Had breakfast outside overlooking the lake again, this morning. It was just about the same view as yesterday, but a tad less cloudy over the hills.
Thankfully, the patio is in the shade in the morning, because it was already hot by 9 AM. We haven't seen rain since the first day we were in Switzerland; not that I'm complaining, but it might mitigate the heat slightly.
We had one last look at Lake Como, before packing up the car and checking out.
The route back to the highway was moderately circuitous, due to the Orrido being smack in the middle of the hill above town.
Our final destination today was Verona, but we made a few stops en route.
Halfway through the trip, we stopped in Bergamo for coffee/tea and a snack at the first cafe we found near the underground parking garage. Then we took a short stroll around before getting back in the Giulietta and continuing to Lake Garda.
Near the southwest corner of the lake, we stopped at Avanzi Winery and Frantoio around 2 o'clock.
Fortunately, they were running a tour of the olive oil production process and the winery, followed by a tasting, at 3 o'clock.
We hadn't eaten much, so we used our spare hour to drive down to the lake's edge and find a pizzeria for a late lunch.
It was brutally hot outside, and even hotter inside the restaurant, so we got a pizza to go and ate on a bench in the shade, overlooking a small harbor.
A few miles back up the road and an hour later, we returned to Avanzi for the tour.
First we got a detailed walkthrough of the olive oil extraction process and equipment.
In addition to growing their own olives, they also accept walk-in olive traffic, keeping a portion of the oil as commission. Apparently some people grow their own olives in their yards, and use Avanzi as sort of a co-op.
Next, we endured the merciless sun for a walk around the corner to the winery.
Again, there was a detailed tour of the facility and process.
The tour ended down in the wine cellars, which were originally built by Mussolini.
There were hundreds of cases of wine, settling (aging?) or awaiting shipment, stacked and wrapped on pallets.
Some of the rooms in the wine cellar used to be concrete fermentation vaults, back when vintners didn't have stainless steel or principles, I suppose.
At the conclusion of the tour, we ascended to the tasting room and sampled a selection of three Avanzi wines. I preferred the Lugana white, but there was also some rosé and a red.
Back on the road, we made it to Verona around 5:45 PM. We met our Airbnb host at 6, and got the (now typical) orientation.
This apartment has a lovely balcony that faces east, as well as a bonus balcony off the bathroom that looks towards downtown Verona.
Unfortunately, it was entirely too unpleasant outside to enjoy the veranda for more than a minute or so.
After getting settled, we walked across the street to a grocery store to acquire some provisions.
Sadly, I couldn't convince Sabrina to take a chance on the €1.75 bottle of wine (currently $1.95 USD).
We returned to the apartment with our spoils of war (the checkout line situation definitely qualified as a battle), and then ventured out again for dinner.
At 8:30 PM, we were almost the only customers in the entire restaurant. By the time we left around 10, some people were just sitting down to eat.
Plans for tomorrow are somewhat in limbo...
Originally, we had planned to just use Verona as a base of operations to see other destinations in the area. For example, we planned to take a day trip to Venice, by train, but there are complicating factors.
First of all, tomorrow's forecast is 100° F, and the idea of wandering around outside all day in that heat is dreadful.
Second, the crowd forecast for Venice at this time of year is 100%. The only way it could be worse, apparently, is if there were going to be cruise ships in port (which there aren't).
Given this information, we kicked around the idea of skipping Venice and going to Lake Garda for the day, possibly swimming somewhere, etc.
However: the forecast for Venice is "only" in the upper 80s tomorrow, so going there would actually be an escape from this heat. Hence, we put the Venice day trip back on the table.
But then... we learned that there's a transit strike planned for tomorrow, involving taxis, buses, trains, ferries, etc. (but not airports). Times vary by mode of transportation and by location, which makes this tricky to figure out. Further complicating the situation, all of the official strike information is only available in Italian.
(There's also an airport strike panned for Friday, which is when we're flying home, but that's out of scope for this story.)
The Airbnb we're in was chosen because it's an easy bus ride to the train station, both of which might now be useless. Even if we could get an early enough train to get to Venice before the strike starts, it's a solid 30 minute walk to the train station if the buses aren't running.
We could, theoretically, drive to Venice. It's about 90 minutes each way, and there's a giant parking garage at the end of the highway, essentially. But if trains aren't running, and everyone else decided to drive in, it could be a miserable start to the day. Also, if that garage fills up, the other parking options are back on the mainland, thus requiring ferry and/or train transport out to the interesting parts of Venice. Bit of a Catch-22, here.
Stay tuned to find out how it goes ;-)
P.S. evidently this kind of thing happens often enough in Italy that ItaliaRail has a FAQ page about it.
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