Sirmione

Left mid morning for a walk to Sirmione, which looks like it’s just around the corner but took us a while to get there. Luckily it was just flat path along the lakeside for most of the way. The town is on a promontory that stands out to the east of where we are staying.

It’s all very beautiful, with a historic centre of cobbled streets, little shops, and a fabulous castle.

We’d kind of forgotten it was Saturday though and it seemed to just get busier and busier as we approached the centre.

Masks on, we went to see if we could get into the castle. Numbers were restricted, you had to book online then pay cash at the door which kind of defeats the object of online booking really 🙄We got a time slot for 2:45 so set off to explore the rest of the place in the meantime.

Walking up through the middle, you could often see the lake on both sides and we were particularly surprised by the families sitting in rock pools where a thermal spring came out. You could smell the sulphur and the water was as hot as a bath. We meandered right to the end where some Roman ruins and Jamaica beach were.

Had to have yet another pizza (cheap lunch – not!) and an Aperol Spritz to keep our legs going.

Back to the castle. Temperature checks, masks, sanitiser etc were the order of the day.

Rocca Scaligera dates back to the 13th century, looks like something from a fairy tale, and is almost completely surrounded by water. Sadly, the highest tower and some of the walkways were closed off as I think social distancing would’ve been impossible but it was well worth the entrance fee.

Dragged ourselves away late afternoon and the walk back, for once, seemed quicker than the walk there. Think we’ve done about 8 miles so have earned the pizza but probably not the bread, cheese and chocolate we’ve had since!