If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
We were kept awake late last night by loud music, laughter, and voices at the bar and restaurant just a few feet below us on the riva. This apartment might not be in the best location for two older people who like to sleep at night... Closing all the windows and turning on the fan helped, and so did ear plugs. But the bass beat from the drum machine in the bar penetrated all. Oh, well. We can nap during the day.
We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day. We decided to play tourist and took the 9:00 ferry to Sirmione sul Garda, a peninsula off the southern shore of the lake. There, we joined the crowds touring the Sirmione Castle, at the entrance to the peninsula; hiked up to the end of the peninsula to explore the Grotte di Catullo (stopping for cappuccini along the way, of course); strolled back to the start of the peninsula, found a lovely restaurant on a side street where we had an excellent lunch in a quiet garden; and caught the 14:10 ferry back to Garda. A nice, relaxing day.
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| The busy riva outside our apartment. |
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| Rocca Scaligera, a 13th-century castle built by the wealthy noble Della Scala family from Verona. |
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| The castle was built right on the lake and surrounded by a moat. |
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| The towers and crenulations mark the castle as a fortress, built to protect as well as house the family. |
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| A small harbor inside the castle walls. |
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Sirmione is a tourist area, filled with shops and restaurants and dozens of ice cream shops.
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| At the end of the Sirmione peninsula is a vast archaeological site where you can explore the ruins of the Grotte di Catullo, a Roman villa built between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. |
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| It was fun imagining how people had lived and worked in the villa and on its grounds. |
