An Italian castle

Thursday 28th June

When I asked Rob what other photos I should include, he said what about the Mille Miglia photos,  so here they are. Also a photo of the inlaid marble at the duomo in Brescia.

A slow start to the morning but eventually headed in to Trento (about 12k). We weren't sure what to expect from this town so headed for tourist information. Our first challenge was a car park (and avoid the ZTL). Turned out it was market day so took us a while to find a park that allowed longer than an hour.

The first thing we found at tourist info was that there is a hillclimb on this weekend. More later.

On the advice of the girl in the office we visited the Castello Buonconsiglio. The palace covers several periods starting with a medieval castle from the 13th to 15th century, and added on sections covering 16th to 18th centuries. This place was pretty amazing in terms of the frescoes on the ceilings and also the woodwork. It was not furnished like other palaces we have been to but every room we went in to had wow ceilings. We took the added tour into the Eagle Tower where there are 12 frescoes around the walls representing each month of the year - 11 actually, March was at some point destroyed by fire. These frescoes were painted between 1391 and 1407.

Castello Buonconsiglio.

View from the castello - some of the old walls of the city.

Beautiful ornamental grapevine arbour.

Odette warming her toes in the 'black fireplace'.

These tiles are a partial restoration of one of the floors in the castle.
Folk art quilt?

Just one example of the frescoed ceilings - this one in the loggia.

...and a wooden ceiling

...and some of the remaining frescoes on the walls.

Some of the 'month of the year' frescoes in the Eagle Tower.

Walking the streets of Trento in the historical centre there are lots of palazzos with beautiful facades from different periods, and at each palazzo there was an information board about the palazzo and what period it was from. Very well done by the city. Unlike some places we have been to in Italy, Trento seems to have money - clean, well laid out, information boards around the town, generally good roads. The city has a pedestrian only area so it is easy to wander slowly and take in all the sights. Some beautiful piazzas with many restaurants.

One of the palazzos in town. Loved the facade with the balconies.

Part of the Duomo in Trento.

We're still not too sure, but this roof certainly looked like it lent back.

Neptune fountain in the main piazza.

This bronze statue (2007) represents the typical Trentino family.

The altar in the duomo
- we took the photo to show the marble columns and their colours. 

While excavating under the theatre in 1999 to do renovations, they came across roman ruins from the year 240. Even back then the romans had underground sewerage, toilets (hole in the floor but same purpose), and the stuff was really built to last. They have unearthed some beautiful mosaic tiled floors where the tiles would be about 1/2inch square.

There were a few partial mosaic floors - this was one of the better ones.
This reminded us of the underground roman site we visited in Ravenna,
also in Italy.

Hillclimb - thanks to a wrong turn on the way home we found ourselves on this weekends hillclimb course. It is apparently around 20k and we travelled most of it - lots of new bitumen for the competitors. Rob was in heaven to be able to get a close look at it, but lots of other looky loos in both directions, and a bus route, and me, meant that he couldn't have a play.

Shall we go to Austria?

Wednesday 27th June

Further north into Italy and just about done with the lakes. We decided to take the road over the mountains rather than alongside Lago di Garda, in the hope of getting away from the traffic. This turned out to be a good move. The road was very quiet and after the first few k we were on a very good road - quite wide for an Italian road and in good condition.

This road took us past one final lake - Lago d'Idro. This was a small lake but looked like it would be a perfect spot to camp, away from the busier, bigger, and more well known lakes. We stopped here for morning tea and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Lago d'Idro.

There seemed to be a lot of water sports on offer
and a lot of people out enjoying the weather.
A kite surfing school was here as well with a list of rules and qualifications
you must have to kite surf on the lake.

Surrounding mountain views.

A little village we could see perched high above the lake.

There were quite a few trucks using this road, mostly headed in the opposite direction, and we figured it was a main transport route between Germany and perhaps Brescia and Milan. 

On arriving at our accommodation we found that the owners speak no English. They invited us for a coffee and with the help of google translate we were able to talk with them about their mountain climbing in the area. They seem to be a lovely older couple. Our accommodation is quiet (apart from next doors yapping dog) and we have a kitchen, so can cook our own meals - something other than pizza and pasta.

A case of ABC.

Tuesday 26th June

We decided to forego the cable car trip and instead go in to the city of Brescia which has a lot of history and plenty to see. When we were here in 2014 we were focused on the Mille Miglia and didn't really go in to the city. We were armed with the information on where to park to get the best access to the old city and had no trouble getting there.

Well, if you haven't already seen enough churches in your travels, then Brescia will certainly solve that problem. There are at least a dozen in very close walking distance to the centre, and many more as you go further afield. We visited a few of the churches, and each was stunning in its own way. We were saved from visiting the umpty-dozen that there were because the churches are closed between 12.30 and 2.30. There is something to be said for the Italian working hours. In fact, nearly everything appeared to close up between 1 and 3.

The Palazzo della Loggia - built between 1492 and 1570.
This is the place of the government of the city.

 

We arrived in the city right on the hour and looked up
to see these figures striking the hour on the bell.

Piazza Loggia - at the far end of the piazza there is a plaque
to commemorate 8 people killed in a terror attack there in 1974.

Noticed this beautiful table setting at one of the restaurants.

The Duomo Nuovo on the left (built 1604 to 1825)
and the Duomo Vecchio (built end 11th century) on the right.
The Duomo Vecchio was built on the remains of an older church
and you can see roman remains and mosaics under the floors. 

Inside Duomo Nuovo - pretty elaborate but not OTT like some.
There is just so much fine detail in some of the carvings,
and the marble colours are stunning.

Church of St Maria dei Miracoli -
closed for lunch but the outside was pretty stunning.

Marble! Church of St Maria della Carita.

Beautiful flowerboxes.

Everywhere you turned there were picturesque streets and alleys.

An area of the city where they are excavating roman ruins
- the white parts are the original structures
and the brown bits are what they have reconstructed.

We tried to get in to a tour of the opera house but they were booked up until July, so that was a bust. We did have lunch sitting on the front steps - just takeaway burger and chips.

The hotel restaurant was open tonight so we ate dinner in. A very nice meal - pasta, steak for me and stuffed guinea fowl for Rob and millefeuille with pear for dessert. The owner of the hotel is a chef who in his past life had a michelin star restaurant.

Wandering and window shopping.

Monday 25th June

We headed today to the town of Salo on the Lago di Garda. The day started out a little cooler and it looked like rain was a possibility. We decided to head first for the tourist info centre to find out about a cable car in the opposite side of the lake and also about wineries in the area. The girl at the office was extremely helpful and we found out that there is much more to do in the area than our 2 days was going to accommodate.

As we sat down to eat lunch in one of the piazzas in Salo the rain started, but with a bit of strategic positioning of the table and chairs we were still able to enjoy our lunch outdoors. We wandered the streets of Salo - a lot of bag and clothing shops to browse. I am looking for a handbag but so far have not seen one that really grabs my eye. There is always Florence to come.

A few scenes in the town of Salo.
This town has a history going back to the 1300s.

Beautiful Italian wrought iron balconies
- lots of flowering window boxes.

Eating places all along the lakeside. 

Sorry, it's  ABC. The colours in the marble in some of these churches are just beautiful.  

Look up! You never know what you will see.

We were both feeling pretty tired today so had a short day out then back to the hotel where we relaxed with a swim in their pool. I'm sure he said 29deg, but it sure didn't feel that warm. Still, it was very relaxing.

Pizza for dinner at the other restaurant in town, and a very nice pizza it was. I think I am going to be over pizza and pasta by the time we leave Italy.