Day 2 Bolzano and Lake Garda

One of the things we like doing on trips is finding small unknown towns and seeing what it like to live there.  We started the morning waiting for Dave to finish working a bit.  Jackson and I were anxious to get started.  We found out upon check out that the hotel has a POOL and hot tub on the 7th floor surrounded by the alps!  We were so disappointed that we didn't take advantage of that!  We drove into the town square.  The plaza and church there were small and quaint.  Knowing of the vast and magestic sites to come, it wasn't very spectacular, but it was Jackson's first time and he loved it.  We stopped by a bakery to enjoy a breakfast.

We went back to the hotel and went swimming and it was a lovely view and amazing experience (we were the only people there).  We were missing our girls at this point.  Jackson would point out all the times they would love it and all the times we were glad they weren't with us.  The pool had a fountain and a strong jet stream.

We then headed out to find some castles.  The first one we stopped at was closed.  We still hiked a ways up to it and it was a gorgeous view of the valley. Castle Beseno

We headed over toArco looking for another Castle.  The GPS took us to  a stop about 200 feet BELOW the castle and said, 'You've arrived"  we could't figure out how to get to the actual castle, so we stopped at a playground and looked from afar.  

We then went to Lake Garda and started driving down it.  We stopped at a castle that WAS open and we finally got to tour one.  Jackson was very fearful about the castle falling on him and he wanted to leave ASAP.  We climbed to the top and took lots of pictures of the water view and the city view.  It was a gorgeous day.

We had an awesome drive down all of lake Garda and toroughly enjoyed seeing little lakeside towns.

I had booked our next hotel that morning and they said we had to check in by 8:00 but we weren't going to make it in time.  We decided to try to use Daves phone to make a call (instead of exiting and trying to find a wi-fi spot) and it worked!  We easily told the desk that we were going to be late and just kept driving.  Discoving we could make a phone call changed our trip(making it so much easier).
We stopped at a roadside grill for dinner and then drove into LaSpezia (so glad we didn't stay in this industrial city) and into the hillside cliffs on the way to Riomaggiore.  Our hotel was AWESOME!!  We checked in at the top and then headed down 150 steps (Jackson counted) to our room. The path down was lit up with path lighting, gazebos, flowers and we could hear the ocean far below us.  Even though it was dark it was a gorgeous sight.  I couldn't wait to see it in the morning.  I was excited to be there and we debated back and forth for a while staying an extra night there.  We got a room with a loft bed and 2 twins in on the floor.  Despite what we wanted Jackson got the queen and we stayed in the twin beds.  Dave and I finished watching the Italian job while Jackson slept.


      Getting there  Day 1 Venice   Day 2 Italian Alps Day 3 Cinque Terre  Day 4 Florence  Day 5 Rome  Day 6 Vatican