Italy Day 9, Brenzone sul Garda: Stressful Rainy Travel Day

Wednesday, October 2

Brenzone sul Garda, Verona, Veneto

Highlight: Struggling to be positive: a gorgeous lakeside bougainvillea

Lowlight: Stressful drive in the pouring rain

The few raindrops that we encountered last evening on walking back to our apartment in Verona morphed into continual light rain in the morning. The ride pretty much due west to Lake Garda from Verona is a short one and so we were looking for something to occupy our time until we could check in at 16:00. The rains dumped on our plans to walk about Verona one last time after checking out or to drive to Malcesine and take the spectacular funicular to Monte Baldo high above Lake Garda. Neither of these were happening on account of the crappy weather, weather that has been plaguing Europe for weeks.

Lake Garda Through Olive Trees on a Rainy Day

By the time we got to the autostrada, it was pouring cats and dogs. Naturally, today was the day that we had to attempt to get diesel for the Jeep and I had read some nightmare stories about getting fuel on the Internet. Those stories are largely true: pumps are way different and way more inconsistent in their operation than in the US.

Soon enough on the autostrada, we came upon an area di servizio where I pulled up to the pumps only to find that I was in a trucks only lane. At the next service area, I followed the signs more closely and ended up in a self-serve lane for cars. I tried to get gas, but I was out of my league. At this particular station, you pay at a central machine first and that turns on your pump.

Fortunately, I got help from a fairly friendly pump attendant from the full service lane. I could tell based on his accent in Italian that he is immigrant from Africa. I could also tell that he took pity on me for not knowing how things work in a strange country. Between gestures and my limited Italian, he walked me through the process. I got diesel all over my hands in the process and despite scrubbing violently with soap and hot water in the restroom three times, the reek of diesel would be with me for another day or two. Joy!

A little over half a tank of diesel cost in the €50 range. Fuel is expensive in Italy, roughly one and a half to two times the cost in the US, but the average gas mileage for European vehicles is higher as well. At the end of the day, I think fuel prices are a wash on a miles traveled basis.

We exited the A22 at Affi and started immediately to climb the hills between us and the lake. Up and up through vineyard after vineyard we went (this wine probably Bardolino) through nearly impenetrable fog in some places. These hyper-twisty roads are no fun on a sunny day let along a blind foggy day in pouring rain. In places I had to negotiate some super steep 180-degree switchbacks, first gear turns on a slippery day offering little rear wheel traction.

Somehow in following the GPS from Verona, we crested the hill and managed to get lost on an intensely winding single track, first cousin to a goat path. Once we ended up at a dead end in somebody’s front courtyard out in the boonies, we took a few minutes to look at the map and get back on the correct course. 

Ultimately we descended the steep mountainside to the lake level and I was frazzled from white knuckling it for over an hour traversing the mountains. We could finally see water for the first time within 100 meters of the shore and we could see only another 100 meters out onto the lake because of the clouds. Garda is the largest lake in Italy and fills a long narrow glacial valley with steep sides. Because of the super steep sides, the highway and all the buildings are jammed into a narrow strip of land. Parking is hard to find under these conditions.

We arrived in the comune (collection of small towns) of Brenzone sul Garda on Lake Garda at noon and messaged our hosts for ideas for lunch. We did not know it, but the first of October is the end of season along the lake and barely anything is open. One of the recommended places was a restaurant in a very nice hotel where the charming man at the front desk was happy to send us to a good restaurant featuring local fish from the lake. Sadly, the doors and windows of this restaurant had signs reading Chiuso (closed), like all the others near it.

This is a bummer because we were hungry and worse, we needed to pee. The next recommended place was also closed, but the owner was kind and sent us to yet another place across the street where we got some below average pizza and a carafe of OK wine for next to nothing. We managed to kill a couple of hours and hoped that that would be sufficient time for our host to turn our room so that we could check in early, there being very little we could do to waste time in the pouring rain.

Walkway Along Lake Garda

Bougainvillea, the Highlight of our Day

Our host was being a bit cagey about where our room was located, but it may have actually just been a language barrier; she is Russian. Based on the vague information she sent us, we thought the building we were seeking was very close by, but we had failed to spot any signage, any entrance, or the mythical "free parking" associated with it. Before moving our Jeep from the the paid public parking lot on the lakeshore, I wanted to locate where it is we were going on foot, having driven by the theoretical location a couple times already.

To scout where we were going, we left the Jeep in the paid public lot on the lakeshore and decided to walk the 500 meters along the lake path in the now light rain to find the entrance and the parking lot, if any. Needless to day, our mood matched the weather. Ultimately, we determined what we thought to be the correct building (it looked like a dumpy motel/condo building) and not being able to check in for two hours, decided to drive north along the lake and take in the sights, maybe see the castle that we could at time spy through the clouds.

A few minutes later, while trying to find something interesting to do by driving around, our host contacted us to say there was a problem with our room from the prior guests. Oh joy! Then she said that she was moving us to another location which was ready and where we could get inside, get warm, and relax.

She sent us a map to a hillside studio apartment up above the lake. We found the place with very little difficulty though the way was steep and narrow. It proved to be a bit of a chore getting the big Jeep parked in the tiny unloading zone so that we could offload our luggage before moving to a parking area further away.

Shortly after we arrived, Anastasia arrived on foot and showed us the ins and outs of the apartment, a ground-level suite with a lake view situated on the basement level of a small house. Once our luggage was unloaded, Anastasia walked ahead to show me the parking area while I followed in the car. Only one slight problem. The Italians might be able to get their tiny cars around the acute righthand turn for the driveway for the parking area, but the Jeep wasn't going there. I had to drive further ahead, turn around, come back, and take the wickedly sloping driveway head on.

But we're still not done with the parking saga. Parking on this steep hillside is on a terrace one level below the house. I noticed that some of the neighboring houses have a garage beneath their backyard with a skylight in the middle of the backyard. We did not have a garage and my spot was between two olive trees. Getting the big Jeep parked between them with two inches to spare on either side was a bit of a chore. 

By now as I walked back up the hill with Anastasia, the rain was quite light. I took my leave of her and went back to join Ann. Throughout the afternoon, the sky would clear to reveal more of the lake and ultimately the far shore, 2-1/4 miles distant. The lake doesn’t look all that large, an optical illusion because it is ringed by very large and steep mountains.

Brenzone is situated on one of the narrowest parts of the lake which separates the regions of Veneto and Lombardia. We are in the province of Verona directly across the lake from the province of Brescia. Usually, the province will take its name from its capital city, so we’re in the province of Verona, but quite a long way from the city of the same name where we spent the last two lovely days.

The View from our Room

The Sun Would Come out for a Few Minutes

After getting settled in our room, we explored options for dinner. We were both tired after two busy days in Verona and were mentally drained after the ordeal in getting to Lake Garda. So we were all for taking it easy and staying in especially given that most restaurants were closed for the season. We decided just to do meat, cheese, and wine from a local store.

Fortunately, there was a store where we turned off the lakeshore road to climb the hill to our apartment. To get groceries, we had to wait until the local “supermarket” reopened after lunch at 3:30. After all the hassle in parking the Jeep and not wanting to move it, we walked down the steep hill to get some groceries. The sun came out at long last and jacked the humidity to near intolerable levels as we approached the mom and pop grocery. It wasn't big, not super by any stretch, but we did find everything we needed.

As we walked down the hill to the store and back again, we had a brief chance to look around the village of Sommavilla Pozzo where we were staying, basically a wide spot on a narrow mountain road with a handful of buildings.

Village of Sommavilla Pozzo
The Road Through is a Single Lane Wide

The climate on the lake seems to be quite mild and Mediterranean as witnessed by vast groves of olive trees, tropical plants such as bougainvillea, and lots of pomegranate bushes.

A Maidenhair Fern on our Apartment Steps

Local Village Garden: Beautiful Cavolo Nero

Lots of Pomegranates

Signs of a Mild Climate

On the way back from the store, the weather had cleared enough for us to see a bit towards the south end of the lake.

Brenzone sul Garda: Sailboats and a Steeple

As the afternoon wore on into evening, the clouds cleared and reformed and cleared and reformed over and over. Each time we looked, we got very different looks across the lake into Lombardia. 

Far Bank Clouded In

And Clearing a Bit

Lights Starting to Twinkle in Lombardia

In the later evening, I went to put together a dinner of meats and cheeses. I found a knife in a drawer with which to slice the salame, but it was so dull that it wouldn't even cut warm butter. I took the knife outside and sharpened it on the sandstone foundation of the house and stropped it on the soapstone ledger course of the building. I actually got a decent edge on the knife, enough to cut the hard salame easily.

To go with our various meats and cheese, we had a loaf of bread and a bottle of local Bardolino Superiore wine from the south end of Lake Garda. When we exited the autostrada at Affi, we drove through the Bardolino grapes growing on the hillsides. Made from the same grapes (Corvina et al.), it proved to be similar to Valpolicella, but not as good a wine. I recall that I called it “red and unobnoxious." High praise that! Marzemino is a relatively obscure red grape from Trentino just north of Lake Garda. I remember nothing about it, so don't expect it to emerge from its obscurity.

Local Wines from the Grocery Store
Bardolino Superiore: Same Grapes as Valpolicella
Marzemino is a Grape Local to Trentino 

After dinner, we watched a bit of Netflix and finally drifted off to sleep hoping that tomorrow would bring us decent weather even though the forecast was for rain and heavy rain at that.