Remember Silvia from the Via de la Plata? Before she went home she kept saying that I should visit Italy before I left Europe. I wasn't sure whether this was an invitation or just a suggestion but she subsequently committed to 'showing me around a little'.
From Milan I took a train to Brescia where she picked me up at the station. We stopped back at her apartment in Salo to introduce me to her boyfriend Andrea and her cats.
She then drove us pretty much all the way up the western coast of Garda, stopping at some of the little villages along the way. It was a stunningly beautiful day and the scenery was as well. As far north as Garda is, the west coast is known for its lemon groves. I think it's been that way since the Roman era because some of the ruins are ancient structures for supporting lemon trees.
There is a road off that western coast of Garda that was the location for a famous James Bond car chase scene in Quantum of Solace. A winding one lane, but TWO WAY road with hairpin turns. Silvia is an excellent driver. I honestly don't know that I would drive it myself unless I had to. The view from the top is spectacular. I wish this damn Google blog platform didn't make it so hard to attach pictures.
Most restaurants in Salo are closed on Mondays so for dinner, Silvia and Andrea took me to there third favorite pizza place in all of Salo. It's called Adamello and is attached to a car wash. I'm not the pizza connoisseur that some of my friends are but this might be the finest pizza I've ever had. We split three of them and the favorite was one with some roasted vegetables and pancetta sprinkled with a little grated Parmesan.
The next day Silvia and I went on a hop on, hop off boat tour of the lower half of Garda. The highlight of this trip was Simione, at the tip of a long peninsula extending from the middle of the south part of the lake. There are the ruins of an ancient palace that was built around the year zero. i was coming down with a cold (forgot to take my vitamin C) so I was really tired after the boat tour. Silvia drove me back down to Brescia where I'd take a train further east the next morning.
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