Summer Holiday to Malcesine, Italy, part 2

Monday morning we woke up in our 16^th century hotel, and went downstairs to get some breakfast. The breakfast was pretty light with some bread, ham, lettuce, toast, marmalade, cereals, yogurt, juices and of course coffee. The weather outside looked warm and sunny, so we knew it's going to be a good day. After breakfast we headed to the new part of the village for some shopping in the market. In Italy they still have those EuroSpar-markets, which disappeared from Finland several years ago. We ended up buying some chips and chocolate and few bottles of wine. In Italy wines are sold in normal grocery stores and one bottle costs about 2€. Of course some finer wines are more expensive, but still cheaper than for example in Finland. I lost my mind over the different kinds of Milka- and Kinder-chocolates they had. Also the amount of Hello Kitty products was overwhelming.

After bringing the groceries back to the hotel, we decided to explore the old town and visit the Castello Scaligero, built on the highest spot of the old town. On the way there we walked all around the old town, and took notice of all the places we just have to visit during our stay. The town was full of small restaurants, little stores and comfy looking little hotels. And ice cream parlors! One of the most famous ones is the one located near the entrance of the castle. Tradition is that when a newlywed couple comes out of the castle, they stop there for some ice cream. Also, we heard that the pistachio-ice cream was well worth the try!  This time we didn't stop for ice cream, but instead walked straight to the castle. 

The castle was fortified by the La Scala family, and built in the 13^th century. The tower is even older. Also, an Etruscan tomb has been found within the walls, so one can say the place has been inhabited for a while! The castle has a museum of natural history, with exhibitions on the local animals and plants. One of the most interesting features of the museum was the exhibition of shipwrecks on the bottom of the Garda Lake. Sadly, all the other tourists also considered it interesting, so we didn’t see much. Creepy part of the museum was enlargements of the insects found crawling on the beach.. we had been planning on going to the beach later that day, so I didn’t necessarily need to know exactly what can be found under my feet and on my towel and in my bikini..

Other interesting parts of the castle were the Goethe-hall and of course the gigantic tower. The castle definitely looked like a very, very old place, it hadn’t been much restored.  A romantic little detail about the castle is that it is used daily for weddings. During our visit to the castle we saw an English wedding party. The bride apparently had bad shoes, and was running around bare feet, with the groom walking behind her, holding her shoes. Actually we saw wedding parties almost every day during our stay at Malcesine; apparently the Castello Scaligero is very popular place for weddings. In case some of you got really interested, I suggest you check out www.lakegardaweddings.com for more info.

We were walking all around the castle premises, but the highlight of the castle is definitely climbing up to the tower.  When we got the bottom floor of the tower, we noticed the stairs, which to my opinion seemed a bit rickety.  We started climbing carefully, and I started to feel a bit nauseated. I could see the bottom through the stairs and my fear of heights started to kick in. After climbing about 4 floors, the stairs got steeper and finally, before reaching the top, reminded a ladder, which led outside from a tiny hole on the ceiling. I just thought that the view from the top is worth it, and started climbing, just wondering how am I ever going to get down from there.  But once we got to the top, the view was breathtaking!  There really are really no words to describe it. The mountains, the village and the deep blue lake with pretty much no clouds in the sky, it just couldn't get any better. So if you ever go to the castle and lose hope with the stairs, it's most definitely worth the climb!

After walking all around the castle premises, we finally left and headed to the new harbor for a lunch.  I got a plate of roast beef slices and French fries, and my boyfriend had a fresh salad. After lunch we went to hotel to change clothes, and then went to the beach to get some tan and swim. The water was freezing cold, so I skipped the opportunity to swim. We tanned for about an hour, and then walked back to the  hotel for a short siesta, and a shower. Then we opened the bottle of white wine, changed into something bit more fancy and headed out to search a nice restaurant for the night.

We didn’t get very far, because the restaurant of Hotel Lago di Garda looked very tempting, located on the same street that our hotel. We decided to eat inside, and looked like we were the only ones who did that, all the other customers were outside. The atmosphere was very intimate with candles, and just the two of us in the whole room. We ordered pasta and red wine; the waiter let me taste the wine, I never got to do that before! I felt so special :) The spaghetti con ragu (or Pasta Bolognese) was so delicious and the wine was just perfect.  The night was perfect with us sipping on wine and talking. For desert we ordered some drinks, I had a drink called “Screaming Orgasm”, and it was definitely delightful!  

After dinner we still didn’t want to go back to the hotel, so we ended up walking all around town. We found this awesome toystore that had the most extensive collection of mini car models. The basement was full of them, and included some real rarities. My boyfriend went mad in there! :)

At the end of the night we went for a nightcap on a bar at Piazza Statuto. It was most definitely the best Cuba Libre I have ever had!