We both woke so early this morning that I could capture the view of the pre sunrise light coming over the mountains. We had plenty of time for a relaxed breakfast on the terrace, another excellent buffet with some amazing looking cakes and pastries.
At 9 am we met Jo and Steve at their hotel and set off to the other end of the town where we could catch the ferry across the lake. It was a lovely clear morning and the plan was to catch the cable car to Mt Baldo ,which towers over the town of Malcesine. It was a quick trip and we were off the ferry and strolling through the town, with time before our booking to browse in a few shops. Steve found a nice jacket to add to his collection and the shopkeepers were happy to keep it for him to collect on our return. I found a pair of cheapy sun glasses, as keeping up my travel tradition of forgetting to pack one item per trip… this time my sunnies had been left behind! ( and Neil couldn’t keep lending me his!)
We arrived at the base station for the cable car in plenty of time and queued up for our 11am timeslot. It’d a popular activity and I had read that queues could stretch for up to an hour in the peak summer months but we only waited around 30 minutes before we were loaded onto the first leg of the journey. It was a quick run to the intermediate station in San Michele, where we made a quick stop and switched cabins. The second leg was longer and steeper and we rode in a rotating cabin with 360-degree views
Finally, after ten minutes we arrived at the top at an altitude of 1760 m . We stopped to take in the wonderful view down to the lake so far below. There are several walking trails up the top but we decided to walk a short distance along a very rough pathway where we had a good view of the succession of parasailers leaping off the top to glide down to the lake below. ( rather them than me!)
The cafe was calling us so we stopped to enjoy beer and hot chocolate before heading back down to lake level, where we only needed to drop in and collect Steve’s jacket before queing for the ferry back to Limone. The ferries run to a slightly erratic schedule and stop in two different docks in Limone. We were lucky that the ride back dropped us at the dock closest to our hotels as we’d already done a lot of steps today!
After a rest break at our hotels we met up on our verandah this time for pre dinner drinks and nibbles before strolling back down into town for dinner at Ristorante L’Agramento. Another pick of Jo’s and a good one. My lamb cutlets with the zesty lemon mayonnaise were delicious. It was a beautiful, still, balmy evening – perfetto!
Back at their hotel we said goodbye and wished each other well for the remainder of our travels. It was such fun to share the time here with them.
Back to the hotel and bed, we have one more day on the lake tomorrow.