This post comes to you from the confines of our cosy apartment in the lush hills of Toscolano-Moderna, Lake Garda. Lake Garda is the biggest lake in Italy and we are situated on the western side. We arrived mid afternoon Friday – it’s been raining for the past 4 days so our activities have been curtailed to an extent.

Rod’s note to self: Rookie mistake.

After collecting our lovely lease car in Rome we need to refill the tank fairly soon. I pull off the motorway and stop at a bowser and am pleasantly surprised when an attendant offers to do the job. (It can be confusing working out the system in a different country.) It seems expensive when I look at the total, as I have seen fuel much cheaper already on this trip. Whilst waiting for Belinda and Hamish to return from the Autogrill (and trying to figure out how to lock the car*) I check out the price per litre at a bowser. It seems comparable to others I have seen. I wander over to the bowser where I was refilled and it is more than 30 cents per litre more expensive! I have learned that there are two choices- Self or Service. I will not make this mistake again.

* The car locks automatically when you walk a few paces away with the key. We have a spare key, which was still in the car. So it would not lock.

Santa Brigida – We stayed 3 nights in this quintessential Tuscan village. When you picture Tuscany in your mind (take a few seconds to do that now) I’m sure the images popping into your head are some of these: an abundance of olive trees, wineries, hills and mountains, rivers, stone walls, narrow roads, elderly people conversing on corners and houses the colour of an “Autumn” eyeshadow pallet. This is exactly what we experienced – we wished we’d stayed longer.

During our stay, we successfully attempted two day trips to Florence, catching the train from Sieci which was a 10 minute drive from our village. On our first day in Florence, we headed to the famous Ponte Vecchio which spans the Arno River. We had a basic (but expensive) lunch and walked across the bridge and then headed to the Michaelangelo Pallazo (the highest lookout in Florence). At this point in time, it was a bit drizzly, but not too bad. I had an umbrella, Rod had his waterproof jacket and Hamish had his puffy. I tried to share my umbrella with Hamish, but this was tricky on the narrow paths. The weather was 20-ish degrees, so we were sweaty as well as being rain drenched – such a lovely combination. Once at the lookout, there wasn’t much to see due to the grey skies, drizzle and cloud cover, so we looked for a toilet (it was closed) and then the heavens decided to really open up. We made our way into a very flash hotel for some afternoon tea and plan our escape back to Santa Brigida – no taxis, no buses…it was looking like we were going to have to walk in the pouring rain, but then at the last minute, a taxi dropped off a couple and we jumped in.

Not to be deterred, we planned a second trip to Florence. A note here about us and being organised: we are not. We barely made the train in time due to the post office visit taking way longer than expected and then, not being able to find a car park at the train station – and all this after giving ourselves PLENTY of time. We are going to have to lift our game for December, when we will be travelling between countries on trains. Back to our Florence trip – we felt we were more organised this time with wet weather gear and walked around the Duomo and had purchased tickets for the Galileo Museum. The museum was an interesting look at the evolution of science and technology over time, from early telescopes, microscopes, scales, electrical equipment and medical models. Galileo’s middle finger is preserved and just sits there; thin and papery, jutting out from a glass vase – apparently it was removed when he was relocated from one burial site to another.

As we left the museum, the rain ramped up. At one point we sheltered in the Lego store with others! The wet weather gear was no match for the torrential rain (well, my umbrella was great, but my shoes were drenched and my jeans wet up to my knees – Rod and Hamish didn’t fare particularly well either, but their torsos were dry!) Florence’s buildings have no overhanging rooftops, which meant most visitors in Florence that day suffered and/or huddled in doorways. We eventually made it back to the train station and had afternoon tea, before catching the train back home. The rest of the day was spent drying clothes: jackets, shoes and bags.

Gino Bartali Museum – earlier this year, my friend Trent (workmate and cycling aficionado) had loaned me a book about an Italian cyclist (Gino Bartali) who was a professional cyclist for 20 years, won two Tour de France races, 10 years apart, as well as two Giro d’Italia’s two years in a row. He also is perhaps less well known for his work for the Italian Resistance: carrying messages in his bike frame, hiding Jewish families, working with a priest in Florence to provide false documents and leading Jews to the Swiss Alps. As he was somewhat of a national treasure the Nazi’s were loathe to upset the general population, so left him, largely, to his own devices. He would ride in his racing jersey with his name on it, all in the name of ‘training’ – hiding in plain sight. His home town of Ponte a Ema was only a short drive from our village of Santa Brigida, so we visited the museum on our way to Lake Garda. The museum is only open on a few days, for a few hours, so the planets aligned for us! The museum is about cycling and the progression of bike technology, not about his resistance work, but it was very interesting for Rod and I. Bartali’s TdF winning bike was on display, as well as a few of his jerseys. Other Italian cyclists have jerseys and bikes housed there, such as Vincenzo Nibali – I could lift his bike with one finger! (Bertali’s bike on the other hand, is made of steel) and look at the size of that jersey! Incredibly privileged to be able to visit this museum.

We are staying at Lake Garda until Wednesday. The weather is due to clear up tomorrow afternoon and we’re keen to hire some bikes Monday and do a bit of exploring around the lake. Some of my cycling friends would love the amount of climbs, elevation and switchbacks here, but for the rest of us humans, we just look in awe.