Relishing Riva Del Garda

Grilled sausages with sauerkraut and fried potatoes

I ask you - does this look like a happy customer or what?

Riva Del Garda is everything we had hoped for and more. Snuggled into the side of a mountain on the shores of a turquoise coloured lake, the place seems a dichotomy - there are olive, lemon and palm trees growing in abundance, along with the beloved jasmine, honeysuckle and oleander bushes.

The town has been described as the "Mediterranean of the North." And yet not too far off in the distance I swear I saw snow on the tops of some of the mountains as we approached on the rapido ferry boat. If we were to continue northward, we would be in the Italian Alps or Austria.

Speaking of contradictions, again this area is a blend of Austria and Italy (seems like a perfect place for us). You see it on the menus where there is polenta and dumplings going head to head with pizza and pasta. I must admit I 'crossed over' when we got here and indulged in one of my favourite Austrian dishes - spinach balls in Gorgonzola sauce. Okay, they are actually called dumplings - somehow calling them balls seems more svelte! The hills were alive with the sound of my contented sighs after this meal. 

Getting back to the ambience of this place, there is a more orderly vibe here which seems indicative of the Austrians neighbours having brought some order to the somewhat unruly, yet oh so loveable, creative, intelligent and superior Italians. There are many German, Austrian and Swiss residents either visiting or living here.

I used the term "neighbours" loosely since a certain Austrian ex-PERT tells me that the Austrians once ruled this part of the country as their own. Need I say any more? This is obviously a 'meaty' topic in our household...

 

 However, I think this beef goulash went down without too many complaints!

 And the once favoured hazelnut gelato was temporarily bumped from its place of prominence by this apple strudel - also from the other 'motherland'.

My apologies - I seemed to have wandered off into the bottomless pit of our stomachs! Allora - back to Italian/Austrian Riva Del Garda.

And into the evening...

There is so much more I could show you of this place. As you can guess there are many more pictures and stories but I don't want to bore you! 

So for now I will say ciao from sunny, lovely Riva Del Garda. Next and final stop is Milano on Thursday via - yup, you guessed it - rapido ferry and train. Should be an action packed day before we fly home on Friday.