Monday, 4th July

The Plan

No excursions planned.

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The News

A free day.  Party time.  So we decided on a leisurely start and then a cruise to Bardolino and visit Cristallo, the best ice cream parlour in Italy.  The alternative was ...

Cristallo won.  We had arranged to meet another couple at the quay for the 10:15 boat, but we had two little hiccups.  First, we got part way there when Jan remembered that she had left her wrinkly pass in the hotel and had to go back and get it.  Then I got it in my head that the boat left at 10:37 (because I had looked at the wrong line on the timetable) so we walked even more slowly than usual.  The result was that we got to the harbour just in time to wave the boat goodbye.  At least we were able to see a bit of the town.

It was an hour until the next boat ... and then it started to rain.  Bother, I thought.  I was sure it would be a passing shower, so I stayed on the bench I had found.  Everyone else got under the awning of the ticket office and enjoyed watching me get soaked.  Still, it was quite warm so it only took me a few hours to dry out.

We got to Bardolino at about 12:45.  And the  Cristallo ice cream restaurant is right by the quay on the right.  Well, it would be silly to walk past it so we had a huge ice cream fruit bowl each as lunch.  Now, this is the way to dine out.

Sated, we had a wander around the town - which is beautiful.

There were two boats that we could have got and we chose the earlier one.  We could see the clouds bubbling up and the journey back was quite rough.  The wind was whipping up the waves which had white tops and Jan was sure we would go down - no one else did.

On returning to Desenzano, we had some nice spaghetti with ham and peas in a small restaurant on the small harbour and then made our way back up the hill to our hotel.  I went straight to bed, but Jan stayed up and sat on the roof terrace ... until the storm hit.

A nice couple from our party who got the return boat with us had got off at Lazise.  They had a wander around there and then caught the next boat to Desenzano, the one we would have got if we had stayed in Bardolino.  Their boat wasn't allowed to dock in Desenzano, so it turned back to Lazise where they had to wait two hours.  Then they got soaked when the rain hit whilst they were eating.  And they are such a lovely couple.