We had a relaxed start in the morning as we didn’t need to check out till 10.45. We had originally planned to go to see The Last Supper for the opening viewing of the day , before coming back to the hotel for a late breakfast. My lousy night ruled that out so we had a quiet morning instead, I was still feeling pretty wiped.
Checking out at 10.45, the desk clerk called us a taxi and we wound our way through the highly convoluted streets on our way to Linate Airport. I’d booked a rental car there to collect at 11.30 am. This was one of the quickest and most helpful rental car pickups we’ve ever had, if you’re ever in Milan I can recommend the Enterprise/Locauto people at Linate!
The traffic was pretty quiet initially but as we joined the autostrada we met with convoys of trucks. Fortunately, three lakes meant there were no blockages and we made good pace. Through the haze we could see the mountains starting to rise up ahead of us, the foothills of the Dolomites. At one stage we passed a series of massive quarries that scarred the hillside, marble quarry we assumed.
As we approached the lake we turned off onto the road that runs up the wetsren shore. It was a pretty drive, passing through pretty little towns and many tunnels that hug the shore of the lake. The traffic was busier here but better than I believe it gets in the high season.
Right on 2pm we pulled into the driveway of our hotel, The Hotel Garda Suites, our home for the next three nights. We checked in with the freindly desk clerk who showed us to our room…. only it wasn’t the right room! I had booked their Junior Suite and we were shown to one of their standard room. The clerk was clearly concerned and asked us to wait while she checked with the boss at “head office” to clear things up. We waited and then she came back and asked us to come up to the bar where we were invited to have a drink to wait for the boss to come over and talk to us! This sounded ominous but we enjoyed a drink and some pastries and then a rather sheepish lady joined us, her expression very concerned and clearly expecting drama. It turned out that they had double booked us with someone else that was coming tomorrow for ten nights. She offered us their next best room ( which was basically the same without the jacuzzi, but with a better view) and looked like she was waiting for a big fuss. I think we surprised her when we accepted the exchange cheerfully! I’m pretty sure we have boosted their opinion of Australians 🙂 We chatted to her for a while and mentioned we were planning to take the ferry over the lake tomorrow. She left us with many apologies and thankyous and we enjoyed the free drinks and pastries they’d brought us…a few minutes later she returned with two tickets for the ferry to thanks us for our cooperation!
We are very happy with the room, with it’s lovely view of the lake. After dropping abag of laundry in to the “Lavanderia” across the road we settled in to rest, both of us still pretty tired after last nights dramas.
At 5.30 we left the hotel and strolled down to the one next door to visit our “neighbours”… Jo and Steve, our very good friend from Alfords Pt also just ahppened to be staying Lake Garda for a couple of nights and we were going to enjoy the lake with them! We enjoyed some Prosecco and nibbles on their verandah before strolling down into the town for dinner. They had done some reconnaisance and Jo had found a good option for dinner. It was a lovely balmy evening, the flowers still blooming in the pots that lined the pathway into town.
It was great to catch up with the news of their travels – they have already been in Europe for 4 1/2 weeks, mainly in Switzerland and the Dolomites. We strolled back to our respective hotels with plans to meet up in the morning to catch the ferry across the lake to Malcesine.
Neil and I fell into bed and were asleep shortly after 9.30. Hopefully having a much better night tonight!