Montichiari--Lake Garda

These are late posts as I have been saving until we had a connection--so these are just catching up with us. We are actually at Lake Como now and have a connection for just a few minutes. I will post another to show up in a couple days.

A Presto!

Our little mini-vacation within our vacation has not begun well, sorry to say. We arrived at our B and B in Montichiari which seemed charming, relaxing and garden like when I was perusing its website in detail. Usually the process works and we find ourselves at charming, relaxing and garden like accommodations. However, this time my infallible

radar failed and things are not as I envisioned. We are not in the countryside somewhere between Lake Garda and Verona, rather, we are in middle of a small Italian town which offers little reason for being here unless you call it home. There is a castle on a hill which we hope to visit—but there are reasons I shall go into below which are working to derail that plan.

The place we are staying is, as promised, a 500 year old palazzo which, I am sure, has witnessed many things over the centuries, including its share of intrigue and conspiracy. The family that lives here today is the same family that lived here 500 years ago. As in any place like this it does hold the charm of wondering what was. I am pretty sure our room is where the servants’ quarters would have been.

The irony is that we would really appreciate a charming, relaxing and garden like environment in the countryside or along the lake right now as we are confined to quarters or sitting in the loggia, which fortunately has a slight breeze passing through, somewhat offsetting the heat and humidity of the day. It seems that something Ken and I ate last night is having a winning argument with our innards. This in turn makes it unlikely that we will climb the many steps to the castle and its promise of interest or drive to the lake and see its beauty or venture to Mantova, which would probably be too hot anyway or do anything else that would be fun. We are hopeful that today’s nothingness will prepare us for tomorrow’s trip to Gardaland—a downscale version of Disneyland—for Casey. Truthfully, not a day I look forward to with anticipation except it is an excursion meant for kids like Casey.

Tonight we are supposed to go to a very nice restaurant—in the countryside, at last—to celebrate Casey’s entrance into the world of double digits. He turned 10 yesterday—a day that was not much better than today. Here’s his report on his big day—he had to leave his soulmate, Camilla, to accompany his grandparents elsewhere (tears), he had an earache which became progressively worse until we ended up at the hospital at 9:30 at night (tears) and he forgot Niki, his beloved nighttime/fur worn off, companion down in the car (more tears.)

At this point, a day spent at Gardaland sounds upbeat and inviting. I’ll let you know.