Venice, a sinking, surprisingly chilly, wet mess. Time to get out of town and explore some real nature. Of the outings possible, the one to Lake Garda seemed best (despite the 3 hr combo train and bus ride), in part due to finding a hiking route from a town (Malcesine) where one could ride up to the mountain top (Mt. Baldo, ht 1760m), so great view and sunshine even if hiking proved impossible.
Would be nice to go back in the summer, fly into Venice and immediately get out of town and do something like cycle the prosecco route to Valdobbiadene.
The bus travel was actually very simple because the "transfer" in Garda was actually just the bus waiting a few minutes and then changing its name.
Route was:
- Train from Venice to Verona
- Bus from Verona to Garda (Line 165/Line 164)
- (which became) Bus from Garda to Malcesine (Line 483/484)
[Mt Baldo: stunning views, no skiing for me]
Video of going down the mountain later, into the clouds.
The views were just incredible. There was a natural, rather short, route to walk along where people were skiing (we followed the family who had brought their dog along instead of their skis).
Near the restaurant:
A bit further from the restaurant, one could take a short break and look down at Lake Garda and appreciate the view and the sunshine, above the clouds (which later rolled in a little, but at a lower elevation). Here is very quick video with the same view, panning left to right.
Here is the view from close to the edge of the walk:
I really like the following picture. The walk ended at some fencing. Some people decided to keep walking further, but I think they had snowshoes and maybe an utter lack of self preservation (the descent was rather steep!). The sign clearly directs you to what is likely in summer months a nice hiking path into the valley.
Me sitting on the fencing, Garda lake behind me.
[Walk down from Mt. Baldo, Malcesine]
Took the sky-gondola down the mountain to the middle stop and hiked down from there. It was warm enough to take off the extra outer layers (necessary also in Venice!) and also the thermal trousers. The walk was mostly well signed, used some open street maps to correct when a bit lost.
Views up the mountain:
Views up the mountain:
Another mountain view:
Warm enough that succulents are doing well in people´s gardens:
Once in Malcesine, walked around their old town and up to the castle (which you can see in both pictures, at the edge of land/town):
View from Castle in Malcesine:
[Walk around nighttime Verona]
Ended up doing dinner as a picnic in the train home, ended up wandering around Verona at night.
Verona also has an airport with lowcost flights from Frankfurt, and it is a lively (and clearly rich) city, which has also clearly been right a long time. The shopping streets were mainly Italian designers. The buildings were old but well maintained. Lots of young people out enjoying an apero and snacks, or later dinner.
Juliet's balcony was well-visited, and the statue of her had its boobs polished to quite a shine. People had covered all the walls with graffiti, which was being fought in some efforts by the city. The former home of Romeo was more battened down or maybe inhabited than hers. Included picture of people getting pictures with the Juliet statue. There was quite a line. I was not interested.
Cool shop windows (felt more like homes than shops, from layout or furniture quality or art):
Got back to Venice, slept, went to the mainland for Brunch, had some running around that had to be done to make it to the airport, made it home safely. Mainlaind by Venice was not very photogenic.
Ciao and until next time.
What magnificent hiking pictures!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was a real joy to get out/up in the sunshine and the warmth after a pretty cold drear winter here.
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