Torri del Benaco!

After lunch in Verona it was time to board the bus again and head out to the little town of Torri del Benaco. While much of the scenery is not "new" to most of us as Haute Savoie is full of mountains and lakes, I think what makes the Italian side of the border so different is the architecture and the style of the homes. I love architecture so while the scenery may not have been that different to what I'm used to, there was very definitely an Italian feel to the place!

A google image of Torri del Benaco!

The 14th century castle

While this picture doesn't show much, in 2004
the villages on the slopes opposite were the
epicentre of a massive earthquake that spread
out over 100 km!

Nonna on her balcony watching
the world go by!

I sat on the lake front and had the
bright idea to treat myself to
a hot chocolate. I regretted it
for the next couple of hours!

Probably the best kind of car for such
a tiny parking spot!

Beautiful ornate windows!

On a side note, getting on and off these buses can be quite challenging for some of the less mobile travellers (the steps are pretty high) and in general we walked for hours, so while these trips are not specifically noted as being "easy", I'm always pleasantly surprised at just how much walking and climbing some of the less mobile participants can achieve. Often if we're waiting for a cable car or elevator, many will just start heading out on foot, but then I suppose if they've grown up in this area the're used to it!

Our group was a pretty nice group all in all and as we moved around at lunch and dinner I feel we got to know each other quite well. There was Mr. Cringe and his long-suffering wife (he was the first one to make an impression on me). On our first day he told the lady in the seat next to me to "put your seatbelt on" several times. The first couple of times she brushed it off saying she would do it when she'd gotten herself sorted, but by the third time she told him that she was an adult and would assume the consequences of her actions (she always did put her seatbelt on anyway). So he then told her that she had a sale caractère (basically she was a grump) but she just said no, I'm just an independent adult (all the while I'm cringeing in my seat)! Then when another man got up to use the bathroom, Mr. Cringe shouted out "so the old prostate's playing up again then" and my mouth dropped. His wife was quite a bit younger than him (I would put him at 80-ish) and he quite obviously had no filter, but luckily he calmed down as the trip went on and while he was still loud, he was more fun than offensive towards the end of the trip. If you're unlucky enough to have ever been somehow linked to your own Mr. Cringe, you can imagine how mortified his poor wife must have felt - I know I can!

Then there was the Brummie. One of the ladies asked me where I was from and when I said Birmingham she said "oh my husband's a Brummie too", so we got to chatting and both knew where the other one had grown up. When I asked him how come he'd ended up in France he told me he'd met a beautiful French woman while on holiday in France and was determined to marry her - and he did! They were quite obviously devoted to each other but he said that if anything happened to his wife before him, he would most likely go back to England as he had a son there. I told him not me and as a Libran who dithers about making a decision, it felt good to be so certain of what I want for the future!

Next was Mr. and Mrs. Sporty who I would guess were in their early 60s and were both absolute hiking fanatics. It was really nice to see how enthusiastic they both were about hiking in the mountains but then I guess that's much better than one of you having a passion for golf (or fishing, or bird watching, or whatever) and the other one being stuck at home bored out of their minds. Many years ago they had a smallholding and took in young people from all over the world to show them round the best hiking/skiing areas locally. Recently a man knocked at their door and when they didn't recognize him he handed them a picture and asked if they recognized the person. They did, as it turned out, and here he was as a 50 year old Englishman who had stayed with them when he was 18; he was in the area so decided to stop by on the off chance. These two were great company and full of really funny stories, so it was always a pleasure to sit with them at mealtimes!

And finally I got chatting with Laurence, who had been retired three years from one of the international organizations in Geneva. She and I got on like a house on fire and I can see that she is one of those people who never sits still - she's always off travelling, canoeing, going to art galeries or whatever. Another lady lives in Evian (where the bottled water comes from) and she took both our numbers and promised to let us know when they had interesting exhibitions on so we could all meet up again after our trip. So there you have it, a motley and diverse group who somehow pulled it all together to make pretty good travelling companions and (hopefully) a few new friends to boot!