This past weekend was "Ascension Holiday" here in Europe. For those of you who may not know (we certainly didn't before now) the holiday marks the ascension of Christ into heaven. The holiday is celebrated on the 40th day after Easter Sunday and always falls on a Thursday. Anyway, it was a long weekend for everyone around here. So we packed up the car and drove south to Lake Garda, which is a beautiful lake area in northern Italy.
Evidently, the traffic from Switzerland into Italy can be especially heavy at times this time of year, so we left early Thursday morning to try to beat the traffic. The weather was clear, so the scenery was excellent. We took the "Splugen Pass" which takes you over the Alps into Italy. There was a snowstorm the night before, so the top of the peaks were all snow covered. The kids were blown away by the pass and the scenery, so we had to stop and take a picture at the top. It was about 32 F at the top. Anyway, we passed a vacant checkpoint at the border and then entered Italy on the other side. Then a few hours later we arrived at Lake Garda.
Lake Garda was once a popular vacation spot during Roman times, and it still caters to tourists today. There are three popular lakes in northern Italy, and Garda is the largest (the other two are Como and Iseo.) After we arrived we had to wait a few hours before we could check in at our campground, so we decided to check out the small town of Sirmione, which sits on the lake. The town's main feature is the medieval "Scaliger Castle," which was built during the 13th century and was used by a local shipping fleet. We enjoyed exploring the structure. The view from the top is amazing.
Later on we continued on into the town, where we walked around...ate some "Gelato" ice cream...and enjoyed the warm sunshine. The town is small, but very charming. We didn't decide to stop here until the last minute, but we're so glad we did. It was an unexpected surprise.
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