarily a priority for the town planners in this part of the world so you must keep an eye out at all times. There were lots of scooters, Vespas, Lambrettas, whatever. Some with a single rider. Some with a pretty girl on the pillion. Some with a pretty girl riding pillion side-saddle and some with Mum, Dad, two kids, a baby and the family dog all hanging on for grim death. Believe me - you will gawp the first time you see this!
Cafes are plentiful, I mentioned latte machiatto in the previous article - it's served warm but not hot. The country is hot, you don't need drinks to be hot. Latte means milk - if you ask for that you'll either get a glass of milk or you will probably be asked "Solo latte?" which means "Just milk?" Also we grew to love the orange-coloured alcoholic drink Aperol.
We have wandered to the outskirts of town and are thinking we might turn back and forego the ferries for the day and walk back to Riva again.
Before we turned back towards the lake we found this ivy-covered house, not a common sight to come across here. In the next article we take once more to the Via Gardesana. Which means we will walk back to Riva the same way we came...
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