Let’s start with an exercise. Don’t worry, I don’t want you to stretch your muscles. I want you to stretch your imagination. Imagine a town on the edge of a gorge. Imagine inhabited caves. Each cave is a fully functioning house – there’s a kitchen, dining area, bedroom, bathroom and place for a donkey and some chickens. All in one cave, including a whole family. No running water, only rainwater. No vegetable garden, only tufa limestone. If you want to actually grow something, you have to go to the other side of the gorge. And now imagine 15 000 people living in these caves. Sounds like diseases. Like malaria. And…
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Apulia: Locorotondo
We didn’t include Locorotondo in our plan. It was 6km from the trullo we stayed in in the middle of nowhere aka olive grove. So we thought: why not. And this is the kind of surprise I like. If Locorotondo is not one of the most beautiful towns in Italy, I don’t know what is. Oh wait. It’s actually on the list Borghi più belli d’Italia, which is a list of the most beautiful towns in Italy. Told ya. Locorotondo was completely EMPTY when we arrived. No tourist at all. No people at all. It was afternoon, siesta time. Everything was closed except for maybe 2 restaurants and 3 cafes.…
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Apulia – what to expect
You may have noticed that I’m writing down my expectations everywhere I go. I did that for the first time when I was going to Thailand, compared with reality when I came back and it was a really fun thing to do. What to expect when you go to Apulia? That’s a good question. I was expecting typical southern Italy – slightly chaotic and with no pressure to rush anywhere. And nothing more. So this time it will be a bit different. I’m skipping my expectations which I had before the trip and I’m leaving you with Apulian reality only. Of course it’s based on my 4 days spent there,…
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Ferrari & Modena
Balsamic vinegar. Luciano Pavarotti. Enzo Ferrari. Food, music, fast cars. Modena knew what to do to attract people. I know nothing about cars, but I’m a proud owner and one of the biggest fans of Italian cars starting with an F. Fiat. Even though I’m an ignorant and I’m driving not the F I should, I was really enthusiastic about going to the Ferrari museum. A good design is a good design and I will appreciate it. Always. So we went. Ferrari=Maranello, so we went to Museo Ferrari in Maranello (a small town next to Modena). I still have no idea if it was a right choice. Apparently one museum…
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Unexpected Venice
One evening at the lake Garda we had a geography crash course. To be more precise: geography of Northern Italy. Weather apps were merciless: it would rain. Heavily. So we took a map, a few weather apps and started looking for a best place to go. Apparently it would rain everywhere. Except Venice. So we went to Venice. We googled only to things: the cheapest parking (Tronchetto) and a viewpoint. Everything else was as spontaneous as possible. And I’m not a spontaneous type when it comes to my holidays. It was probably the only time when I had no idea about a place I was going to, except the common…
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Lago di Garda: east side
The west side of Lago di Garda is done, it’s time for the east side. Is it better/more interesting/cooler? Spoiler alert: it is. The landscape is totally different. The road goes next to the beach and water, not high in the mountains. It feels more like a seaside. Of course if you ignore the mountains on the other shore. And the ones behind you. Unfortunately the weather forces us to change our plans and we haven’t seen much of the east side. But the things we saw… Well, I have to go back! Peschiera del Garda Our “Italian Lakes” guidebook ignores Peschiera. Really, Lonely Planet? We went there…
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Lago di Garda: west side
Lago di Garda is 55 km long. Between 4 and 12 km wide. It covers the area of 370 km2. Why am I even bringing that up? Well, to enlighten you how big it is and how impossible it is to see everything in one day. So here’s what you should do and what we should have done. Divide it to east side and west side. Let’s start with the west side – more popular, more crowded. More interesting? We’ll see in the next post. Sirmione THE place to be, so you can expect EVERYONE there. Literally everyone. Our first attempt to visit Sirmione ended with a big escape from…
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Lago di Garda
Question: a typical holiday destination? Answer: Lago di Garda. Hesitation: what? Why? Answer: it has been a holiday destination ever since Roman times – Roman senators had their holiday homes there. Well, not really homes. Villas. Luxurious, located on hills and with stunning views. They even had spas. Seriously. Even today in Sirmione you can take a stinky, beautifying sulfide bath. So what was after the Roman times? It’s belived that Saint Francis of Assisi established an hermitage on Isola del Garda. Now, you’ll find a private villa there. Once a week its doors open for average citizens to take a tour around it. In Sirmione, Maria Callas had…
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Verona – more than Romeo and Juliet
Verona. The city of Romeo and Juliet. Ok, we’re done with that, can I move on? Verona, a city hurt by Romeo and Juliet. A city which is so associated with this couple that no one is looking for anything else there. Poor Verona is a victim of a Shakespeare related marketing. Btw, not a bad marketing if you ask me. Juliet’s house with Juliet’s dress and Juliet’s bed and, my favourite, Juliet’s tomb. Cool, but she DIDN’T EXIST. And hundreds of people are going crazy under her balcony and are sending her letter. From what I’ve heard – she’s replying. Ok, guilty as charged, I went to Juliet’s house.…
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Lago di Garda – expectations vs. reality
Oh how I love doing this! Writing down my expectations before the trip and confronting them with reality once I’m on the trip or back at home. This time I decided to make it even more fun to everyone (I hope). There were 4 of us on our trip to Lago di Garda and around (like far away around, like 150km to the east and to the south). It took us 11,5h to get to our destination and you have to do something in the car, right? So I asked everyone to share their expectations on the way to Italy and their reality on our way back. Our plan…