Garda Lake and Trento

We have had a lovely couple of days at Garda Lake, adjusting to Italian time and enjoying the warm weather.

The 'lake house' is a little condo high on a hill a above the lake. It is warmly decorated in golds and reds and provides just enough space for the four of us, with a couch for Chiara to sleep on when she joins us. The walk down the hill to the lakeshore is very steep, but it is a wonderful trip, full of twists and turns and cobblestones and a little tunnel and beautifully ornate doorways. We enjoy the trip down much more than the trip up, during which we are entirely dedicated to huffing and puffing.

Yesterday, we went into Malcesine, a small village on the lakeshore, and played tourist with all the Germans. We had gelati and spritzi and shopped. I alarmed a newspaper vendor by reading a headline in USA Today aloud; he was quite sure I intended to read it without paying for it. But I calmed him down with a simple 'Quanto?' He was still a bit weird, though, and asked Chloe to move away from the English-language books she was studying three times so that he could sweep the floor. Chiara says this is every bit as rude to do to a customer here as it is in America. So we didn't buy anything else.

Today, we are in Trento, visiting Chiara's house and family and Cora the dog, and taking in a few sites. It is pouring rain, so this is less pleasant than we would wish, but it is very pretty here and the rain has at least cooled things off for our unaccustomed northwest selves.

I love driving here. Chiara's brother, Max, has very kindly loaned us his Yaris. It is tiny and does not appreciate it when we do the steepest hills with all five of us in the car, but it is otherwise very fun. And the winding streets are always an adventure, since they are not really wide enough for two cars to pass. The main roads are more spacious but less exhilirating.