Rating the Accommodations - Garda, Italy

July 4-6, 2010, 3 nights.

Hotel Giotto di Lorenzi Ezio
Via Carducci, 17
37016 Garda

http://www.holidaycheck.co.uk/hotel-Travel+pictures_Hotel+Giotto-ch_ub-hid_35146.html

We don't even have any of our own photos of Hotel Giotto. Not because there was anything wrong with it. It was actually pretty good. I guess by this point we were tired, and a little disappointed with the whole Lake Garda vibe.

Supposedly, Lake Garda's considered Italy's most beautiful lake. It may be one of the largest, but Lake Como's certainly its equal in terms of beauty. And we didn't even see Lugano or Maggiore.

Our enthusiasm was dampened (melted) by the persistent heat and humidity after we'd dropped down from the Dolomites. In hindsight, we should have remained in one, or several, of the northern visits a day, each, longer--Bormio, Arabba, Cortina. Maybe even Lake Como.

So, the next trip should be in September after the July and August invasions. May is too early as you run the risk of some of the high famed passes being closed to snow. Stelvio and Gavia were barely opened in time for our visit. Gavia had to be cleared of snow for the Giro and we heard that the Stelvio had been opened just a week before our arrival. In France, too, this holds true. The Galibier was closed due to lingering winter snow drifts. By September all the prior winter's snow is long gone. That's not to say you don't run the risk of new snow, but it's a bit early for much of that to be happening. Although I will say that a Facebook entry today, September 27, 2010, from our hosts in Bourg d'Oisans, the Coldray's, said that it snowed there in the last few days.

Anyway, I'm off topic.

We found Hotel Giotto by visiting the local tourism office. They were extremely helpful. A nice English-speaking woman helped us narrow down what were looking for. We paid a 10 euro fee, which was applied to our hotel fees, and she found us several possibilities. It worked out very well.

The hotel itself was nice, it had AC (that was an absolute requirement), it was clean and had a nice view of the lake and of Garda itself. The breakfast was one of the more disappointing. There was plenty to eat, the choices weren't as good as we'd become accustomed to.

The staff was nice enough, though almost impossible to communicate with. We managed to get through without any controversies or problems until it came time to check-out and pay. They accepted cash only, so we had to make a walk down to the ATM to draw some funds. Not a big deal.

They had a computer with internet access, but it wasn't readily available. There was an internet cafe nearby that we used a few times, it was expensive considering the speeds--atrociously slow. Seemed to work only half the time. It was exasperating.

I documented one of the two rides we did in Garda, Peri to Fossi. The only other ride we did was out to Sirmione, which was on the tip of a narrow peninsula that jutted into the lake from its southern shore.

We left Pagnano for Lake Garda on a Sunday figuring that the crowds would have been dying down on a Sunday afternoon. Wrong! The road into the area was bumper-to-bumper with cars all trying to get down to the lake. I assume it was just to be able to get into the water, because the lake did not offer any respite from the heat and humidity we'd encountered since coming south from Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Traffic, people, heat, humidity. Lake Garda failed to impress. It was pretty, summer's not the time to go. And the traffic! Oh, the traffic!! Man. The ride we took to Sirmione was a nightmare. A constant flow of traffic, fast-moving, narrow roads, no shoulder, back-ups in the towns created near chaos. The roads were so narrow that when there were back-ups there wasn't enough room to get by on the right. Most Italian riders would ride on the left--exposing themselves to oncoming traffic and left turners from both directions. We didn't see any accidents, though.

The portion of the lake we rode was not a cyclist's paradise. It's a big lake. Maybe some of the other portions of the lake are better. My guess is that anything on the shoreline was the same and you would need to head up into the hills away from the coast line to find decent riding (like Peri to Fosse--although that required a drive of almost an hour to get to the ride start--though you could certainly start from further away if we'd had more gumption and knowledge of the area). To be fair, the same held true at Lake Como. It was cooler at Lake Como, though, and they have the Tour of Lombardy!

A Few Words About Venice

The Rialto

We visited Venice on Friday, July 2, 2010.

A few words?


Teaming with people even on a slow day.

Hot (sure, could have been avoided by visiting sometime between October and April).

Humid (ditto).

Dirty (not much you can do about this one).

Graffiti (not much they are doing about this one).

Green, putrid water (what can you do about this one?).

The gondolas reminded my of the "Small World", or any other ride, at Disneyland (without the horrible music). Gondolas lined up nose-to-tail--at who knows how much a pop, $100?--as if they were on those little rails that you see at amusement park rides. I almost expected to see some young kid in a park uniform queuing up the folks in turn as they stood in line to board the boats.



Take a look at the famed Rialto Bridge. . . . One of the iconic structures of Venice. It's a run-down mess. Many of the buildings around Venice are in sad shape.

The water smells. The city smells. People are everywhere. The shops are tourist traps selling over-priced junk.

Oh, but they had a Burger King!

I absolutely, completely failed to see the romance in Venice. It's a decaying, sinking, sad mess. We saw dozens--and there are certainly hundreds--of smaller towns throughout Italy with as lengthy a history and far more charm than Venice.

I know I said in an earlier post that I'd provide a sentence about Venice, and I later mentioned I'd have three sentences on Venice. I couldn't express my disappointment with our foray to Venice in so few words. The train ride from Castelfranco Veneto to Venice and back was fun. It was only about an hour, or hour and a half. Pretty inexpensive, too. There's not a better way to get there and back than the way we did it--taking a car down there, I hear, is troublesome and not worth the hassle (and prone to break-ins).

I can say I've seen it, and I can say I have no need or desire to go back.

Rating the Accommodations - Casa Pagnano, Pagnano Italy

After two days, Monte Grappa was finally visible!

Casa Paganano from the front--take the stairway in that little recessed area to the 2nd floor and there's the room!

Casa Pagnano, Pagnano, Italy
Via Vallorgana 22
Pagnano d'Asolo, Italy

July 3, 2010, one night.

http://www.casapagnano.com/

After spending Thursday and Friday evenings at the nice B&B al Lauro in Lauro we had to clear out on Saturday morning and find new digs for Saturday night. The B&B had booked full beginning Saturday night, which they warned us about when we first spoke.

Linda and I decided to ride Monte Grappa on Saturday morning, after which we'd search for a new location for Saturday evening. It always sounds so easy when you're discussing it--it turned out to be another search full of dead-ends, scary looking places or, worse, no air conditioning.

Making matters worse was the fact that Linda and I couldn't shower after our ride--we toweled off as best we could, changed into some normal clothes, and drove around with tourist guides and the GPS. We were more comfortable than if we had remained in our riding clothes, but given how hot we'd gotten, how much we'd sweated, and how dirty we felt, it was a miserable few hours.

We looked at a few places close to Lauro that looked very nice from the outside. One was full. This was one that the owners of B&B Al Lauro had suggested. The owner there didn't speak English, but it sounded like he said he didn't have a room. That's what I assumed--we called from the parking lot.

The other place looked like it had just had a major renovation and looked very nice from the outside. We called to make sure that they had a room available and the English-speaking desk clerk said they did. We stopped by to take a look at the room, which was a little more pricey than we'd been paying or really wanted to pay, but we were getting desperate. This place, despite all it's nice features and attractive looks lacked one crucial requirement: air conditioning. We thanked the young woman and left.

I don't know, exactly, how many places we looked at, drove by, called, and disqualified but it was at least a half-day affair. We saw a lot of this little region. We could have given directions to almost anywhere in the vicinity after three days of riding our bikes and driving around this place.

Anyway, finally, we called a place in the guidebook, almost on a whim, and were rewarded with an English-speaking voice of the son of the innkeeper. We almost didn't call the place because we'd seen the address in the guidebook, found it via GPA, and it looked like a dump. It turns out that there are two addresses with the same number on the same street--one north of town, one south of town. I'm sure there was more to the logistics of this address issue, but that's how it seemed to us. Turns out the place we were interested in finding out about was up the road a bit.

I have to admit that when we first drove through the gate and saw the house we thought there'd be chickens in the kitchen and straw on the floor. It looked old and, well, used. It certainly was rustic, no matter how you viewed the exterior. The home had been around a while. The owner didn't speak any English, but her son was there to translate for us. The price was very reasonable and it had an air conditioner!!



Casa Pagnano had two rooms to let, we took the smaller of the two to save a few Euros and since we were going to be there for just one night. The room was plenty comfortable and nicely appointed. The owner had gone to some trouble to decorate with a rustic feel, I suppose what we'd call here country casual, or whatever it is. It looked rustic and had a very nice atmosphere about it--but everything was nice, i.e. it wasn't just a bunch of old junk lying around. And the AC!! It was just outside our room and there was a window along the top of the wall where it met the ceiling that could be opened to let the cool air in. It was wonderful.

Comfortable rooms, clean well-appointed bathroom en suite. An excellent deal for I thought it was 50 Euros, although I see the website says 60 for a double and 40 for a single. In any event, it was a good deal for an air conditioned, comfortable room.

Our AC unit, white, above the door. . . .

There was no covered parking, but no big deal. The house was a a hundred yards, or so, from the street behind an electric gate. Plenty safe.

The breakfast on Sunday morning was terrific. Linda said the coffee provided was the best she had during our trip. Plenty to choose from and the owner (wish I could remember her name!!) was anxious to make sure we had enough.

They had a nice German shepherd and a cool cat. Chickens were close by, but the rooster wasn't too close.

They had cable TV where we were able to catch some of the World Cup and, more impressively, the Italian TV carried, live, the Maratona dles Dolomites bicycle gran fondo. They take their cycling seriously in Italy. It was sooo cool to see.

Prcing: very good
Staff: we liked them a lot, just couldn't communicate much.
Food: Excellent--best coffee on the trip
Location: if you're there to visit Monte Grappa, Treviso, take the train to Venice from Castelfranco Veneto, etc., it's a very good place to be. Asolo's a nice town to visit and I'm quite sure there were quite a few places of interest that we just didn't figure out were there. The Gran Fondo Pinarello's run in July (that's gotta be miserable with the heat; I wonder why they don't run it in, like April or September). They do some time trials and other organized rides involving Monte Grappa, Monte Boldo's not far away. . . there's lot's of good riding if you carefully choose the time of year you're going.

No internet service.

Recommend? Sure! Don't judge it from the exterior's appearance, it's really quite nice inside. The owner's very nice. The log book of visitors consisted primarily of eastern Europeans and Italians. We were the only Americans (North, Central, or South!) to have visited.