Venice - Day 4

A day trip today to Lake Garda. We first took a vaperatto to the train station and then took a train 2 hours to Desenzano Del Garda. On the train we passed through Padua, Vincenza, and Verona. Once we arrived in Desenzano, we walked from the train station to the harbor to take the steamer to Sirmione, stopping only to grab an orange and some powerade from a little corner market. Walking toward what we think is the way, we stopped a young woman and asked her the way to the boats and she said in perfect English "the problem is that I do not speak English very well." She did explain the way and we made it in time to catch the next steamer.

The steamer was quick, only 10 minutes. Once at Sirmione we were able to wander the streets and view the castle. We grabbed some pizza and gelato too. There were cars here, a few cool old ones but mainly just locals driving. The castle is the Rocca Scaligera. The Roman poet Catullus, born 84 BC, owned a villa there. We walked along the lake and I actually walked barefoot in the water. The water was quite warm. The color of the water here is a tad more blue than the Venice green than we were used to seeing. We strolled back to the steamer dock after strolling for about 2 hours. While we waited we fed Pringles to the sparrows. They will eat right out of your hand!

After the steamer and another 2 hour train ride after an hour delay, we grabbed a quick dinner of spaghetti and pizza. We ate outside at a place where the owner tried to tell us that air conditioning is bad for your lungs but we were pretty sure he meant bank account. One thing to note about Venice restaurants, they have a cover charge. The charge you to sit at their table. It is a per person charge, usually a couple euro. They also add a service charge that is not gratuity. It ranges from 12-16% as far as we can tell. Well... I do not have much more to say about that right now.

After a roasty day and dinner, we headed back to the room for sleep and much needed air conditioning.