Italy and Germany 2012: Lake Maggiore

A trip to Lake Maggiore today, north of Milan. Driving to Arona and then the boat on the lake. Just a side story….we have a sat nav, we named her Kate (it’s a long story). Kate and I have not always seen eye to eye, we had a particularly nasty argument this morning. Pam took Kate’s side of course. In the end Kate was probably more right than I was and I generously conceded. Pam took this as a major victory for the girls and they now BOTH take great delight in telling me where to go and reminding me they are both always right. My nightmare continues…… (Of course the point of having a sat nav is to follow what she says, rather than say, “She’s taking us the wrong way, I am going to follow the signs!”)

Driving north we could see the snow capped Italian Alps in the distance and it is still 25 degrees just a short distance away.

Anyway – we found a free park in Arona and took the ferry up to Isola Bella, an island on the lake with a huge palace and gardens. Surrounding the palace and along the shore of the island are stalls and eateries. We checked them all out and ended up having some lunch - beer and wine and a sandwich. We also had to buy an umbrella due to the misty rain which started to fall at about 1pm. Not heavy, just a little annoying on and off for a couple of hours.

We came back to Stresa and stopped there for an hour or so and had a late coffee and cake. Even more markets in narrow laneways. Home to the motel at about 6pm to relax. No tea 2 nights in a row due to the excessive food intake during the day.

Footy tipping results

I know many of you are not involved BUT – the O’TOOLE tipping competition was won by Chris (the adopted Holcombe). Just wondering if an O’Toole is EVER going to win??? I was gutted not to have won so I suppose I now know what it’s like being an O’Toole in the competition – better luck next year!!!