Highlights The missile base, the walk at Riva del Garda, Sirmoine and The Drive

We were a bit later getting away than planned because roadworks meant Raia had to come to the trattoria rather than us collect her on the way. She brought paninis with her for us all and ice cool water from the mountains, so the wait was fine.

Nico had made a couple of changes to his plans after talking to us. The first was to visit a former NATO missile base high in the mountains, as a sidestep. His brother had worked there in the past and it had been top secret at the time. Generally workers could only be on site for a week so they did not learn too much about the operation.

The drive there took us to a ski area, obviously not in use at present. We were discussing the height we might be at when Raia pointed out that the car had the altitude on the GPS display. This was nice for her as she has virtually no English. We ended up at over 1600m. It was a very attractive area and Nico said we were in the province of Trento which had a lot more money to spend than his province (Veneto). One half demolished building is kept like that for tourism purposes we gathered.

The missile base is now for visitors, but only at weekends in June. This was not an issue as we were more interested in seeing the missiles from the outside than visiting it. Nico said in the days it was active you would be rapidly sent on, but today there were few other people in the area. There is a small artificial Lake there, Lake Coe, and had people running around it and others about to launch remote controlled boats on it. One guy had a remote controlled jeep that towed his remote controlled boat on a trailer – ‘boys and their toys’. The lake is used for snow making in the season, when parking would not be free as it was today.

We drove through an area where we could see a large castle on the hill. Nico told us it is now owned by someone from Austria. It is also open to visitors, but not on Monday.

We then dropped down low and made our way to the top of Lake Garda. The town is called Riva del Garda, It is a bustling Italian town which doubles as a tourist resort, located at the northern end of Lake Garda. This is the dramatic end of the lake, with mountains rising on either side, and Riva sits comfortably on the shore, with a backdrop of lake, valley and hills.

The town of Riva del Garda

It is located at the southern edge of the Italian Alps near the Dolomites and the mountains seem to plunge into the lake here.
 

The views as we drove down were lovely but not capturable on the camera as they would have had to be taken out the car window.

We had no real idea of what Nico had planned, but he and Raia knew. Oleanders seem to be chasing us as there were some lovely trees in flower on the way as well as views of the historic town and the lake.

We walked through the town, which was a bit different to other parts of Italy as it had formerly been part of Austria. We had a coffee, took photos of the town and the harbourside, and then went to a spot where there was a walking and cycle track alongside the Lake. It was agreed we would walk in until we were ready to turn around. Time had to be limited as we had a long drive still ahead of us. It was a great idea as we could then take photos at our leisure. There were people on the lake sailing and windsurfing and others climbing 

From a couple of places we could see the road we were going to take later emerging between tunnels. We also saw a few parts of the old road which we were happy we were not going on. The walk gave us great views of the Lake from a variety of angles. We also saw a former fort area. It was scenic and historic, just what John loves and perfect for his birthday. The cliffs were steep and sheer straight into the lake, but Katherine was very happy standing on the very edge.

The fort was built to protect the road. It was a bombproof fortress dug out of the rock between 1904 and 1918. The whole complex was was spread over 5 floors and dug into the rock for 1 kilometre. There was a plaque at the spot that told us this in Italian. German, French and English.

We turned when the wind was starting to be a pain and retreated as far as the Fort area for our panini’s. They were European style so really a filled roll with meat and cheese and very filling. Lots of people were mountain-biking past in both directions as we walked and we saw a few other walkers as well.

Back at the car we headed along the side of the Lake. Nico was trying to put something in particular into the TomTom and the route that showed looked very odd. We were soon to find out why. It was obviously a special road to drive on so both popular and very, VERY narrow. John sitting in the front on the passenger side did not quite close his eyes but it came close as the car came close to the cliffs. In the end we just trusted the driver (Nico) and the car proximity sensors and all was well. The part I found best was the 1-way piece. The whole road could have been 1 way as far as I was concerned but the specific 1-way part meant we did not have to pass a driver who was parked in the opposite direction ay one point, giving us less than 6 inches of passing space. Both John and I audibly breathed in as we squeezed by. Raia made a few comments to Nico from the back as well.

Back at the bottom the Lake closed over with mist and light rain set in. We were all pleased with our timing for the walk and the special part of the drive.

Nico had not had Sirmoine in his trip planning, but was happy to add it in after he had had time to think about the day. Katherine had seen the details of a sinking castle that you could kayak around. We knew the castle would be closed but aimed for it anyway. We weren’t sure what to expect and whether it would be worth a revisit when open. In the end, we had such a good look that we all decided it had been one of the day’s highlights and not worth us revisiting the next day as we did not need to go inside to appreciate it.

We parked about a 20 minute walk from the area and walked in along the spit. As we got closer we found we could have parked nearer but the prices started to rise steeply so we had made the best decision. The walk was also enjoyable with some lovely trees at the roadside and in the nearby parks. We had a lemonade and fruit and then walked around the castle to get as many photos as we could. We could see the boats that go around and Katherine knew you can also kayak but we did not have time. I shot off to find a cache then we stopped for coffee and cold drinks. A quick walk had us back at the car in the time we had paid for. It was also nice because Nico and Raia indicated that had not been there before.

I had asked Nico to take us back via a place where we could have a meal and Katherine was keen on pizza. He chose a place not far from Barcarola that had other options as well, We had pizza and Nico and Raia had bruschetta. The servings were far bigger than we expected so sadly we did leave some and had no room for dessert.

Back at the trattoria Mama was waiting to check we were all OK before she went to bed herself. John gave her a good night kiss and had some coffee before we all went to bed.

All-in-all John had an excellent birthday, and we saw so much thanks to Nico.