Lago di Garda

Our last overnight during what I refer to as our “bike week” was Riva del Garda. Although it is still in the Trentino-Alto Adige Region, it felt and looked far more Italian than towns like Castelrotto and Ortsei.

Oddly, much of Italy felt run down to me. Even the smaller mountain towns. Mostly, I think, because the way the buildings look. In many places, the stucco covering the building facades has fallen off, making the exterior look rather pock-marked. Riva del Garda wasn’t bad, but the building in the above image is a good example. As it the next image…

Those buildings were exceptions in Riva del Garda, which really was an extremely picturesque and charming place.

I love the mountains. Having grown up in Maryland, I’ve always enjoyed the water, too. So how could I not love a place like this, a lake surrounded by mountains.

The mountains loomed over the town, which made for some pretty cool pictures if I do say so myself.

This was the furthest south we’d been since leaving our friends at Lago d’Iseo on Tuesday. It was interesting to see palm trees scattered around the town.

The harbor area really was charming. I’m glad I chose this waterfront hotel for our stay.

I’m also glad I took some time for a stroll on Friday morning.The light was perfect.

It would have been nice to linger longer, but we wanted to get out before 10:00 AM. Since the hotel was in a pedestrian zone, it was closed to all motorized traffic after 10:00 AM. We really wanted to ride up to the front of the hotel instead of shlepping all of our stuff back to the bikes, which were parked about six blocks away.

I was sad to see bike week coming to an end. But I was also exhausted and looking forward to meeting up with Annelies and Yves again. So once we got all the bags and both trunks fastened back onto the bikes, off we went.

We were headed back to Rho, west of Milan, where we had to return the bikes. Hubby mapped out a very interesting route through the mountains for us. It was very scenic, but we didn’t stop along the way much. I didn’t have the helmet cam running either. It was just one of those days where I decided to relax and enjoy the ride.