Italia Part Two

We hired a car to travel North to the Mountains for a week.
A free upgrade to a white sporty Alfa Romeo awaited us, we loaded up and headed off.
A slight detour to Lake Garda ......
It was a hot sunny windy day a surfers paradise.

After a lovely lunch watching the surfers we continued North.
Choosing small local roads so we could take in castles and vineyards en route.
We arrived in Ortisei a great little town our apartment was gorgeous with breath taking views.
We mooched around the town the first day.

The buildings painted in pretty pastel colours

The next day we explored a bit further some of the old barns were totally amazing.

 I fell in love with them

 

We had dined out a lot in Verona so chose to rustle up food in the apartment,

 pasta and risotto's with lots of local produce washed down with a glass or two of wine.

And last but by no means least we went for the mountains so of course we had to get up high.

Some scary cable car rides and a breath taking funicular railway took us part way up.

Some stunning views were to be had the 11 mile walk been totally worth it.

 2,200 metres is the highest I have ever got to by foot.

 

Our week there was amazing and I really didn't want to leave the quirky cute

 little town with its steep and windy lanes.

Next stop Milano ....

 

Will save that for the next blog.

 

 

 

Italia ......

.
Wow now where do I begin........

I love Italy and had the pleasure of working for an Italian travel company many years ago.
I love Umbria and Tuscany have been to Rome, Pisa, Sienna, Florence to name just a few.
Andy and I planned a holiday to Italy with a bit of culture and Mountains to keep us both happy.

We had 2 days in Verona a week in Ortisei and a couple of days in Milan before heading home.

 We flew into  Milan for our train journey to Verona it was a very hot humid day.
We got the train to Milan Train station which is awesome !
Then the Freccia Bianca to Verona. Then a short taxi ride to our apartment here.
Which was in the old medieval part of the city and just a 10 minute walk to the centre.

Freshening up quickly we headed for the sights. Not wanting to waste a minute of our time there.
Verona is a stunningly beautiful city I am totally in love with it, it has knocked Sienna of the number 1 favourite Italian city spot.

We took over 800 photo's so it has been very hard to choose the ones for this blog.

So Verona.........

Beautiful narrow cobbled streets with buildings washed in paint colours of burnt ochres and umbers.
With old wooden shutters and wrought iron balconies spilling over with ivy and brightly coloured geraniums.

Towers and Domes and chapel's and jaw dropping architecture round every corner.

An impromptu picnic sat on a wall watching the world go by, mozzarella, rocket and tomato pizza just oozing flavour.

Below the Romeo and Juliette balcony, apparently never used by them ?

The only time I have ever graffitied

Drinks by the Arena ......

The breath taking Ponte Scaligero bridge.

 

I wanted to share so many more photo's but the above sum up our couple of days there

 

 

Will do another couple of posts for the other two parts of our holiday soon.