July - Italy

Italy was incredible. It's hard to believe we did all of this within one week. Even harder to believe that we had only met each other just over three months before this. I apologise in advance for not knowing the names of places we've eaten and some of the experiences we had but I'm writing this at the end of the month. Feel free to send me a message on my social media if you are genuinely interested.

Once the plane had landed and we collected the luggage, we headed to the water taxi port in Venice. After waiting in the heat for about 25 minutes, we boarded a stuffy boat. An hour later, we docked in Venice city. Then, we had to find the hotel. I must admit, I took us the wrong way here. If you've ever been to venice, you'll know that it's a bit of a labyrinth. The canals and bridges look similar but this was not an excuse really. I should have paid more attention. James carried the bags through Venice whilst I navigated us round the city (the longest possible way) until we finally got to our hotel. James didn't complain or moan at me at all but I felt awful. When we arrived the hotel had left us a bottle of prosecco and a sweet treat as we'd let them know it was James' birthday whilst we were there. The room was lovely and the floor to ceiling window overlooked one of Venice's canals. Of course, being in a new place, we were looking forward to exploring. Shortly after dropping the bags off and having a cool shower, we headed out into Venice. It was busy but beautiful. We walked past a cathedral with a banner outside advertising a ballet. James immediately asked "shall we go?" and I looked up tickets. It was a charity ballet show where ballet students from around the world were performing. Why not? We booked tickets for that evening and then carried on through the stone corridors of Venice in search for our first bite of italian food!

James started looking a bit pasty and we sat at a bar in a little Venetian square. We ordered a Hugo and a Negroni and shortly after taking the first sip, realised we had definitely not hydrated enough to be drinking alcohol. The food at the bar wasn't quite what we were looking for and we spotted a Pizzeria across the square. So, I drank my drink quickly and we paid and walked across to the restaurant across the way. We ordered a Pizza and a seafood pasta. James didn't look well and hurried off to the bathroom. When he got back we made sure to get some water for the table. Then, I felt a rush of dizziness come over me and my vision went blurry. "I'm not feeling well either". I navigated my way over to the bathroom and had to throw up. What a lovely way for us to start our trip away together!

We finished our meals and the heatstroke subsided, just in time for us to attend the Ballet show we had booked a few hours before. We didn't know what to expect but neither of us expected the beautiful high painted ceilings within the building. It was set up with rows of red theatre looking chairs and dimly lit lamps. The Ballet itself was amazing, the young dancers were so talented and even James enjoyed it. After the show, we took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel for a cosy night sleep.

We woke up with no plans the day after. So, we took ourselves for a coffee and a pastry and wandered through Venice again. We found our way to a gondola and waited to catch a private boat through Venice. Something on both of our bucket lists. It was super romantic. The man that took us told us about the buildings we passed and then filled any silence with his singing. He was very sweet and took us down the river to where we disembarked.

We came across a small square with a few restaurants and stopped for a drink and another pastry. Then, we walked through the slim streets and over the stone bridges until we found another square and then another. They were bustling but not overwhelmingly busy and each one has a large statue within it. We stopped for some lunch and then decided to make our way back to the hotel before dinner. It was incredibly hot so we were pretty exhausted as we walked back through the streets. At the hotel we looked up a dinner spot nearby and enjoyed our final night in Venice with a fresh pasta!

The next day was James' Birthday. I'd put together a video of messages from his friends and he opened a few cards from my family and his sister. He was so grateful and excited to be waking up in Venice on his Birthday. Possibly a bit more excited to be collecting a hire car a few hours later.

Our next stop was Verona. James took to driving on the wrong side of the road so confidently that I'd hardly noticed that we'd switched sides. We drove through vineyards and he landscape quickly revealed some beautiful mountains and it was just like being in a movie.

I'd created a little itinerary for James' birthday evening in verona. So, once we'd checked in to the hotel and dropped off our bags we jumped on a bus into the city. The bus dropped us off outside the most incredible Arena. We were unable to go in but just seeing it from the outside was beautiful. Verona was busy and it soon became apparent as to why. The beautiful italian streets were lined with designer shops that led to a picturesque square with a bustling street market on it. We stopped here for lunch and then headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

I'd booked us a table at a Michelin Star restaurant on the river next to the Ponte Pietra bridge aptly named; Ristorante Ponte Pietra. The table was supposed to be on the balcony but when we got there the heavens opened and we were offered a table inside. This restaurant was amazing. I had the most mouth watering scallops in pea puree to start and then a seafood pasta as a main. James ordered steak tartare followed by seabass. The staff were friendly and the food was incredible. James and I both agree that this was where we had the best bottle of wine on our trip but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.

The next day was dry again and we meandered back over to Ponte Pietra bridge to explore the part we didn't see the day before. We crossed the bridge and purchased tickets up the funicular on the other side. The views at the top were breathtaking. We stopped for a drink and took a seat overlooking the city. It was boiling again but we walked back down as it was a quiet and scenic route. Then we walked back through the city and picked up a sandwich before joining various groups of people sat eating lunch on the steps by the arena. Conscious that we wanted to get to our next destination, we returned to the hotel and checked out. Back to the car again and we looked at the map for a spot to stop on Lake Garda.

The spot we chose had a castle on it and when we arrived there was a clear change in the weather. Everyone seemed to be flooding back to the carpark but we decided to head straight into the grey rainclouds'. When we got to the castle it was quite comical, there were restaurants with parasols blowing away and people trying to take nice pictures by the incredibly choppy water. The village surrounding the castle was really cute, like something out of a fairytale. There were a lot of gelato places and a few little gift shops. James and I just wandered through the village and back again as the weather really wasn't great. We reached the car just as the torrential rain hit. Unfortunately, so did all of the other people trying to go home and we had a bit of traffic to deal with before we were out on the main road again.

Our next stop was a little town called Brescia. Now, I don't know if we just picked the wrong day or if the town was always like this but it was like a ghost town. The place we were saying was definitely an Instagram vs Reality type hotel. Incredibly outdated and also eerily quiet. We dropped our bags off pretty quickly and then headed out in search of food. Everything was shut. It looked like it would have been a nice pitstop if the shops had been open and we found no restaurants were open either. We almost gave up when we stumbled across an alleyway with a little restaurant at the end called La Grotta. We were both pretty hungry by this point. The staff didn't seem to speak english, apart for one man, but there were english menus. I ordered a Wild Boar Ragu and James had a steak with polenta. The restaurant was unique, it had murals painted on all of the walls and a Tavern type feel to it. The tables were covered with a typical red and white checkered cloth.. I did think if anywhere was going to give us authentic italian food it would be here. The Ragu was actually really nice. We had a tiramisu and a tarte tatin for desert and I must admit these were a little underwhelming. So, I suggested that we find a supermarket and get some sweet treats and head back and watch a series on my tablet in the hotel. We found the supermarket not too far from La Grotta and then went back to the hotel for the rest of the evening.

The next day, we decided to go somewhere else for breakfast as the hotel just didn't seem very inviting. We left the hotel early and got to Bergamo shortly after. Bergamo was much more of a city than a village and we found a cafe to sit in and eat pastries and have a coffee not too long after we arrived. Then, I noticed a funicular on the map that seemed to go up into a more touristy part of the city. We walked to the base of the funicular and we were met with an incredibly long queue and decided against it. We hadn't spent much of our day exploring but decided to leave Bergamo and go straight to our final destination on our road trip, Lake Como! We arrived in Lake Como around 2pm and I was instantly so pleased to be back in such a beautiful place. It's got to be my favourite place that I've been. James had to drive along the windy roads up to our hotel and I was a little bit nervous at this leg of our journey. The hotel was the La Perla in Tremezzo and we pulled up to incredible views!

We walked over to the check in desk where a lovely italian lady greeted us enthusiastically. She took our passports and then noticed James' birthday. She looked instantly excited and told us proudly that it was the same birthday as her and her twin sister, who shortly joined her at the desk to help with checking in. They were the sweetest hosts and honestly made the final part of our trip that much more comfortable. You could instantly tell that you were in great care with them. We were shown around the hotel and then to our room which had a balcony overlooking the Lake.

As with all of the places we stopped over at, we wanted to get out and explore straight away. The lovely ladies told us how to get to the ferry and where to park the car as we were staying on quite a steep hill. We reached the ferry port and took the next boat over to Menaggio. Menaggio is a small village, I wouldn't say its spectacular but it's a great place to stop for lunch. So, that's what we did. We took a stroll through the village after and of course grabbed a gelato. I can't seem to remember if we had dinner this evening as lunch was pretty late and there's no photo evidence of dinner. However, there's evidence of us back at the hotel after sharing a bottle of Rose on the terrace.

The next day we were up and having breakfast at about 8.30am. Our sweet hosts greeted us with a "good morning" and "have a good day!" Then, we returned to the ferry port where we purchased a day pass to hop on and off the different villages along Lake Como. Bellagio was our first stop. It was bustling but scenic. We walked up a lot of stairs and then stopped for a coffee and a pastry. Bellagio was quaint but also slightly touristy. We walked past a restaurant that had hand painted menus and was lined with hand painted wine bottles on our way back down to the seafront. James had spotted some gardens when we were looking at Bellagio from the boat and we walked towards them. We noticed that we needed to pay to go in and by this time it was midday. So we went back to the restaurant that we'd passed earlier. Whilst we waited for our food, crowds of people started queueing outside the restaurant. It was clearly a popular spot and we were lucky to get a table. We both had pasta here and it was exactly how you'd imagine italian pasta dishes to be. It hit the spot for sure.

The gardens were so beautiful. We passed a wedding party on the way through to the gardens and I couldn't help daydreaming about how incredible it would be to have a wedding in Lake Como. It was really special to walk around beautiful surroundings by the lake. I must admit, I didn't feel 100% when we were walking but it was really warm and we'd been up and walking around all day. We saw some statues and a beautiful pagoda on the lake and then decided to walk back to the ferry port and visit Varenna. Varenna is a village that's stuck in my mind since the first time I visited Lake como 3 years ago. It's really beautiful and well known for it's dinner spots. We aimed to get back to the hotel and then return to Varenna for dinner.

We looked at the timings of the ferries and it didn't seem possible to get back to Tremezzo from Varenna late enough. So, when the ferry arrived back in Tremezzo we decided to pop into the Grand Hotel to book a table for dinner. The Ladies at reception told us that they whole hotel was booked out for a party and told us that if we were guests we could eat and drink for free and join in the celebrations. We told them we weren't guests and then booked a table for the next evening instead. There was another restaurant on our way back to the car and we managed to book a table straight away. Intrigued by the party we'd been told about at the Grand Hotel, I asked Chat GPT what the party was all about. It informed me that the Grand Hotel was hosting it's own Birthday Party with a fireworks display and live music. So, we emailed them to ask if we could join in. We didn't get a response before we were getting ready for dinner. So, we got dressed up in hopes that we could sneak in or at least enjoy the fireworks from just outside. The restaurant we ate in was actually really lovely. Another fine dining experience with really lovely and attentive staff. The Restaurant was quiet apart from a couple of families. When we finished I was craving a gelato so we walked over to the gelato shop between the restaurant and the Grand Hotel where I ordered a cookies and cream gelato and we debated whether we'd get away with politely gatecrashing the 115th birthday party of the grand hotel. It didn't take long for us to make the decision that we'd chance it and we were let straight into the beach club area where there was an opera singer and an ice cream stand. James was excited about his free ice cream. The opera singer finished and then loud classical italian orchestra music began shortly accompanied by the most breathtaking firework display! It's not often you hear people say they've seen fireworks on a lake, let alone in Lake Como, we felt very lucky. When the fireworks ended a happy birthday song began and a giant cake was carried into the beach club by two members of staff. The beach club suddenly became crowded and this gave us the perfect opportunity to dip out and head back to the hotel.

Our final full day in Italy had crept up on us and we chose to spend it taking in the scenery and not rushing about. So, I'd found a private beach club on maps and we drove round the lake to a place called Lenno. We ordered a coffee from a friendly man by the lake and another pastry of course! Ugh I'm missing having a daily custard croissant. Beyond the point, we asked the man about the beach club and he directed us round to his colleague who we paid Fifty Euros for two sun loungers and a parasol for the whole day. There was a QR code on the parasol and James was enjoying ordering food and drinks that would get delivered to our loungers. This was the best way I have ever spent my last day on a holiday. I was so relaxed.

For dinner we had booked the Grand Hotel Tremezzo and were seated on a balcony overlooking the lake again. It was at this moment that I thought to myself that I didn't want to leave, I've never had such an easy going but adventurous holiday and I enjoyed every second.

The day after, we drove to Como central and had lunch before returning the car in Milan Malpensa and catching our flight back home again. This was truly a once in a lifetime holiday.