Lago di Garda. Lazise.

One of the very best things in the Province of Verona, where we've been in holiday this April, was that all the nice things we wanted to visit or taste (yes, I'm talking about the Italian food and wine, we had a bottle on the table every evening) were pretty close around. Lazise is a beautiful village on the south-eastern shore of Lago di Garda, with narrow streets and colorful displays. A very pleasant way of spending few hours in the afternoon, watching the lake, the beautiful flowers on the streets (plenty of pansies and wisteria) and feeding the ducks. 

I don't know if I said it before, but in Italy, almost every village has its castle, and Lazise is not an exception. Strange thing is that the Lazise's castle was a private residence, with no access for the visitors, we only watched it from outside the fence. Funny.

 

Wiki facts: Its name derives from the Latin “lacus” that it means lacustrine village. Lazise in fact was originally a group of stilt houses beyond that Roman village and market. Between 888 and 961, during the reign of Berengar II of Italy and his son, the town was subject only to the monarch, that is, it was a “free villa” not subject to some feudatory. In 961, Italy was invaded by German troops, who descended the valley of the Adige to camp on the shores of Garda.

More history from Wiki: In 983, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I granted Lazise the right to fortify itself and establish trading rights. The medieval Church of Saint Nicolò has frescoes dating from the 12th century, by the school of Giotto. The customs house from the 16th century was constructed to control trade on the lake. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Lazise was occupied by the Scaligeri of Verona who built the castle and encircled the town with walls. In 1405, it came under Venetian rule until Napoleon conquered northern Italy. After the Congress of Vienna (1815) it entered a period of Austrian rule, until in 1866, it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy.

The giant ice-cream was in fact a huge garbage bin. Lovely, isn't it?

 

Radu was upset because he wasn't the first to be in the picture.

 

Radu and Mara fought on regular basis in the car and on the street, mainly because each one of them wanted to hold my hand or to sit closer to me. It was a huge discomfort for Bogdan, who drove every day, and when we finally found a balance, the holiday ended.