Lake Garda

We drove up the west side of the lake in the coach. Apparently they used that road to film the opening car chase sequence in the Bond film Quantum of Solace. It took them 3 weeks to film a 2 minute sequence! Went past Mussolini’s residence (he was Hitler’s Italian ally in World War 2).
Stopped at a nice little waterside town for a look round then got on a boat which took us across and then down the lake. Our instructions were to get off at the third stop but when we tried to, a crew member tried his best to stop us. He spoke no English and just kept saying what sounded like Simeone as a question. I thought he was a good player in his time but is long since retired but why does this guy think I should be a fan? After a while the tour guide appeared and said don’t get off, the arrangements have changed. When we did get off at the next place it turned out to be called Sirmeone so, mystery solved.
We had lunch there at a pizzeria and I had one with roast potatoes, sausages and bacon  as a topping; brilliant! On the coach journey our tour guide ( a Belgian who speaks English with a kind of a Yorkshire accent mixed in as he lives near Hull, translating and guiding us round Italy!) was telling us all about local food and drink. He described a drink which was supposed to be a local version of Aperol spritzer. It contains sambucho (not to be confused with sambuca!) Prosecco, mint and lime. He said it’s very addictive so I tried one (you’ve seen the photo) and it’s fabulous. I shall be having more if I can remember what it’s called!
An amazing shop in that place was a doggy ice cream parlour! That’s not dog flavoured ice cream, but ice cream, and other sweets for dogs. Not sure what a vet would think of that idea!
It was then back on the coach to drive down the other side of the lake back to base. For tea I had a baked trout which had been swimming alongside our boat earlier, it was so fresh. I know it was the same one as it was swimming along, wrapped in foil with a slice of lemon poking out. Mum had ordered a banana split for pudding but there was no banana in it! I said it must have split (look dad jokes are good for you; I was reading about it in the free paper on the plane).