Getting to the Italian lake country is not relaxing. The mountains along the coast provide few opportunities for going north. So David got to drive his favorite road, the breath-taking A-12 tunnel/bridge/tunnel/bridge, for about 50 miles east before we could turn north and get through the mountains. Then the country turns flat . . . so flat that they flood the fields and grow rice. We also saw corn and wheat, real midwestern farms instead of the usual vineyards and olive trees. But for all the cheese this country eats, we have never seen a dairy cow and for all the ham they consume, we have never caught sight of a pig farm. But today we smelled one. Must be an all-inside operation.
When you travel by RV, three concerns predominate: food, gas, and dumping. Just before we arrived at the camping ground where we stayed two nights, we found a huge supermarket and got well stocked. The campground itself was kind of an unkempt place on Lake Maggiore. They were trying hard to get the pool open for the high season instead of bothering to cut the grass. But it was clean and we had enough electricity to run the vacuum cleaner, so Rover got a thorough cleaning. And the wi-fi was pretty good as long as we sat by the unopened pool to use it.
Then we moved on to what has probably been our favorite place yet. If you come to Italy, forget about Rome, Florence and Venice (well, truth be told, we’d been to Venice already, and Florence really doesn’t deserve to be entirely ignored). Go to Iseo, a pretty town on Lake Iseo, with Covelo Campground about a mile from the center of town and right on the lake, run by a young couple whose workday runs at least 14 hours. The brochure of the local tour boat company has quotes from writers of the Romantic era, swooning about the mountains, the mists, the crags, the “irregularities,” . . . all of it is true, and the place could generate countless metaphors for German Romanticism (end of pedantry, thank you for tuning in.)
Rover is parked about 10 feet from the lake and we have a wonderful view of the mountains all around.
And at night the many little villages sparkle on the mountainsides and reflect in the lake. It is just gorgeous. Our first view of it (“well, shoot. . . .”) was coming out of a tunnel above the town and seeing the whole lake and the mountains spread out before us. It was unexpected and wonderful. And the campground has free unlimited Wi-Fi!
Our first day here we took the train into Brescia to see the end of another Giro stage and walk around the town. There are ruins of Roman buildings there, including a theatre, and with the Giro ending and starting there the next day, there were lots of festivities going on, most of them involving 50% sales, loud pop music, dancing girls, and much tossing of souvenirs into the crowd.
The next day the Giro went right by the campground on a long straight stretch, so we could see them for quite a ways. It was very early in the day’s stage, so they were still all together and not really racing too hard--only going 20 mph or so (!)
Then we rode our bikes into town at a considerably slower pace and discovered some local fete being set up--apparently involving the desecration of the city father's statue with lacy drapings and an unimpressed pigeon--
so we waited for that to begin (ribbon-draped Italian dignitaries--instead of local beauty contest winners--and TV coverage people, all being ignored). We wandered through the displays, tasting wine, cheeses and jam. We decided to stay another day and take a boat to an island where we walked around and up and down into still more tiny villages: just houses, a few restaurants, a few fishing boats, and--believe it or not--only a few tourists. It has been too cloudy to get really clear pictures of the views, so you’ll just have to believe us, it is gorgeous and peaceful here, even with yesterday’s arrival of thirty motorcycle club members at the campground.