Ingrid is learning to drive, and has advanced to the point where she’s driving in actual daytime traffic on normal roads. Not just to the nearest supermarket, but to a mall fifteen minutes’ drive away. On roads where the top speed is higher than what she’s done before on her scooter, even! Gives me reasons to get all kinds of errands done, like (finally) dropping off bags of outgrown clothes at the charity shop, or (finally) taking the empty planting boxes to the recycling centre. Win-win.

There’s a lake, and it has boats, so we went for a boat tour. Like in Venice, we opted for an ordinary scheduled passenger boat going from town to town, rather than a sightseeing tour.

The boat took us to the small town of Limone, a little ways down the coast of Lake Garda. As the boat approached town, we were curious about the odd large stone structure that dominated the view. From the Internet I learned that these are old terraced lemon orchards. There are more of those, further up the hills. Some have been restored and turned into tourist sights.

The one closest to the harbour was all hidden behind walls and not open for visitors. There were a couple of small openings in the wall that allowed us to peek in, though.

We weren’t particularly interested in Limone itself – it was just an excursion – so after a brief walk and an ice cream, we took the next boat back to Riva del Garda.

The lake was full of people on all kinds of small craft, mostly windsurfers and small Optimist dinghies. In places the lake looked like a boat soup. I’m guessing there was some kind of sailing camp or course going on, or more likely several of these.

We also saw a kind of board that was new to us – a wing foil. Like a windsurfing board, but instead of a vertical sail attached to the board, these had a large free hand-held wing, and a hydrofoil under the board. They zoomed past like rockets.

By the way, I’ve generally been quite happy with the photos my phone camera takes, while my big camera is out of action, as long as I stay away from the zoom. I guess it switches to a different lens when I zoom, and then the picture quality becomes horrible, like you see in these last three photos. I tried taking a few pictures of flowers while we were hiking in the mountains, but had to throw out every single one of them.

We’ll have nice views for our drive back to Milan tomorrow – that’s our road snaking along the side of the lake.

Back in Riva del Garda, we walked around. The city centre isn’t very large so we could cover almost all of it.

When we didn’t know which way to go, we aimed for leather goods shops. I bought my favourite handbag here in Riva del Garda many years ago (and replaced it with an identical one) so I was hoping I could find something similar again. Small backpack handbags are hard to find. We saw all kinds of lovely bags, but not the type I wanted.

There was apparently a road biking competition that finished here today. We’ve been seeing loads of cyclists, especially around Cortina d’Ampezzo, and posters for bicycle events.

During our boat trip, we spotted a cable car going up to some kind of edifice halfway up the hill. When we ran out of promenade streets, we went to check that thing out. It turned out to be a ruined old bastion, with nice views back down towards the town.

When it was time for dinner, everyone was in agreement – there was no way we’d find anything that would beat Officina Verde, where we ate yesterday. So we went back for more. Since everyone had sampled everything, we knew exactly what we liked best, so instead of the set menus we picked our favourites.

“Something something with hints of the sea:”

Burrata of fermented cashew nut, with a heart of basil and home-made tomato relish:

Lasagna, mille strati style:

Mango mousse sticks with a yuzu chocolate coating and mango sauce:

First a longish but scenic and eventful drive from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Riva del Garda.

Speaking of driving, this our car for the week, and the nerve-wracking driveway to the parking lot behind the house in San Vito di Cadore. We booked a smallish manual car. (Because we knew we’d be on twisty roads in the mountains, and we also wanted it to be not too difficult to park.) Instead we got this monstrosity – neither smallish nor manual. It was technically better than what we had booked – or at least more expensive – and Hertz didn’t have anything closer to our wishes available anyway, so this is what we had to deal with. This driveway had the car’s proximity sensors on both sides beeping at maximum level all the way, at least twice a day. Yay.

It wasn’t actually raining when we arrived in Riva del Garda but the weather forecast promised an imminent thunderstorm, so we stayed in for a few hours and watched a movie instead. That thunderstorm never arrived so I felt a bit cheated.

After the movie we walked towards the town to find dinner. We were again staying on the outskirts of the town, and the path to town went along some lovely little lanes, past smelly jasmine bushes and a waterfall.

We ate at an absolutely lovely vegan restaurant – Officina Verde. They had three set three-course menus, one Japanese-themed, one vaguely Mexican, and one with an Italian flavour. Since there was four of us, we tried all of them.

Every single course wowed all of us – we were constantly exclaiming about just how delicious everything was. And interesting and innovative, too. We could sometimes not even figure out what we were actually eating. How do they come up with these things? Vegan burrata made from fermented cashews, with a basil filling? Marinated tofu in a hazelnut crust, with a smoked pepper sauce? (Neither of which is the photo below – that’s just a vegan uramaki roll.)

A thunderstorm did arrive while we were about to have dessert, and was so violent that we had to move inside, even though we were under a canopy. The water was splashing everywhere, and the noise was making it hard to have a conversation. The sky was flashing constantly. But by the time we were ready to leave, the storm was over, and we could walk back without even opening our umbrellas.

We’re still in the Cortina d’Ampezzo area today, and went for a hike to lake Sorapis, which is said to be one of the best ones in the region. As you can see from the photo above, yes, it’s absolutely stunning. (6.5km each way, just over 400m of ascent & descent, which was one of the deciding factors for us picking this particular hike, because Ingrid’s knees don’t like walking downhill much.)

Like most beautiful places, this one is reportedly absolutely overrun with tourists during high season. Even now there were quite a lot of people. Had this been a Swedish hiking trail, I’d have described it as crowded. There’s not even a proper parking lot near the trailhead – people just park on the side of the road, tens and tens of cars. We parked ours a bit further down the road and just walked an extra 800 metres or so.

We’ve been really happy with our choice to come here early in the season, as soon as the school year ended. Not only do we avoid the worst of the crowds but we also get slightly cooler weather. Which is still not very cool – the temperature has been in the high twenties most days – so I can only imagine how much we’d be suffering here in July.

The trail starts as a broad path in the forest in the valley and then snakes its way up the side of the mountain.

The further up you get, the narrower the trail, and in places it gets quite tricky, with scree slopes and rocks and cliffs. Some sections – where the trail was narrowest and the drop next to it steepest – even had cables to hold on to. Some people were doing this in city sneakers, others with small dogs that they had to carry… I’m not sure what they were thinking.

At the end of the trail, just after a mountain hut, there was the famous turquoise lake. And it felt like there were people everywhere, lots of them posing for photos. We were rather hungry but there wasn’t even enough space to sit down and have a picnic anywhere, so after a brief water stop we trudged onwards, to the other side of the lake, where there looked to be a meadow.

The thing that looked like a meadow was indeed one, and there were fewer people there so we could sit down without feeling like we’re elbow to elbow with someone else. We had a nice, long sit-down lunch, with bakery bread and fresh nectarines.

Just as we were swallowing our last bites of food, it started raining lightly, so we scrambled to get our rain gear on (and our boots) and headed back down the mountain. The lake looked almost otherworldly, with its bright turquoise waters under the gray skies.

The walk downhill was easier in some ways, but also wet and slippery in places.

By the time we got back to the trailhead, the kids were rather tired and sat down right there, and waited for us to bring the car to them.

Today we went climbing via ferrata routes. If you haven’t run across that term before – it’s mountain climbing but with protection all the way. You’re climbing up and across cliffs while being attached to a steel cable by two carabiners at all times. Or, for our Estonian readers, it’s like the adventure climbing park in Otepää but in mountains instead of treetops.

Eric and I did this before, ages ago, before the kids arrived. We went on week-long holidays doing nothing but via ferrata climbing. Now that Adrian and Ingrid are old enough, it’s time to induct them into the club as well.

Cortina d’Ampezzo is a ski resort in winter, and there are cable cars lining the mountains in various directions. The two via ferrata routes we did today were in the middle of what is a ski slope in winter. Not just any ski slope – according to our guide, this is where the World Ski Cup runs happen.

The first route, Ra Pegna, is a beginner-level route and goes up the rocky tower on the left of the ski run.

At the top of the tower, there’s actually enough of a flat spot that you can sit down and have a breather. (It was rather hot today.)

You can see the entirety of Cortina d’Ampezzo from there. San Vito di Cadore is just outside the frame, to the right.

As usual, coming down is more arduous and less fun than going up.

Now that we were warmed up (and had verified that everyone was up to the challenge and enjoyed this activity) we tackled the route up the right-hand tower, called Ra Bujela, somewhat more difficult and longer.

It was trickier to find a good handhold or foothold at times, but our guide Manuel was at hand and attentive, and ready to give advice when needed, so we all got to the top without any real trouble.

From there we could see Ra Pegna in all its glory.

Here are some photos by Ingrid to show that I was also there:

And some more photos by our guide Manuel:

This morning we left Venice and Mestre behind and drove to Cortina d’Ampezzo.

In the afternoon, we hiked the loop trail circles around the famous three peaks of Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

Starting at the Rifugio Auronzo, the trail initially loops behind the mountains, so you can’t see them very well. But the trail is pretty stunning in and of itself.

We had a late picnic lunch as soon as we found a place where we could step off the trail a bit. Immediately, birds approached us in the hopes of food scraps. Looks like alpine choughs are the gulls of the mountains.

(And I am clearly a noob when it comes to using my phone camera, even getting my finger in the picture. That just never occurs with an actual camera – you’d have to make a real effort to make that happen.)

The start of the trail is just over 2000 metres above sea level, but since we gained all of those 2000 m of altitude in just half a day, we felt them. Nothing like real altitude sickness, but enough to make us feel slightly short of breath when walking uphill, so we had to pause quite often.

There were still significant amounts of snow up there – packed drifts taller than us. The sun was quite hot, and the trail was like a little stream in places.

The trail itself had been cleared of snow, so we were walking in a canyon between tall walls of snow.

Rounding the mountain, the shapeless lump was starting to separate into three distinct peaks…

… and a kilometre later, we got those dramatic vistas of the peaks nicely lined up next to each other.

Many people seemed to turn back at this point. Got the views, done. We continued along the trail as it circled a wide valley to the north of the peaks, with more beautiful views.

There was some threat of rain but nothing that actually materialized.

The Dolomites are generously equipped with huts, much more than I am used to seeing anywhere else I’ve hiked – we passed 4 rifugios during the 10-kilometre loop. I can imagine how crowded it must get here during high season.

The last ridge is never actually the last ridge!

Bonus photo by Ingrid:

Today we took the boat to the island of Murano, with its glassworks.

After some initial aimless wandering, we picked one of the workshops to visit. Wave was a wonderful place.

They do offer tours, but there was also the option of just hanging around in one corner of the workshop and watching the glassblowers at their work. This was far more interesting than a more formal tour would have been. It was fascinating to see how all the different steps of manipulating the blob of glass led to the final product. Several times we thought we knew what effect a step would have – and then they did something to twist it to something completely unexpected.

Another amazing workshop displayed seaweed glass sculptures by Davide Penso. If I was rich enough to have more rooms in my house than I knew what to do with, I wouldn’t mind having something like this in my home.

That’s not going to happen, but we did want to bring some small glass item home with us from Murano. There was a lot of choice, but at the same time many of the shops seemed to sell copies of the same kind of things, with less variety than I had expected. I guess people come here with specific expectations when it comes to design and style.

Aside from the glassworks, Murano seemed more residential and everyday than the main island of Venice.

Boats everywhere, still, of course, used like cars and vans would be in any other city – such as for parcel delivery.

After a lovely lunch at restaurant Alla Vecchia Pescheria (where the food was, of course, served on flatware of Murano glass) we headed towards the lighthouse and the waterbus stop there.

We took the waterbus to the island of San Michele for some shade and walking. The entire island is a cemetery and photography was prohibited, so I can only share a view of the entrance, and one of the waterbus quay.

The evening brought more walking, and a pretty mediocre dinner. In fact we haven’t been very impressed with the restaurants here. Lots of focus on meat, of course; difficult to find places with more than one or two vegetarian options. Salads, when offered, have oftentimes been no more than uninspired piles of ingredients – like a tuna salad consisting of a bed of lettuce, then a pile of tinned sweetcorn, and another of tinned tuna.

Great gelato, though! Gelatoteca Susa had a wide range of excellent ice cream, with both classical flavours and more modern ones – dark chocolate with lemon, or mango with grapefruit. I didn’t remember to take a photo, but luckily Ingrid did.

And then it was evening again.

We could certainly have entertained ourselves here for longer – museums, churches, other islands, etc – but two days did not feel too short.

Bonus photo by Ingrid:

A full day in Venice. There’s just no way to do the day justice in less than a gazillion pictures, brace yourselves.

Everyone knows Venice is the city of canals. But the corollary of that is that Venice is fully car-free. There is a bus terminal and a giant parking garage at the end of the bridge between the mainland and the island, and beyond that, it’s either walking or boating. Which makes the city incredibly pedestrian-friendly.

So we spent most of the day simply walking. There were a few spots we wanted to check out, and as those happened to be spread out across the island, just going from one to the next let us see a lot of the city.

Ingrid’s research led us to a nice brunch place with courtyard seating and generous yoghurt, fruit and granola bowls.

Fortified by our brunch, we walked more. Every channel was picturesque enough for photos; every bridge invited us to stop and admire the views. I wonder how long you’d have to stay here to get inured to the prettiness of everything.

We ran across a gallery with hyperrealistic life-sized sculptures of swimmers by Carol Feuerman.

More walking. And sometimes resting, because it was a bit hot.

Gradually we made our way to Piazza San Marco. I had expected crowds and was pleasantly surprised to not find any. Not just here, but everywhere in the city. There’s people, of course, but not ridiculous amounts of them.

We did book our trip as early as possible after the end of the school year, to avoid both the crowds and the heat, and it looks like we succeeded. Verona was perhaps even more crowded than Venice.

The basilica of San Marco is a stunning piece of architecture. Had we been in town for a week, I’d have spent a few hours just looking at it, inside and out. And just admiring all the different kinds of marble.

It’s a bit jarring to see two huge squares, lined with giant straight buildings, in a city where real estate is so scarce and and all other buildings are relatively small.

The campanile was open and barely even had a queue, so we paid our 10 EUR each and took the lifts up. I had hoped to climb the stairs to get the full tower experience and feel the height, but that was not an option.

The views from the tower were stunning, as expected.

The view from up here makes it obvious just how small and flat the island is. And how uniformly red all the roofs are.

You can also see the shipping lanes between the islands, marked with wooden poles.

Onwards.

After that we needed a bit of a break from walking along more alleys to more bridges to cross more canals. We decided to take the waterbus to Lido, a neighbouring island, both to rest our legs and to see the city from new angles.

On our way to Lido we passed a super yacht, larger than most buildings in the city. Google Image Search identified it as the Italian-built Lady A, completed this year. Apparently it’s only the 360th largest yacht in the world.

Lido is a long and narrow island. The waterbus stop is at one of its widest points, but even there the walk across the island was no more than a few city blocks. Unlike the main island, this one has streets and cars and space between buildings.

On the other side of the island we found a sandy beach.

The boat trip back gave us a chance to see the “back side” of Venice. Fewer scenic historical buildings; more boat garages and loading docks.

Of course the city hospital’s emergency department is also accessible by boat.

We got off the boat at a stop that was somewhat outside the most well-beaten paths to see some new corners of the city.

We ended up having a pretty lousy dinner at restaurant (Due Fratelli) that a 4.7 average rating on Google Reviews but managed to botch just about everything. The servers mixed up tables, some of the items we got were only vaguely similar to what the menu said, the salads were crap, the pasta was overcooked, and when it was time to pay, card payment was suddenly and mysteriously not available due to “internet troubles” so the only payment option was cash with no receipt for a 10% discount. Clearly a tourist trap, and I guess the Google Reviews were all paid for. It was so bad that it was funny. At least the food was not too bad.

And then the bus took us back to Mestre to our apartment.

Bonus photos by Ingrid:

Postdated. I knew I took more photos this day! And in the mess of my camera stopping working, I somehow misplaced them, but now (three weeks later) I found them again.

Airport car rental. Waiting. No matter how short the queue, it always takes half an hour at least to get through the process.

Our giant Jeep Compass. On the one hand – giant. On the other hand – spacious and modern. I could connect my Android phone to the car’s infotainment system and get Google Maps up on a big screen, and get Spotify to play without fiddling around with a separate Bluetooth speaker.

The main sight in Verona was the Roman-era Arena. I wish we had the time to visit it properly.

When in Italy, gelato is a must. The ice cream parlors here were leaning in hard on the Romeo and Juliet theme, so Eric got a “Coppa Julieta”.

The main square was very crowded. I wonder if this is what we can expect to see Venice as well.

I take photos; Ingrid saves her memories by scrapbooking.

We’re on vacation in northern Italy. Today was mostly a transportation day – flying to Milan and driving to Venice, stopping in Verona on the way to stretch our legs and buy ice cream.

I discovered that my camera lens had stopped working when I unpacked it. I didn’t bring my small camera for the trip so I only have my phone. I feel handicapped and confused and lost.

Anyway, here’s a random street scene from Verona. Verona was prettier and more full of tourists than I had expected.

By the evening we were in Mestre, in mainland Venice. We’re staying in apartments for the whole trip. Hotels in Venice were eye-wateringly expensive – three nights in Venice would have cost as much as return flights from Stockholm to Milan. And apartments suit us better, anyway. We appreciate having access to a kitchen, if for nothing more than the ability to make tea, and a living room with actual sitting furniture. In hotels quite often the bed is the only place where you can sit, and after a week of that my back is always complaining.