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Riva del Garda, Italy, June-July 2000, Part 1
written by Robert Storm
Read part 2
Lake Garda is in the Northern Italy, and the town of Riva del Garda
is in the northernmost part of the lake, in the province of Trentino-Alto
Adige. The lake is surrounded by mountains and the area is very beautiful.
I had been to Malcesine, another town by the Lake Garda, twice, in 1985 and 1993. Both trips had meant a
lot to me, especially the one in 1993 because soon after that the worst
times of my life started. I was very depressed and dreamed a lot of life
in Italy. In my diary from 1994 I wrote almost only about places where I
had been and meals I had eaten, and especially that trip to
Italy was something almost supernaturally great to me. I probably should
have gone to Lake Gard the next Summer or at the latest in 1997 when the
worst times had ended. I didn't and I wasn't going there even in 2000. But
then one day my father asked me if I wanted to go to Italy after a week
with him and my mother. I was hesitating a bit because I had some other
plans. But then I thought that I really should go there and find everything
I had lost in 1993.
Tuesday 27. June 2000
We flew from Turku to Helsinki to Verona and went by bus to Riva del Garda.
In 1985 and 1993 I had been in Malcesine which I prefer to Riva. Riva is
nice but not as charming as Malcesine. One problem in both towns is that
there's no railway station. Traveling in Italy by train is very easy and
inexpensive. Traveling by bus is inexpensive too but not easy or fast. If
you want to fo from Riva to Milan for one day, you have to do that on Friday.
The buses go to Milan twice a day (7 AM and 3 PM) but come back only once
a week, on Friday at 4 PM. One way trip takes 4 hours while it takes only
2 and a half hours by car.
Hotel Virgilio (***) was quite nice but a bit too far from the centre. My
room reminded me of the movie Che by Roman Polansky. In the movie
some quite unpleasant things happened in that room so at first I felt a
bit awkward. In the evening we had our first dinner in the hotel. It was
a real Italian meal, quite large: 1) salad, 2) pasta or soup 3) meat or
fish with fries, 4) dessert.
Wednesday 28. June 2000
Just hanging around, seeing the town. When we came back to the hotel, thundering
and lightening started. The very loud rumbling of thunder continued for
more than an hour before it started to rain. We were all on the terrace
watching the lightening. Then it started to rain heavily. It was a real
Mediterranean thunderstorm, it's never like that in Finland.
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