Inspiration for both Kafka and Goethe: Lago di Garda

I remember the day soon after we met when we were sitting with a map in our hands, looking for the best meeting points all over the world. Our short search has shown that the best places to meet are Milan and Venice, to which Ryanair flies both from Stuttgart and Prague. And who we are to say no? Days flew by and a year after we are finally going to visit both of them. Starting at seven in the morning I leave my flat in Prague - so happy that kids are already carrying their backpacks and I have to only handle my stuff.  By this time, Jan is already two hours on the way from Stuttgart, trying to get some advantage over the plane in a four-wheeled friend. I try to remind myself that kids really need passports (you know, how that is difficult when I can always travel using only my ID?). Train, subway, bus and plane...and here we are. Bergamo - Italy. We crossed all the clouds and arrived under the clear blue sky - in just two hours (flying), the temperature has risen by around 10 degrees. If I wouldn't know the weather forecast for next few days (this makes me sick last days since it should rain cats and dogs and it seems that my dreams about sunny vacations in Italy are all gone), I would think that taking rain jackets was just a stupid paranoia.

Airport, bookstore, croissant and parking place...then kids notice our car with a Czech plate and they start to jump and wave excitedly...maybe also because of the fact that they are hungry and I told them that Jan has all the food (but don't tell him, let him think that their smiles are sincere :-)). Jupííí! We met! Let's go! Or ehm...not really.

CAUTION! If you want to move somewhere around Italy, don't take a local road. Really. Do it just in a case that you want to make a day trip from 100 km drive. I tried to avoid highway fees (so stupid). But Italians are obsessed by restrictions and by placing road signs everywhere. Which means that you will be happy, if they let you go 50, but most probably you will have to reduce your speed to 30. It seems that the rule here is: The less people are interested in traffic rules, the more restrictions we need. Quality of roads reminded me of the quality of roads in the Czech Republic 30 years ago when you could get really nice offroad experience out of driving and at least roads could serve in an emergency case as a collector of water thanks to their numerous holes.

Lago di Garda. The biggest lake in Italy and a popular German destination. Place, where English is definitely not the most common foreign language. I was really worried about how crowded this place will be and if I will be able to enjoy it. And when I mean crowded, I mean crowded. It is not summer, but Easters and all the places are anyway booked out.  But we are lucky. It is April, the weather is not the best, so most of the people stay inside, and some camping places haven't opened yet. The lake itself is wonderful. No wonder, that writers starting from Goethe, through Thomas Mann to Kafka liked this place. As we proceed to the north, mountains rise higher and the western coast becomes wilder. The lake is also sometimes called a birthplace of violin because one of the earliest known violin makers, Gasparo De Salo, was born at Salo on Lake Garda in 1540. Kids immediately decided to call the lake a sea.

Wild camping at Lago di Garda - Lago di Tenno

It is getting late which reminds us of the necessity to find any place for the night. The densely inhabited area with steep mountains doesn't make this task the easiest, but www.mapy.cz were as always very helpful. In combination with the recommended nicest hiking trails around Lago di Garda from the website www.outdooractive.com (https://www.outdooractive.com/en/hiking-trail/lake-garda/von-varone-zum-lago-di-tenno/13433362/#dmdtab=oax-tab3 ), we got the result for tonight: Lago di Tenno - place which you can access only by foot.

We pass by a sign on which there is a very long list of restrictions (so Italian) - among others, it says that we cannot camp by the lake, not even sleep in our sleeping bags (maybe they know Czech people :-). I almost don't notice the sign and want to pass by, but as I see, what is natural for me, Jan has to surpass himself to do so - to violate regulations and restrictions is really not a German nature. I do not want to laugh at rules, I do not want to bother anyone, but I differentiate among rules. I take nature as
something which should be common to all people, a place which should be open and accessible. This, of course, also brings a huge responsibility for everyone who wants to enjoy it - the responsibility to keep it  behind you as it was before you arrived, not leaving even a single paper behind you, not disturbing anyone else who would like to enjoy the beauty and silence, not to create any extra work for anyone else. It should be that you leave the place and no one can notice that you have ever been there. When I see that I do not bother anyone, and I know that we are building our tent by a twilight and leaving with a sunrise (ok, a bit later), I can bypass the ban on camping with a pure conscience. Having the following words of Dalai Lama on my mind: "Know the rules well so you can break them effectively." 

Lago di Tenno fascinates me with its totally still and clear water surface which reflects even in the cloudy sky surrounding mountains. No wonder - Lake Tenno is the most limpid and clear freshwater lake in Italy (proven by a scientific study ;-). When those few Italian workers preparing the lake for a new season leave, we stay by the lake totally alone, enjoying its turquoise beauty and calmness. The basin is of unique origin and was formed following the landslide of the hill of Ville del Monte that blocked the course of its tributary - river Ri Sec. The story says that there are two islands on this lake - one is the one you can see the whole year round and the second appears only when the water goes significantly down - this island is called Island 86 since it was for the first time visible in the year 1986. A human was the cause that the lake almost drained and now human is the one who tries to save it again and restoration works are in progress to protect this unique place in Northern Italy. We enjoy our night in the middle of a forest next to the lake, morning porridge from a cooker and a nice walk around the lake accompanied by some climbing.

Varone waterfalls - best place for rainy days

The only effluent of the lake is the torrent Picinino which flows into the river Magnone from where the Varone waterfalls are born. Walk down from the lake through the nice Tenno village (they say one of the most beautiful Italian villages), around castle Tenno to the Varone waterfalls is very nice although the weather forecast is hunting us and our soup got some additional water in the form of raindrops. Even kids say that paying the entrance to waterfalls was worth because they had so much work with creating the nice lightning and paths for people. Since the catwalk that goes into the gorge was inaugurated in 1874 by the King of Saxony, John, and Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, it has become the must-visit for all tourists (good that I didn't know that by the time we were there)... "At the bottom of the deep, narrow abyss of bulging bare rock, slippery like the huge bellies of fish, the flood of water crashed down with a deafening roar. Behind, above and all around could be heard threatening and warning calls, trumpets and the rough voices of men." T. Mann.

Way back uphills in a rain is also part of the journey. Taking a bus doesn't even come to my mind. It feels somehow that journey is complete and an experience full only when you take all parts of it. Surprisingly, my younger daughter is smiling all the way up, telling us, that in her kindergarten they walk in the bigger rain and to steeper hills. Also, a fairy tale about a mermaid living in Lago di Tenno is created on the way up.

Now comes the sad part of the story. I knew that tonight we will have to sleep most probably somewhere inside because even the nicest weather forecast showed rain and thunderstorms. Therefore I checked a few days ago offers on Airbnb and thought that it will be easy, that we can decide for the place just on the day. But now only 1% of offers are available and the price range is so high that one night in those places could feed the whole family for one month. My decision process gets stuck and I sit miserably in the car, trying to persuade the phone that there has to be something which we didn't notice. Raindrops are pounding into the windows and if it is not that kids are playing and talking cheerfully, my misery would be complete. At that point, Jan calmly asks if he shouldn't just ask at the farm place we are passing by. I stay astonished. That option even didn't come to my mind. He walks there, talks to the lady and comes back with an offer. It is still too high, but it is cheaper than any offer we saw so far in this area. On top of it, it comes with a breakfast for all of us. Sometimes, I find myself standing in the middle of a storm of infinitely many bad choices that I cannot choose from because none of them is even close to good. These are the times when I need someone to come, put his hand on my head, decide for me and comfort me with the words: "Don't worry, I know that there are no good options in front of you, but just choose this one and go on. Take your lesson and then free your mind and don't care about it anymore." And that is exactly what I got this time. A solution.

Cooking on the small garden is accompanied by searching through the prospects. This area is simply great for trekking, cycling and full of nice ferrata ways. In the evening we search different servers and I try to find the weather forecast which will give us the nicest weather for tomorrow and it works! As planned, it stops raining after a breakfast (btw really good one - the woman even baked her bread, cakes, made nice marmalade, juices, cookies, musli...) so we can enjoy the panoramic Busatte Tempesta hiking path (e.g. here) which should be during summer really crowded, but now there are only very few people. The path itself is not very challenging (kids complain a bit that they expected ladders but there are only stairs), but very pleasant, full of nice views and we can see sailing races from above. On top of it, we find out how to discriminate venomous and non-venomous snakes - did you, for example, know that they have a different pupil (btw very useful information to protect you :)? Ice cream, playground, and no raindrops today - rain and thunder start to fill the valley with the twilight when we are already safely hidden under a roof.

Venice - place where people exchanged cars for boats

Stopping by in Garda and walking to a mountain with a nice view, finding some nice caves where Jan is the one who first breaks the ban sign to go there (did I say that I like the guy?), we leave Lago di Garda behind us and head towards Venice. Yesterday, I took quite some effort and searched even in google photos for places where we could easily sleep. Area there seemed full of beaches and because many camping places by the beach are still closed I thought we can find easily a place in a small forest by the beach which I found on the google map. What was my
surprise when we arrived at the peninsula to Lido di Jesolo and there was a big sign banning camping in the whole area. On top of it, it was everywhere forbidden to park a car. I tried not to feel too desperate. I still believed that we could camp by the closed camping place at the end of the peninsula in that small forest. We arrived closer and then we saw the truth - 3 meters high fence around the closed camping place - that was actually the forest I found - was making all the plans just a fantasy. But we went on a bit more and there, just at the end of the peninsula, there was the last street where we could nicely park our car on the parking place for fishermen and walk to the beach, build our tent in a hidden place among bushes and cook our dinner. I felt...it is hard to describe all the nice feelings which I felt at that time. There was a full moon, our tent, sound of the sea, no people, no pubs, and all worries and stress from last days were just gone. We were right here right now. All I need for my happiness was just around me.

Good advice: if you would plan to follow us and find a place for your tent next to the Waikiki camping place, do not do that. Less than two hundred meters from our tent were abandoned dredgers (it was Sunday) and a large sign that said that there will be standing a new giant hotel in three months.And so most probably the last free parking lot in the area will disappear and with it also a piece of secluded beach where we spent a wonderful romantic night.

Venice...what should I write about the place.

Everyone already heard about this interesting town which is part of UNESCO, place which is considered to be the most beautiful city in the world. No doubt, that the city is amazing and taking a waterbus is a lot of fun. But is it really a city or is it rather just an attraction as my daughter noticed? "Rather than the most beautiful city in the world, I think, mum,  it is the most beautiful shopping center in the world."

We decided to not go by car in there, not even to park in front of the entrance to Venice and better park our car few hundred meters from Punta Sabiotti and take a boat to Venice. Daily ticket for all of us (50 euro) cost only twice as the parking in Venice and we can travel not only to there and back but also through the Canale Grande in Venice taking any of the waterbus lines. To be honest I didn't expect that there will be that many people. But the weather is nice and it is Easter Monday. Soon we become a part of a crowd which flows around the promenade over wide bridges and then spreads to all streets of this town which lies on 143 islands. There are two special memorable moments. One is when we sit on the wooden pontoon by the river writing a postcard, watching the life around us, gondolas arriving and leaving, pulsing life of this town. The second moment is much deeper. When we arrive back to our peninsula and start preparing our dinner, we are watching a sunset over Lido and Venice. As the sky turns from blush blue to purple, orange and purple-red, we wait until the last bit of sun disappears behind the horizon...do you know that at the moment the sun disappears completely into the sea, you can hear a gentle sigh?