17/11/24
The orange light visible from our bed suggested the fog had gone during the night. In reality it had diminished, but we still couldn’t see the fabled lake. Giovanni included breakfast in his Airbnb price. Which actually kind of makes sense given the name of the site. It was only some of that dry toast and jam, well there was cake, but it definitely wasn’t vegan.
During breakfast we perused an old book about Verona, it was only a picture book for us really. We’d heard of Verona of course but we had no idea how well preserved its buildings were. It looked tremendous. Two nights in Verona it was going to be. Having the bikes means that we had to message potential places to stay and ensure they have somewhere for them.
It was either the fact we were tired or the tranquility but we weren’t keen on leaving here either. Alas we did so, down the steep hill all the way to the lake front. We were soon aware of a lack of a substantive cycle route. We were on the main road round the lake. Surely this was a popular place for cycling?
Lake Iseo was everything we would have thought Lake Garda to be. Or Morcote in Ticino. This was not a pretty place, even when the Sun graced the opposing side to where we were cycling. Boatyards and residences. No cycle paths. Streams of cars.
We were keen to book a nice house in Verona which we’d found for a reasonable price. Frederico replied to us confirming we could take the bikes into the house. At that moment we walking ‘bici e mano’ through another market. We decided to walk down a promenade that was strictly no cycling. We went to press book, it said unavailable. “Someone has just booked”, Frederico replied uncaringly. We were perplexed. Oh well, we found a super cheap room only instead of the palatial Venetian house we’d hoped for.
The peninsula of Sirmione sticks out into lake Garda. It has a wonderful Castello right at the tip, and we were keen to see it. It was 10 kilometres out and back but the weather had turned glorious of course and it wasn’t to be missed. Still struggling to find a sanctioned cycle path we then discovered an unprecedented number of no cycling signs on the paths. On the only road we were repeatedly pushed to the side by the vigorous Italian driving.
We passed a gigantic car park not far from the end. There were lots of people walking but few cyclists. As we got to the castle there were barriers forbidding traffic of any kind entering. But also forbidding bicycles! They were not even allowed if you walked them as far as we could tell. Unperturbed by the ridiculousness of such a policy, we and all two other cyclists who we spotted, began walking into the walled town. It was beautifully maintained and we were anticipating a coffee in the delightful surroundings.
Just then a police woman came marching round the corner. Unsurprisingly leading several cars through the people. Cars > everything. She quickly admonished us and our pleas, demanding we leave at once. We really weren’t causing any harm! This was, as we should have known from the previous friction, an anti-cyclist regime. Hysterically, the below excerpt is from their tourism website. And yes November is now summer apparently.
We left in a hurry. If we weren’t wanted, then we weren’t keen on being there. We stopped in another little port town, pretty with huge walls. We desired ice cream, but alas it was Sunday and much was closed despite the large crowds. From the lake it was a little climb back to the sanctity of the official route. If it wasn’t clear, lake Garda is pretty rubbish and it’s awful for cyclists.
We wound through miles of vineyards and farms in the sunshine. There was little of interest but another closed bridge led us to see another church with a rounded nave overlooking the fierce river. The water rushed over what we could only describe as a weir in a ferocious way.
Arriving in Verona was pleasing indeed. The cycle route always took us through the most scenic parts of the cities and Verona was flush with big walls, turrets and an arena. We didn’t look too hard, we were to see the city in all its grandeur the next day. One of those large German Christmas markets that plague every city blocked our route, and our view of the impressive city walls, but fortunately it wasn’t hard to work around.
Our accommodation wasn’t representative of the city surroundings at all. It was a block of flats serving as an extension of a hotel nearby that seemed to be using Airbnb a little bit manipulatively. We entered only to be surprised by a camera. You aren’t allowed cameras in an Airbnb unsurprisingly. The room was sufficient but very cramped. We found it hard to turn around in the tiny shower, anyone larger would struggle a great deal. It didn’t matter really, we weren’t intending to stay there a whole lot.
Surly They Won't Make It 