I asked the lady at the Ufficio Turistica in Brescia whether I should go up the east side or the west of Garda. She said definitely the west. | |||||
This building, dating
from the late 1800's, is typical of the villas high above the lakeshore.
This one, though, has been converted to a childcare centre, an Asilo Infantile. |
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I kept feeling like I was going to fall over backwards, looking up the steep hillsides that seemed to go on up forever. | ||||
This had me puzzled. There were a lot of them along the road. I was told that it's a limonaia, or 'lemonary'. | ||||
Tignale ( that's "teen yawli"). This is from a postcard because I didn't go to Tignale. | ||||
The route I took was along the lakeshore, half a kilometre below. This is the
hotel where I stayed at Porto di Tignale. I don't know why it's called
that; it's just a beach, no port or harbour, and I couldn't see any road
snaking up the cliff to Tignale. |
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Saturday, June 13 Tignale da Garda to Trento 62 km | ||||
Sunrise over the lake. | ||||
Glorious
! |
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One of my favourite pictures. |
Garda is one of the major sailing centres in Europe. Check this out. |
Near
the north end of the lake, The interesting thing about sites like this is that the volume is tiny compared to a hydro dam [the water comes down in those pipes on the left], but the pressure is enormous: the head of these penstocks is hundreds of metres up the slope.
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At the north end of the lake, Riva da Garda, a really beautiful tourist town. From Riva one can take a ferry to any point on the lake. No Cars Please. | ||||
Trento | ||||
The
highway into Trento dives down from the mountains into the valley of the
river Adige, another major north-south route. I say 'dives' — about
10% grade, straight into a 2-km-long tunnel. HANG ON, BWILSONDUNCAN!! ....then, on my right, I was passed by a young girl, pedalling for all she was worth, downhill, 10% grade, no helmet.. [?!] |
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Evening in
Trento. I stayed in the Hotel Venezia, just up the street on the left. |
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Sunday, June 14 Trento to Bassano dal Grappa 83 km | ||||
Sunday
morning heading southeast through the mountains. Bikes weren't allowed
on the main highway, so I took the old Roman Strada Imperiale. I
was a bit taken aback when I discovered that my route had to cross yet
another pass.
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San Gaetano, one of a chain of small industrial towns down the lower reaches of the valley... canyon. There's no farming about. I think the towns were built in the 1800's to take advantage of the fastrunning river to power mills and factories.
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Riding out of the mountains, into Bassano in the late afternoon. | ||||