Our spontaneous day in Lake Garda.

We originally had nothing specifically planned to do today, but last night talked to the front desk about the ferries and any local villages to do a little shopping. We settled instead on a private boat tour around the lake and then be dropped off in the village of Sola.

So we started with a small breakfast followed by a little time at the pool.

And then around 1 – we walk down the hill to find our boat and captain Walter. We actually went to the wrong spot, but still found Walter and the boat!

Oh yeah -we are enjoying this!

We take in the beauty of the villages as we pass.

We go around the island (Isola del Garda) in the center of the lake.

This is the Isola del Garda estate. it is currently owned by Lady Charlotte Gavazza (she was a Borghese before marriage). She lives on the island with her 7 children, 4 brothers, 3 sisters and their families.

Walter joins us for a toast.

This is spectacular.

But then we catch a glimpse of this

We do a little shopping….well some of us did.

Others waited

I hit a wall before I accomplished any shopping, so we grabbed a taxi home.

I could have gone to bed, but we had a small breakfast and an afternoon gelato (well the glass of Prosecco on the boat too). We decide that we definitely don’t want the fancy hotel food – although we loved the location. So we head down the hill looking for a restaurant with a view, on the water and more casual food. We walk about a 1/4 mile and find a restaurant that might meet our requirements….but it’s full. So we turn and ultimately walk another half mile and along the way we drop our view of the water requirement, we keep going and we drop our eat outside requirement. We keep on walking and ultimately just wanted food. We found nothing but restaurants filled to capacity! So we climbed back up the hill resigned to eating chips.

But when we get back, Jim asks if they have a more casual menu. Yes! Although we can’t eat on the dining deck – we had our own private gazebo. So a very casual dinner of salads and sandwiches: but the location was perfect.