After the afore mentioned killer hotel breakfast, and a frustrating morning first finding, then wrestling with the inhabitants of Bolzano’s laundormat (weird fat man who was very very helpful with better English than our Italian or German – but with the wrong kind of attention for the girls) – we finally shifted the behemoth of laundry that’s been backing up since Rome. A late check-out was tops, but Indi and I were still pressed to get around Oetzi – the iceman.
Some 5000 years ago a dude had a stouch on a glacier, ended up with an arrow in his back and died. Fast-forward 4980 years and he’s dug up. People are stunned by the state of the mummy and the materials found with him. Indi does like her mummies, so when we found that Oetzi was forming the core of an exhibition of 60 odd (very odd) mummified things at the Bolzano museum, well, it was rather a must-do. There were bog people, desert people, and every other kind of mummified thingy you can think of, but the star was our glacier boy. He lives in a fridge now, but all the gear, and reconstructions of all his stuff is on display to gawk over. It’s stunning the amount of info they gleaned from him. From his last meal to where he was likely born. When he died based on what pollen they found in his intestine, to how he died and speculation on what he was and did. Let me suggest you google him. It’s fascinating stuff.
All in all, though, we are getting a bit tired. We’d set a cracking pace, so we decided to can the idea of a sprint to the Mediterranean coast in favour of two nights in one rather beautiful place. Lake Garda was on the cards for a while ( Mik does rather like Daniel Craig’s James Bond – and when she found the opening scene in Casino Royal (the car chase) was shot in a Lake Garda tunnel, she was keen. Add that I’ve been reading about Lake Garda as a windsurfing destination for about 20 years and we didn’t need Eddie to lock it in. More Autostrada antics, then a quieter road deposited us at the head of this huge glacial lake. Some googling last night had a 3 star resort hotel targeted, found and now we’re installed on the second floor with a balcony overlooking the lake for a very nice price indeed (Easter marked the end of the spring school holidays, so it’s very quite – perfect!). There’s even a +1500 year old castle up the road for the kids to clamber all over.
Prosseco on the balcony as the sun set over the lake, and no-where to be for a few days now. Phew. What a relief. In fact it’s about the ideal place for me to shake this Venetian head-cold that I seem to have come away with.
We’ve looked at Roman culture, Etruscan, renaissance, and Venetian history – taken in the shopping and the food (the food!! – it’s true, magnificent, even at the tourist supermarkets) – listened to and watched the people – and now it’s time to sit back and stare at the huge glacier-cut walls on the far side of lake Garda as they change colour while sun sets behind them.
It’s time to just look at Italy.
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