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.

Kozjak is the waterfall that we really wanted to see that was two hours away. We found the parking lot which was oddly pretty empty and started our hike. I knew there was an entry to get in to the waterfall but didn’t realize it was a little over a mile before you get to the entrance. At that point, we found out the waterfall was closed because the river was too high to get to the waterfall. They said you could enter at your own risk but we could still hike around. We drove all this way so I still wanted to hike until we couldn’t go any further. We came up to a point where the river was for sure in the way of the path. We really are only talking about a river that is maybe a couple of inches too deep for the path to keep going. After watching some others take off their shoes and socks and wade through the river, I knew I had to keep going. So we also took off our shoes and socks and kept the adventure going. The river was cold but refreshing on the feet. I learned that I really don’t like walking on little pebbles barefoot. But the waterfall was for sure worth it. The pool was full of a lot of water so much that if you look at the website, it shows people standing on rocks in front of the waterfall. We were up on a wood ledge that really only held maybe 6 people at once. The two hour drive was definitely worth it, and actually we saved the price of the entrance since it was technically closed.

Here is the path leading up to the waterfall. Once you went around the bend, you climbed onto a wood platform to see the waterfall. When the water isn’t high, you can stay on the rocks.

My reward for all of the driving the last couple of days was the famous Lake Bled Cream Cake:

One advantage to all of the rain is the waterfalls and rivers have been magnificent. We weren’t planning on stopping at this waterfall but saw a sign for it as we were driving. We drove by the first time but I didn’t really get to see because i was driving. So I turned around and parked so I could get to see it. I couldn’t resist the walk to the viewpoint and it didn’t disappoint. I’m glad I turned around so I could see it.

We were able to do a full day of sightseeing on Wednesday. There was a hike 2 hours away that we wanted to check out so we decided to make the drive a loop. We did drive a lot the day before so 4 hours of driving sounded like a lot but the scenery is so incredible in Slovenia that the drive is fun. I really don’t think I can emphasize enough how nice the drive is around Triglav National Park. Of course it wasn’t without some clouds and rain but for the most part, we got lucky. The color of the rivers in the park are a very clean jade color and the sun only makes it even more green.

Today was another big walking day with nearly 13 miles. The weather was perfect and we took full advantage by walking as much as possible. After two days of walking 13 miles, the feet are ready for a little break tomorrow. We will be driving 5 hours to Lake Bled in Slovenia.

Since today was another holiday, it was challenging to find any stores that were open to get water. The best solution was to take the subway a couple of stops where I know there is a little market in the subway station that is open 7 days a week. It is hard to arrive in Austria late on a Saturday night because many stores aren’t open on Sundays and then it was also a holiday weekend.

It is always nice to get up early in a big city and walk around before most people aren’t awake. Since it was a holiday, it made it that much better. We walked around the first district some and then headed out to Schönbrunn where I will never get tired walking around. After all the walking, we helped ourselves to a large dinner of Wiener Schnitzel and potato salad. Of course, I then made us walk after dinner because I was so full.