Wednesday 4 July 2012

Sirmione

This is going to be the next-to-last of my Lake Garda posts; you can find out more about my week there at the beginning of June either by simply going back a few posts or by clicking on the label "Travelling".
Also, as before, there are more pictures of Sirmione on my photobucket album. Click here if you want to see them all.

After our "nice little walk" in the rain forest, the next morning both RJ and I agreed that we wanted to do a bit less walking and a bit more driving today, and so we took the car and went down to the opposite end of the lake, to Sirmione.

The town is small at less than 9.000 inhabitants, but it is a major tourist attraction, situated on a peninusula extending several kilometres into the lake and making it an ideal location for a castle. And that is what Sirmione is most famous for: the castle.

Already the site of a castle during Roman times, in 1259 building of the Castello Scaligero began, and it is pretty much still what can be seen today.
The only way into the town leads through what used to be a draw bridge but has, for the sake of convenience and safety, been turned into a stone bridge.
Once you're through the narrow passage, you find a rather charming and picturesque old town, with the piazza in front of the castle as its centre.
As was our habit already in Verona and the other places we visited during this holiday, we avoided the throngs of tourists where we could, and chose a less crowded path that lead past the castle and down to the lake front, where we had a very nice walk along the water. It was quite clean there (I saw only one plastic bottle in the water...) with not too many people; some families on the pebbled beach and a few people walking along like we did. 


To get back into the town to find a place to eat, we came past some very elegant mansions and posh hotels. One of those big houses was once chosen by Maria Callas as her holiday home, a plaque on the wall told us.
Similar to what happened in Verona, we found ourselves hungry at a time when most restaurants were not serving meals, but there was a small place on a narrow path off the piazza where they did not stop serving for several hours between lunch and dinner time.


We had an enjoyable meal there in the shade, but an elderly German couple who came in a bit after us obvioiusly did not. Already when they sat down at the table opposite ours, we thought they both looked grumpy. The rather large lady was hung with jewels, and her very red-painted lips were pressed together into a sharp line. Her husband didn't look to be in a much better mood. Together, they ordered one pizza, and a drink each. They ate it - and then, when the waitress came to take the empty plate, they told her that they had found it to be the worst pizza they'd ever come across, as inedible as a shoe sole, and asked her to bring the bill. The poor girl did as she was told, and in front of her eyes, the lady crumpled up the bill and tore it into little pieces, while her husband had gone to the toilet. When he came back, they left without paying, but not before he had loudly grumbled to his wife that there had been no toilet paper.



Both RJ and I were "impressed" - why did they eat the entire pizza if it was so horrible, and not complain to the waitress after the first few bites and asked her to bring something else? Why didn't the man tell the staff that there was no paper in the toilet and asked them to replace it?
Sure, neither of them spoke Italian, but in such a touristy place, almost everyone knows enough German or English for subjects like these. We were convinced that these two simply had been having a very bad day - and it is just not on to take it out on people who have not done anything wrong, but on the contrary are doing their best to give you a nice time at their restaurant, café, shop or whereever.


We tried to sort of make up for the bad behaviour of that couple by being as nice as we usually are, and told the waitress that we had indeed enjoyed our meal, and gave her a relatively generous tip.


After that, we left the old town centre and walked in the sun along the harbour back to our car, which was quite a distance because all cars have to park far from the town.
To drive back to Riva, we chose a different route than on the way there; instead of the motorway, we used the smaller road along the lake, which was very beautiful and picturesque, and led through places such as Bardolino, where the wine by the same name comes from.


We stopped for a while at a small place called San Vigilio. But that, I think, is going to be another post - this one is already longer than I thought it would be!

21 comments:

  1. Gorgeous photos, Meike. I loved Sirmione, though we picnicked in the park, rather than trying to find a restaurant. :-)

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    1. We walked through some park-like areas, but we never thought of bringing our own lunch - we just enjoyed trying out many different places to eat during our holiday :-)

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  2. I suspect that the couple were simply looking for a free meal and probably did that at many restaurants knowing that it was unlikely that they would be challenged. Hopefully one day they will meet their comeuppance. Or am I just too suspicious?

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    1. Oh! That never occurred to me, but you certainly have a point there. I will tell RJ tonight when he rings.

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  3. You see. They even ruined my reading of the post. I forgot to comment on the lovely tour you had just given me.

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    1. It was a very brief tour, but I am glad you liked it!

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  4. GB and I must be like skeptics!...the first thing I thought about the old, grouchy, German couple was that they were out for a free meal!
    Meike I've really enjoyed your holiday trip and think your pictures are really good. I do wonder how you and RJ decided on Lake Garda for your holiday?

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    1. Jill, when I told RJ yesterday of Graham's comment, he said the more he thinks about it, the more he is convinced that that's true.
      The two of them knew exactly they were never going to return to this place and nobody would challenge them with just the young girl waitressing, and they left the locale while she was indoors. In retrospect, it looked as if they were not doing this for the first time.
      We decided on Lake Garda because it is not that far from here (about 5-6 hours in the car), it is Italy (we both like Italian food, I am fluent in Italian and had not been there in a long time) and RJ had been there before so he knew the area to be very beautiful.

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    2. I guess I'm like most in the US, unaccustomed to the closeness of European countries/cities. I'm using my Atlas more and more to 'visit' the places you go and also to ride along with Scriptor and GB as they travel between England, Scotland, and New Zealand.

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  5. What a wonderful trip...I need to get on Google Earth and see exactly where these places are...maybe visit them sometime. And I love the description of the grumpy pizza eaters. People watching is one of the best parts of traveling.

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    1. Hello Mark, have you ever been to Europe? I guess you'd find everything here very close together and quite small in comparison to the dimensions you are used to in the US.
      Those grumpy people!! I really felt sorry for the waitress. I hope her boss did not deduct the unpaid bill from her wages.

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  6. I love this post, I feel as if I were right there with you!
    It all looks so lovely, and the date of the castle, 1259! Built to last I should say.
    That couple! You described them perfectly! Didn't it annoy you because they were German? I know how I feel when I am in England and I am around a rude American, I want to say, "Don't judge us by this jerk, we are not all like that!"
    So, they just ripped the bill up and left? Hope they don't try that in America, they will be arrested!

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    1. They did exactly that, Kay. Yes, them being German added to the embarrassment I felt on their behalf. I made it a point to speak only Italian to the waitress; of course she knew we were German (because we obviously talked to each other in that language) but I wanted to make her see that some tourists are not only nicer than others, but speak the language, too.

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    2. Meike,
      May I just tell you that the young girl from Munich who sat on the plane beside us on our flight to England was so sweet and kind that she was a wonderful representation of your country and hopefully, wherever she goes (just like you!) she will take away any bad feelings that folks like the non-paying, complaining couple generate wherever they go!
      That was a very convoluted sentence, but do you get what I mean?

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    3. I do get what you mean, Kay, and you are very sweet to write this. We should anyway not judge a whole group of people by how only a small number of them behave, but I suppose it is very hard to overwrite a bad impression in one's mind and the "tribal mentality" is part of being human and almost impossible to get rid of completely.

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  7. I think these unpleasant people had worked out a way of havng a pizza without paying for it. Pathetic, but some people would rather have a horrible experience as long as it is free, than pay for something and enjoy it.

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    1. Yes, we think now that they had indeed set out with the purpose of snatching a free meal. Sad! And I very, very much doubt the pizza was bad. Our food was nice (we didn't have pizza) and we had no reason to complain.

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  8. My daughter's first job was bussing at a local restaurant. A customer did the same thing. She complained about how awful the lasagna was, and yet her plate was completely empty!! Guess it takes a lot of eating to know how bad something is. :<)

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    1. What did your daughter do about that awful customer?
      I think I can guess what bussing means, but I am not entirely sure. Is it serving/waitressing?

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  9. those selfish people will be rewarded in other ways. So sad that they had to make such a big deal over their meal when they probably enjoyed every bit of it. I think the reward was....that there was to toilet paper! now that makes me think that was their reward! I am happy he went to the toilet AFTER he ate the pizza! There is JUSTICE afterall!

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    1. Linda, I had not seen it that way until you pointed it out, thank you :-)

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