Italian lakes

Malcom Main

Last updated at 14:35 18 November 2003


We first began our love affair with the magical land of Italy some 15 years ago and since then have visited the country over 30 times. We have been from Liguria and Lombardy right down to Sicily, loving every moment of the art, culture, food, wine, music and people.

We have spent a week in each of the Lakes - Como, wild and rugged where we spent a glorious week in Bellagio at the fork in the lake also visiting the lakeside villages, next to Maggiore where we spent a week at elegant Stresa with its wide promenade and wonderful Borromean Islands. We had a panoramic view of them from our hotel.

We even managed a visit to Milan and visited the Scala Opera House and Museum Duomo.

Lastly to Garda, greener and different again to the other two. Here we spent a week and loved the contrast between the north and south of the lake.

We chose the end of August for our visit so that we could include a trip to the Arena at Verona to take in an opera - the chosen performance being Carmen.

This did not start until 9pm and by this time it was dark and the thousands of candles (sold in aid of the local hospitals) lit up the sky before the performance began. The opera was most spectacular and did not end until 1am.

By the time we reached our hotel in Gardone it was 3am and in the middle of a gigantic thunderstorm. We were weary but very happy after a memorable experience.

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