Road Trippin'

The following day I was treated to more of Northern Italy's impressive lakes in 'Garda: the return of'. I know that saying 'more lakes' and then going on to talk about the one I went to yesterday isn't the best way to start, but I love contradictions, so I'm gonna run with it.

Basically Garda was going to be our central point and from that we'd work our way around and about, exploring what there was hidden in the nearby hills. You think it sounds idyllic? Yeah, it was.

As you can see the day wasn't as perfect as it had been previously, but it was cooler, and less humid, so I was cooler, and less sweaty. Win. Win.

The views were traditionally Italian - the cypress trees, the villas, the fluffly green hills and the lakeside towns. With one exception.

D'Annunzio was a famous Italian poet and author that was famed, amongst many other things, for being around at the start of the fascist movement in post World War One Italy.

One of the other things I mentioned in passing was that he was widely considered a little eccentric. I've seen his house and I can confirm this 100%: he was a nutjob.

His estate sprawls up a hillside overlooking Lake Garda and after the house (full of 'things' - some cynical people may call it 'clutter'), he has a large mortuary cum shrine cum momument to himself (see above); there is an open-air theatre and... oh yes. A boat. In fact many boats. And a ship. A full-blown navy ship-thing.
I mean who has a ship in their garden? After that pretty flummoxing question there is the issue of how it got there. The thought processes to get to the moment where you realise you need a ship in your garden are so beyond my comprehension I cannot begin to explain.
Anyway, to your left you can take in the might of the ship. In the garden. Jus' chillin'.

After the slightly out-of-body experience of il Vittoriale, D'Annunzio's hood, we moved on to some more picturesque places.

Riva del Garda is a little town that, if it were a person, it would be sitting on a jetty, dipping its feet into the lake. It's obviously a tourist hot-spot but the slow pace of life for the locals is so infectious that you can sit at one of the lakeside cafes, watching the world go by for hours.

We drove all the way round the lake through towns like Limone (so called because of the lemon plantations stuck to the side of the hills). We also drove through what, to me, was just another generic tunnel, I was however, informed that it was a little more special than I'd first thought.
This picture looks quite ordinary. I mean it's obviously very beautiful, but that is in fact a picture looking back at the 'special' tunnel. Eagle-eyed film buffs will recognise that picture from the beginning of Quantum of Solace, the most recent James Bond film. After a lingering look at this vista, the shot then changes to the tunnel where Daniel Craig's James Bond has an epic car chase in about 4 foot of space with a camera strapped to a shopping trolley. The shot then changes to Siena, which, for fans of continuity will realise that Garda and Siena are connected not by a tunnel, but a large motorway. And things.

The final stop on our tour was another lake and by far my favourite. Lago di Ledro looks as if it would fit in in the Lake District. It's so peaceful and the only people that really know it's there are Italian. I could have stayed there all day just looking at the view and I got chance to do that long sought-after relaxing that a week of camp requires.