Visiting our summer home

Lake garda was the city I was most excited for. I had googled my heart out and it was finally a reality. We drove into sirmonie and it was life changing. each house was a fairytale beauty. each home had lilacs flowing like hair from rapunzel. We drove into the city and it was just before the sun was setting. We hit the end of the road with a massive stunning castle before us. We looked defeatedly at our gps as the nice lady told us to keep going straight. after a moment of pause at the dead end, a man came up and asked for our names and reservation. we told him where we were staying and our names. He looked at his computer and he told us to drive forward. Mind you forward is just a massive castle. we obliged and drove over the wooden drawbridge. it moaned and clanked as it held the weight of a car. tourists squeezed up the castle walls so our car could drive through. once on the other side of the castle we were essentially driving down a sidewalk. A sidewalk that is full of tables and chairs and pedestrians looking at the shops. Luckily Keith is an expert driver and i spent a portion of this half a mile with my eye closed hoping for the best. We eventually made it to our hotel. It was beautiful and just what i had hoped for. We had a gorgeous balcony where you could hear the lake lapping at its edge. Ducks and swans swam by to greet us. We needed to return the car after dropping off our wine and luggage so we ventured out again, out on the sidewalk through the castle and back on the road. we ran into a bit of an issue returning the rental car as hey had retired earlier than anticipated. with no are to park the car and a car that needed returning we did a bit of improvising. With hunger upon us we left the keys in a mailbox and took (the most expensive) taxi back home. Once home it was time for copious amounts of food and wine.

For dinner, I had a ciao peppe with black truffles. It was heaven. I was a very happy girl. It was by far not our best meal in italy, however, i was not disappointed. I was fortunate to have a very wonderful truffle and parmesan heavy pasta. It was beautiful. cannot stress enough the number of truffles in this dish. We also enjoyed a tasty wine from the region. We were lucky enough to find a wine that makes keiths eyebrows do the dance of approval. often times when tasting wines keith goes through a range of facial experessions (think miranda in devil wears prada) it goes left eye brow up, head tilt left then right, and if its good hell shrug and nod, if its great he will do both eye grows and made some type of sound and let me try it. Anyways, the wine got a double eyebrow so he was a happy camper. I enjoyed all their free little sides like prosseco and chocolate truffles and for once was thankful i didnt have to share :p

day 2
we woke up to a chilly morning drenched in sunlight. We lazily headed down the spiral staircase to our breakfast buffet with lake views. After breakfast, we headed off to our spa day. the spa was a short walk through cobblestone streets. it was by far the most beautiful spa i have ever seen.

I did a mud wrap and Keith had a facial and a massage. It was fairly comical when they got us mixed up. i stripped down and put on the provided underwear on backwards for a facial and he was fully dressed ready for a mud wrap. after some interesting charades, we swapped rooms and
the spa day continued to be magical. There were so many fantastic pools to choose from. Highlights were playing around in the massive pool, drinking proseco in a robe for lunch and taking the most magnificent photo in the infinity pool only to never recieve the photo. still bitter.. After 7 short hours we returned to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

for dinner we found a lake front restaurant that looked to die for. In fact, it may be in the tip five best meals i have ever had. I started with a spaghetti that was as close to a Julia Roberts Eat Pray Love moment as one can get. It was fresh pure heaven. Then i enjoyed steak on top of arugula and parmesan on top. it was exactly as they described. There was some shame in sending it back to be more cooked which is essentially ruining a perfect steak but i just really like it well done. I ended with a tirimisu. Of course this meal also featured some phenomenal wine pairing. Keith enjoyed a pasta and a fresh fish dish and for dessert, because i did not share, and it was AMAZING, keith ordered my pasta for the dessert. We got a raised eyebrow about pasta for dessert but keith was over the moon. Around 10 oclock the restaurant started to fill up for dinner time. Behind us was a large group of italians (15 or so) we enjoyed listening to their lively conversation and fantastic fashion sense. when our tummies were digested from more amari we began our long walk home. the sun had set and it was quite chilly. we decided to run through the cold night with my tired feet till we got home.