July 23

July 23
We set off early and headed for another lake close to Como from where we planned to go on to Venice. Lake Garda is surrounded by more gorgeous villas and bursting with colour, and it was great driving through with the roof off the Landy (The 'roof' we have is called a bikini, and only sortof covers the two front seats – so we don't have windows or anything covering our backs even when it's on). After another quick business meeting at a hotel, we were on our way when it started raining quite softly, and then got quickly heavier and we were getting soaked. We pulled over and put the bikini back on and a tarp over all our stuff in the back just in time because it turned into quite a crazy downpour, which isn't easy or fun to drive in in that car. You have to hope the tiny little motors on the windscreen wipers don't give up on you, while frantically wiping the spray from the back of the car off the inside of the windscreen. We had been warned that Lake Garda had a microclimate, and we were happily soon out of the monsoon and back to moaning about the heat. We decided to stop over in Verona for the night and found the only campsite close by, with less than friendly staff but it would have to do. We cycled back down the hill into the old town of Verona and it was absolutely stunning and quite fun to roll through all the tiny streets – but we were starving and FINALLY found a nice looking restaurant, had barely put the last bite into our mouths when a massive gust of wind started knocking the tables over and slamming all the pretty little shutters in the square. We looked at what was coming over the hill, then thought of the steep winding hill we still had to cycle back up to the campsite and thought it best done very quickly before the approaching storm arrived…we were exhausted when we reached the top but dry and lightning-strike free. It was an impressive storm though!
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