Post No 2 - 2012 Trip - Italy again.......

We journeyed off from Nice with Rita tucked in the back seat (by now we'd bought a very long windsurfer mast, which was lying down the middle along the length of the car!)

and our first night was spent in Desenzano on Lake Garda, another one of our favourite stops.










It's a nice lakeside town with a relaxed feel - not too pretentious despite the rather large and expensive cocktails we had once we settled in!
 This year Desenzano just happened to be where the Mille Migla (1,000 miles) Classic Car Race was due to start the morning we left, so we unfortunately we just missed it. Our plan was to keep a beady eye on the weather forecast for Switzerland and decide we should whether  straight up to Lucerne in Switzerland, or drive across to the eastern coast of Italy and spend a day in Venice.  Venice it was, which in hindsight probably wasn't such a good choice!

Venice, of course, was as beautiful as always. The Grand Canal lined with its gracious Venetian buildings, and cluttered with all manner of vessels;  crowded ferries, DHL, ambulances, fire 'boats', hotel linen deliveries, refrigerated yoghurt boats, and of course gondalas;  the many many smaller canals around every corner - yet another photo when you've promised yourself 'no more'! All those smaller canals shooting off in every direction, with their beautiful shadows and reflections, and gondalas with tourists sitting back looking smug and the gondalier either singing furiously, shouting loudly to other gondaliers, or probably more likely chatting on their mobile phones. This is Venice and long may it reign! This rambling description may not be eloquently put, but it personifies Venice..... 

This little painting features elsewhere in my blog, but hopefully will be the first of a series of 'lolling gondolas'!

From a 'painterly' point of view, Venice is just perfect, with its narrow canals and shadows, the verticals and horizontals of the buildings, the amazing Venetian windows and awnings, and the wonderful vertical mooring pools sticking up everywhere, not to forget, of course the reflections.. (far too many adjectives there, but it does have that effect on me!)

After an exhausting day exploring, we drove back to the Lake, taking a short sidetrip through the small town of Soave, of wine fame, and then with Peter screeching to a halt on a roundabout when a large field of poppies appeared in front of us... the perfect end to a wonderful day.