Lake Garda and Venice (June 16)

We all headed out early this morning. I dropped Sara off at the train station (so she can get back to Zurich and then Berlin for a conference). We had time, though, to stop in Verona for a quick bite - the best warm croissant with cream in the world (no exaggeration).  I drove up the shore road of Lake Garda (biggest lake in Italy) right at the base of the Dolomites. Lovely!

Bye bye Brez!

I took a few hours to check out Lake Garda...

Lake Guarda!  

Torbole village (big winds, tons of windsurfers)

View from the castle ruin above Torbole-Nago

Lago Di Cavedine

I returned to Verona, turned in the car at the airport, got on the bus (the Porto Nuova train station) with a minute to spare; then caught the train to Venice with one minute to spare!  I arrived in Venice with perfect timing - low light and sunset approaching.

My little B&B (AquaVenice)

I was walking fast, wanting to catch the sunset and full moon rise over Venice - and there's no better view than the tower at St. Mark's square! I got totally lost on the way there (I love getting lost in Venice but I was losing light so I tried to get there fast. I ended up walking totally around it to a new part I'd never seen.  Eventually got to the square with low light on the Basilica and square. Wow! No line at the tower so I headed straight there. Epic. Light.  Another spiritual moment on this trip. Wow!  (Well after sunset, people were taking photos of the moon and orange light over the city; there was a lady that came around saying last call.  The guy next to me -we were taking a zillion 'last' photos and eventually he said "Ok we should go." One last snap and I turned around to see the elevator door closing. Everyone else was gone! Thinking: "OK, maybe I have to spend the night up here".  My phone had list battery by then.  Gulp.  (3 minutes of taking more pictures and contemplating staying the night up there!). But they came back and did another sweep. Phew!  An epic epic evening.  Several days in a row now (20+ days) where the scenery is so beautiful, you just can't believe your luck. Feeling so grateful!

Hidden church...I mean EVERY corner. It was hard to walk fast without snapping 20 photos...

Some unknown Cathedral - trying to find St. Mark's

Just...wow

A woman asked if she could take my photo of the sunset light on me!

Sunset. (One of about 300 photos - no joke)

Not the best photo of Rialto bridge, but LOOK at the scene here...