Off to the lake district (Friday 23rd August 2013)

Finally a decent wi-fi connection! The photos of the last two days are posted.

We skipped breakfast (nothing missed there) and stayed in bed a little longer, finally exiting the hotel just before 11:00am. The hotel was fine and I'd be happy if I had to stay there again they just need to add cereal and toast to the breakfast menu and provide a decent wi-fi service. These days a good wi-fi service is probably more important to 21^st century travelers than a breakfast. Especially in a city like Venice where you can't walk 20m without passing a place to get a good, inexpensive breakfast.

We lugged our now heavier bags towards the San Marco Garage in Piazzle Roma. Before we'd gone 100m we stopped at just such a place on a point where two canals met. For ten euros we had croissants, coffee and sparkling mineral water.

Perfect for breakfast, with an ambiance infinitely better than the crowded and stuffy breakfast room at the hotel. A further 200m found us at the garage, we picked up the car and said “Stresa, GPS-girl and don't spare the horses!”

She found the autostrade easily, the little Fiat put the whip to the horses and before long we were speeding (figuratively and in reality) towards Milano, a journey of about 280kms.

We just kept the pedal to the metal and didn't stop along the way. For the first time I managed to each the old “ton” in the Fiat (on a long down-hill slope). Kerry is to blame, she egged me on saying things like “the speed here is 130kph” and “I like going fast”. We skirted Milano and headed towards the mountains in the distance. The sky was rather hazy so the mountains were somewhat hidden behind the haze, showing only as a silhouette. The autostrade wound its way through long tunnels and over bridges as it climbed into to mountains. We caught our first glimpse of Lake Maggiore as the road passed over its southern most reach.

Ten or so kms further along we turned off towards the little town of Stresa which is located about halfway up its southern arm. Over five kms the road wound its way down the mountain-side to the lake shore.

The vista presented about halfway down was just stunning. Like Portofino before, it was picture postcard stuff. The lake is huge, reaching further than the eye can see, surrounded by towering peaks with villages nestled in the valleys and along the lake shore. We reached the bottom, after surviving the first couple of mad Italian drivers we have seen in the last two weeks. Indeed, almost all drivers have not lived up to the Italian driver myth, being largely courteous and considerate. They even stop for us when we flout the law and don't cross at a pedestrian crossing.

The Hotel Elena is right in the heart of Stresa in the middle of a “pedestrian only” area full of hotels, bars, restaurants and shops. We could not have chosen a better hotel for location. The Fiat was parked in a street nearby and we walked 75m to the hotel, checked-in and then took the car to a free public park just behind the hotel.

The first task was to organise the next two days. We consulted the hotel manager who suggested a trip by train to Locarno in Switzerland followed by a return journey across the lake by boat. It sounded good so we went to the dock and booked it. The second day will be filled with a cable-car ride and a trip to some islands lying just off the shore near Stresa.

Dinner was at a cafe in the square near the hotel where we were entertained by two buskers playing contemporary music. They were very good and even took my request for Bob Dylan tune. They played “Knockin' on Heaven's Door” to the delight of the onlookers in the cafes scattered around the square.