We drove from the lake to a town by the Milan airport. We made one quick stop at another town on a lake along the way called San Giulio which is on Lago d’Orta. The town was a cute place for a quick walk around and small bite to eat.

From there we drove Monza, Italy which is close to Milan and the airport. It is best known for Grand Prix racing which hosts the Italian F1 race. We really weren’t coming here for anything except that it is close to the airport and we have a very early flight tomorrow morning. It has been a great trip with the only exception is having major flight issues. Tomorrow will be no exception as we have already been rebooked going through Madrid which will take about 4 hours longer.

We drove from Cinque Terre to Lake Maggiore, Italy today. It was a fairly easy 4 hour drive. I think we spent half of the time in tunnels. The scenery is really pretty driving but you really can’t see that much when driving through the mountains because you are in tunnels for so long. Lake Maggiore is the second largest lake in Italy with the northern tip of the lake actually in Switzerland. We are staying pretty close to the border. We aren’t allowed to drive into Switzerland because of our rental car so we won’t be going to see any of the towns in the north part of the lake. The pace is definitely slower at this lake and there are a lot of campgrounds. We actually ate dinner in the middle of a campground at a pizzeria. It is a nice way to end the trip with a little slower pace. The town is small and almost everyone speaks German. It is challenging whether or not to order in Italian, German or English.

We are staying in Monterosso al Mare which is one of the five towns knows as the Cinque Terre. The town is very busy during the day with tourists that are trying to see all 5 towns in one day. The beach in Monterosso is the best beach to visit if you are looking to go in the water. The hotel is located up several stairs. Although I didn’t count is probably close to 100 stairs. The town is divided between an old and new part. A tunnel connects the two parts of the town. Most people don’t drive here because it is too difficult. The town is known for all of it’s lemon and olive trees. I see so many lemons on the trees that are going to go bad and shocked that people aren’t out picking them. I of course had to try the lemon gelato.

We drove 4 hours today from Verona to Monterosso al Mare in Cinque Terre. To breakup the drive, we stopped in Modena, Italy. We found a very easy parking lot to use which is always challenging to find in Europe. Modena is known for being the producer of balsamic vinegar. Most likely you have seen Modena on one of your bottles. We walked around the town for an hour and checked out the market.

And finally we made it to Monterosso. There are lemon, olive and orange trees all around. You have to walk down stairs to get to the main town. Below is a picture from the hotel we are staying at. I can’t saying parking was enjoyable here but the hotel keeps the key in case they need to move cars around. I’m just hoping they turn my car around for me by the time i need to leave because I’m not entirely sure I know how to get it turned around.

We drove to Parco Delle Cascate today which is only about 30 minutes from Verona. The waterfall park is located in Molina, Italy which is up in the mountains. Molina means mill in Italian and the milling activity dates back to 910 AD. The town is very charming and also very hilly. We really are only talking a handful of buildings and homes. There are 10 different waterfalls in the park and you can see all of them depending on how challenging of a route you are wanting to do. Most of them can be seen on the easy/medium route though. With all of the rain the last couple of days, the ground was still slick in some areas even though we had plenty of sunshine today. The park was a nice day trip and always nice to be outdoors when it is nice weather.

We are staying 4 nights in Verona and spent the day walking around the city. It is amazing how fast it can go from sunny to cloudy but we lucked out and never had rain today. Verona is best seen in the morning as it is before a lot of the groups are out walking. Shakespeare wrote a couple of his plays based on Verona although it is not known if he actually ever visited. Juliet’s balcony and house is located in the center of Verona so you can imagine the number of tourists that want to visit the balcony. It is free to see the courtyard but you have to time your picture with nobody on the balcony. We were also lucky to see a full moon the other night from the place we are staying. The river running through Verona is the Adige which is the second longest river in Italy. Verona is about the perfect size to really get a sense of how the locals live but also has plenty of tourists. It is so nice to be able to get fresh pasta easily or focaccia fresh out of the oven.

We left Lake Bled yesterday and headed to Verona, Italy. We decided to take a little longer route so we could drive through the Dolomites. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and we really couldn’t see the mountains. They were mainly covered with clouds the entire drive through the mountains. I’m sure it is a pretty drive on a clear day so I will have to do this again at some point. We stopped at a couple of lakes. The weather was definitely cooler and some of the shores still had snow all the way to the ground. It was another very long driving day with around 8 hours on the road. It was still pretty, and of course I was able to take a couple of pictures.