Friday Today is our last full day in Stresa and once again it turned into a beautiful day, weather-wise. That being the case it was back up to the cable car to the top of Mottarone only this time with 2 mountain bikes, map, an a sense of bravado that exceeded our collective sensibilities. The plan looked quite straightforward, the girl in the bike shop had highlighted the trail and explained what was what and off we went. A gentle climb to get up to the ridge t...

Thursday There are events in life that become indelibly etch on our minds, never to be forgotten, and surface in times of future calamity or humour, and today was one such day!! The Prologue: Early breakfast, walk to the station to catch a local 9:12 train to Domodossola, Italy, arriving at 9:38 in time to connect with the scenic special train over and through the Alps to Locarno in Switzerland, departing at 10:25. As this meant crossing the border, it was st...

Monday, 16th en route Desenzano to Stresa. Well despite any trepidations held because of the name of our next destination, it was unbelievably stress free, other than Jean's insistence that we drag our suitcase up the hill from the hotel to the train station. The train to Milan arrived in Desenzano on time, seats were available, a small glitch with storing the bags, Jean wanted them within line of sight and I wanted them out of the way, and as I was the one wh...

Saturday Well as our time in Veneto draws to a close, it must be said that we covered some kms and saw some sights. After our trip to Mantova on Thursday and the drama with the trains, we were up and at it again, set to take the fast train to Mestre then a local train to Bassano del Grappa. After a 45 minute delay, and the first quote of the day: " if it doesn't come, do you think we can get a refund?" which I took to be a rhetorical question. Anyway, the train a...

Wednesday Vicenza Well after the crush of Verona, what a relief it was to be able to wander the streets and alleyways of Vicenza. We took and early train (8:53) to arrive in time for the shops to open, 9:30 for most, the rest 10:00. It was all a bit frantic because they close for siesta at 1:30 only to open again at 3:30 to around 7:30pm. All in all the shopping went well: 4 tee shirts for me and 3 tops, 2 pants and a scarf for Jean. Sadly, despite our best effo...