OK I am back from Italy.
We ended up spending about 3 of the 5 weeks in Riva del Garda. Mostly relaxing. Our son was sailing there for 2 of the 3 weeks so we had little choice anyway.
Although a tourist town, Riva is relatively off the beaten track and consequently it is relaxed and quite cheap. Coffee is 1.5 euro. A main meal of pasta is less than 7.00 euro. Food is good and cheap everywhere. It used to be part of Austria so it has a slightly different fell to southern Italy. Over 80% of the tourists are Germans and the locals had no idea what our accents were. Whenever we told people we were from Australia they invariably said they loved the place. Even more remarkable, a barista in the sailing club lived in Cammeray for 12 months and worked in North Sydney. Regretted leaving Australia because he cannot get back in.
We did the walk/climb up to the shrine of Santa Barbara. It is a long way up, and down.
Spent the last 2 weeks going to Achensee and Innsburck in Austria, then Munich in Germany (to see the BMW museum) then drove through Switzerland to Zurich, through Lichtenstein (well, manybe not Lichenstein I think the border was on the edge of the highway and we were technically still in Switzerland) back to Como in Italy so we saw a lot of the alps which was what we wanted -- something we don't get in Australia. Went through the 16km Gotthard tunnel. It was 33 degrees Celsius in the middle of the tunnel.
Managed to fit quick day trips in Venice, Florence, and Genova. Spent a couple of days in Rome, went to Pompeii. Then spent 2 days in Madrid and flew home.
It's possible to spend whole weeks in all of those cities each. We enjoyed the drive down through the alps and around then south through Italy. When in cities we usually walked through the old parts and didn't bother with the touristy bits.
Genova had a quite scary feel at first -- it's Italy's largest port so it's very much a working city.
A coffee was 6.00 euros in Venice. We got a gondola ride, 100 euros. Worth it, but only once in a life time. It gets 25,000,000 visitors each year and I think most of them were lined up to see the basilica when we were there.
Highlights were: the old part of Riva del Garda, with it's 12 century tower, accidentially discovering Malcesine some 20 minutes south of Riva while looking for boat parts (it has a wall that was built in 590 AD) the Castle in Arco which is like something out of Lord of the Rings. We very quickly got cathedral-fatigue. Every village has one. Yes some were better than others, but it became a matter of *decoration*. Decoration is easy.
The stand-out for me was the Pantheon in Rome: this is an unparalleled engineering feat nearly 2,000 years old. Looking up at that dome stopped me dead in my tracks. The columns outside are also spectacular.
Our first day was in Milan and I was amazed by the number of Fiat 500s there were. So I decided to see if I could get photos of 500 Fiat 500s. Despite the fact that I only got pictures of abut half I saw, I ended up with over 400! Only saw 3 in Madrid and I think 2 are the same car.
Some other random and weird observations:
You know how there are signs outside shopping centres that show the number of vacant parking spaces? There needs to be one outside Italy and it should say "Full".
The Carabinieri (I think the equivalent of the federal police) in Italy have the coolest looking cars and uniforms.
We could not find any asian or indian food. By the end we were dying for a curry. OK there was one Chinese restaurant in Riva, up some stairs, but the menu outside listed spring rolls and spaghetti, so we never bothered.
Driving in Italy was easier than expected. Although the traffic is "crazy" generally drivers are forgiving and relatively patient. I heard very few car horns blowing even in Rome.
The trick to understanding Italian driving is realising that the number of lanes varies depending on the width of the vehicles using it at any one time. This leads to almost 100% utilisation of the road.
If there is enough room for a scooter to drive beside you, they will.
If there isn't enough room for a scooter to drive beside you, they will anyway.
The word for "exit" in German is "ausfart". We though that was funny in a very adolescent kind of way. (The missus didn't think it was funny though.)
The trucks that pull semi trailers only have one set of back wheels, not two sets like here.
In Austria you give way to cars on the right at some intersections. I never really worked it out. That was my scariest "driving in europe" moment.
No matter how fast you drive on the autobahn, somebody will be behind you flashing their lights to pass.
A Renault Megane Estate diesel maxes out at 197 km/h indicated.
The roads there are no better than ours, in fact most have narrower lanes, no shoulders and are far busier, even (especially) the autobahns.
