"I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller."                               Michael Palin
 
Well, Week One with the car and now familiar with driving on the wrong side of the road . The saving grace is that everybody else is doing the same thing so no problem there - yet. Also helps to have a left hand drive car. We picked up the car at Milan airport and the handover was a little tricky because the person doing the handing over didn't have too much English. So that was Challenge 1 for the day.  

We had programmed the GPS for our destination [Arco] during the handover and this required the engine to be running. No problem there but we then turned it off while we went inside to finalise the documentation. Unbeknown to us, it then reset itself to its default which happened to be Parma. Now, we had intended visiting Parma at some point but had not planned on doing it on Day 1. After about 30 minutes of getting used to the friendly lady inside the GPS [we call her Carla], we established that we were heading south instead of east so had to stop and set Carla straight that today we wanted to go to Arco, Parma was for another day. She proved very understanding and after that, no problem . [Not sure what she will do if we don't eventually take her to Parma.]

We had opted for travel on the SS roads [state stradas] rather than the autostrada super highway so that we got a better feel for the countryside. Upside of this was we didn’t have to travel on toll roads and meandered more through towns on the way; down side was that it was considerably slower. Think from here on out, we will mostly use the autostradas to travel between our accommodation stops and use the local roads for the day trips. There weren’t too many other traumas on the way to Arco. However, the pucker factor increased on our arrival. Our accommodation was located in the Chiamora district [old but classy] of Arco and the roads in the area often include alleyways through buildings with the end result that they are very narrow. Another real challenge on Day 1 – brand new car [only 14 km on the clock when we picked it up] and we had visions of leaving the side mirrors behind in Arco. By Day 3, however, we are handling the narrowness of the streets [almost] like a local – the main difference being we were doing it 30 kmh slower . Our route that day took us up the western side of Lake Garda, about 50 kms from bottom to top and the largest in Italy. The road was winding, in places quite narrow, and with lots of tunnels which the Italians are extremely good at building. The last 10 or so km of the road before Riva Del Garda at the head of the lake is the section where James Bond does his best to totally destroy his Aston Martin during the opening road chase in "Quantum of Solace". They must have really paid somebody big time for that closure because it is a heavily used road.

Our landlady [Laura] is a delightful lady who speaks Italian and German but virtually no English. This makes for some very interesting conversations that generally end in lots of nodding and smiling. Thank goodness for translation apps on Ipads and cell phones. However, she is very generous and left us some of the largest, tastiest tomatoes ever. Apparently, she has a garden area somewhere in the hills . She is also an excellent cook. One day, she left us some absolutely mouth-watering apple strudel pies. Very, very scrummy. The apartment itself is on the 1^st floor and is extremely well appointed and comfortable. Laura lives on the next two levels above.

When we booked this accommodation, we had assumed that Arco was a bit of a backwater. Not so. It happens to be one of the areas that the southerners [like the ones that we mentioned in Milan] head to during the hot summer months, so some of the "locals" are actually very wealthy people from the cities further south and this is reflected in most of their "holiday" houses. Quite palatial. There is an old castle [circa 1200 and onwards] on the hill overlooking Arco and while the walk up the pathways is a bit of a mission, the view that it offers of the surrounding valley is quite stunning. The valley heads virtually north-south with Lake Garda being the southern end and the River Adige running down its centre. It was formed thousands of years ago by a glacier and you can still see the glacial flow gouge marks in the cliff faces . The valley itself is a bit unusual in that the western side is almost vertical, in some parts 500 - 600 metres tall, while the eastern side is more of an angled climb. Lots of vineyards in the southern part of the valley floor but as you head north they quickly transition to apple orchards. These orchards are huge, certainly far bigger than anything we have in NZ. Trees all espaliered, really close together, and rather more like we plant tomatoes.

Our first day in Arco, was a bit of an admin day as we had been on the road for almost two weeks. Followed by a walk through orchards and vineyards, and meandering to the village to buy provisions. The next day, however, we got back on the road and headed north about 80 kms to Bolzano. From the top of Lake Garda northwards, German is widely spoken - sometimes is the language of 1^st choice - and town signs are shown in both Italian and German. Up till the end of WWI, this area had actually been part of the Austrian empire . However, the Austrians had backed the loser and as a result the Sudtirol area was passed to the Italians as a form of reparation, given that the Italians had been playing on the side of the winners in that particular match. [As usual, the winners share the spoils.] The countryside [houses, farms etc] definitely has an Austrian feel to it. The food also. Regrettably, however, we had not established that 15 August was a religious holiday [Assumption of Mary] so on arrival in Bolzano we found everything was closed, including the eating place we had identified in our travelling companion - "Italy for the Gourmet Traveler" [author Fred Plotkin] and a very reliable foodie bible - as the one we wanted to try. Still, it was an interesting drive and a beautiful town. On the way back we drove through Rovereto, another elegant town usually bypassed by travellers. One of Rovereto’s claims to fame is that it was where Mozart first performed in Italy. The lovely part about this whole area is the lack of English speaking tourists; height of the season and over the week, we have heard English spoken only a couple of times . But lots of German and French.

On Saturday, we drove down to Verona [about 80 kms south], taking the autostrada [toll road] on the way down and the regional road on the way back. Traffic on the autostrada was a bit frenetic and, surprisingly, speeds tended to vary up and down quite a bit. Mind you it was Saturday and there were many more vehicles on the road than we had found to date. We tend to use the GPS in the car and an app [NavFree Italy] on the Ipad to check progress. The pad app can be zoomed in and out and is able to give us the bigger picture while Carla in the car simply tells us what she expects us to do next. Very patient when we don’t follow her instructions. We had purchased a parking plug-in for the Ipad app and were able to programme both the Ipad and Carla to locate parking facilities. Nice to have a 2^nd opinion and a bit of a godsend when you are not familiar with an area/city.

Verona’s main claim to fame [apart from having a large Colosseum which doubles as an outdoor opera house and a mention in Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”] is Juliet’s Balcony . Not the real thing [given that Romeo and Julie baby only existed in Shakespeare’s mind – and I guess the hearts of millions of romantics since] but makes for good tourism and the shops edging the courtyard seem to do excellent business marketing romance - and a character out of a stage play. If modern day would-be Juliets wish to stand on her balcony and wait for their lovers, they have to pay for the pleasure. When we visited, the crowd was shoulder to shoulder in the small courtyard, all hoping for glimpse of the lady in question but regrettably she was not at home. We found a cafe that is mentioned in Fred's book which lived up to its reported reputation. Excellent espresso and a “to die for” coffee crème profiterole. That alone was worth the drive.

One of the big activities in the Sudtirol area is outdoor pursuits:

• rock climbing on the valley cliffs [here they are part of the Dolomites]
  
• cyclists galore all with the prerequisite "go fast" gear [some not that flattering [or maybe it is to some] when they hop off their bikes],
  
• yachting/sail boarding/water-skiing/paragliding on the lake, and
  
• canoeing on the river.
  

All big business. These travellers are a little long in the tooth for that, though we have walked for miles and climbed up some pretty high hills, all I might add in 30 to 40^oC temps .

On the food side, the Sudtirol is known for its wild mushrooms, bresaola [air-dried beef prosciutto], carne sala [raw beef marinated in salt, spices and vinegar], Trentino luganega sausages [full of meat, very little fat and terribly tasty] and puzzone de Moena, a local cheese. To quote our foodie bible:”Puzzone, loosely translated means “big and smelly”. The cheese is not so big but it does have a rather distinct odour.” Local wines include Nosiola [white desert wine] and Marzemina, a red. We visited a wine specialist shop in Riva Del Garda and the manager ran us through a sampling session of their local versions of Grappa. Definitely an acquired taste but their lemon grappa crème slides down very well. He warned us not to put it in the fridge because the chilling effect dulls the presence of the alcohol and you tend to drink it faster [with obvious consequences, one them being you run out faster]. We have had fun experimenting and trying all of the above. The olive oil here is especially good, rich and fruity . A definite high for this region. Horse is another option on some menus but we gave that a miss. Trish says we will try it but Stuart just said "neigh".

One for the Techies. When we were in Milan, we had purchased a local SIM card for our phone. There are a number of companies marketing them and their plans but, after some internet research, we chose TIM. Our plan gives us 1000 texts and 400 minutes local each month - cost €25 to set up and first month, and €10 to top up each month. Not too expensive for peace of mind. Also has 2Gb of data each month which is mostly used for “where am I" on walkabouts and “what is the word I need/what is this saying” in markets.

On our penultimate day in Arco, we took a short drive south along the eastern side of the Lake to Malcesine. One of the main attractions here is the cable car which climbs 1750 metres up Monte Baldo but you need to be there on a cold clear winter's day as it gets very hazy once the temperatures climb . We arrived at lunchtime and it was about 35^oC; the haze was already bad at lake level so we gave the cable car a miss. If you going to visit this way, avoid the tourist season [and weekends] if possible to reduce your level of frustration on the roads. Traffic gets down to a crawl. However, to give them their due, everyone shows considerable patience [our team included].

And so tomorrow, on to the west - Maggiore, Switzerland and Como...