Lago di Cavedine & Le Marocche

In search of a bit better weather we started to head south to the Serca valley, known as the Valle dei Laghi (The Valley of the Lakes) above Lake Garda. Staying at a fabulous small campsite run by a young Italian couple, who also had a huge olive farm and produced their own olive oil. Lago di Cavedine - a stunning small lake, only @500m from the site, was perfect for Ruby to cool off in.

Lago di Cavedine

A chance to cool off

Tranquility 

We’d only just arrived, started to settle, when disaster struck - Dave realised he had mislaid his phone!! As much as we do try to not let phones and technology rule our lives, there is an acceptance that so much of our lives - what we do / need etc, is sadly on our phones - so that horrible sinking feeling arrived - what are the possible implications of this? - what will this mean? I tried calling it, but having turned the van upside down, we we’re gradually accepting that the phone was no longer with us 😢 Thinking back over the day, and the journey down from Predazzo, we decided that he must have left it at one of two stops we made en route. So the plan was to get up early in the morning and drive the 2 hour journey back to both those stops - keeping our fingers crossed that we may find it 🤞 We were both very somber 😟 (and we’re reminiscent of a recent trip to France when I accidentally locked my phone and had to have the whole thing wiped clean and re programmed 😥) An hour or so later we could hardly believe our luck - I suddenly received an email, in Italian, from someone saying they had found an iPhone, and to call them! To cut the rest of the long story short, it seems that someone had indeed found it, and handed it in at the Lago Fi Terlago coffee bar where we stopping for lunch - thankfully only 30 minutes away from where were we’re staying. My calling his phone had flashed up my details on the front screen and this is how I was contacted. With some help from our Italian hosts we managed to make contact with the woman and arranged to go and collect it the following day. How amazing was that! 😻 - the kindness and integrity of some stranger - wonderful. Even our Italian hosts offered to drive over to the lake to collect it for us - but we didn’t think we could accept their offer 😊 The following day we were duly reunited with the iPhone - a very happy ending 😃

As an aside, we’ve been really struck by noticing what appears to be a great sense of community and connection between older people in Italy, particularly in public spaces - an example was at Lago Terlago where groups of older people were gathered, drinking coffee, playing boules, just chatting - and as usual, inquisitive about us! One older woman was amazed that we had driven all the way from the UK - she was really friendly and chatty (In Italian 😂) but it appeared she greatly admired our late Queen 😊

Having retrieved the phone we set off to find another couple of small lakes, recommended by our Italian hosts, off the beaten track, which were good for swimming, Lago di Lamar and Lago Santo. There seems to be some law in Italy about dogs not being allowed to swim in many lakes - but fortunately one of those recommended didn’t seem to have any restrictions 👍

Lago Santo - dog friendly 🤣

Ruby’s perfect day 

Restraining Rubes from diving in to “rescue” Dave

Apparently it turns out that walking around the lakes we were in bear country - an interesting poster helpfully advised us on on how to behave should we come face to face with a bear 🤣

Bear safety etiquette 🤣

The whole valley is dotted with beautiful lakes, with Lago di Toblino being another gem - the stunning 12th century Toblino Castle stands on a small island in the centre - we stopped for photos.

Toblino Castle 

This Serca Valley is also famous for Le Marocche, a huge limestone lunar like landscape of boulders - particularly popular with climbers - and apparently dotted with ancient fossils and dinosaurs footprints 😊 Only 5 minutes away from the campsite, we headed off to explore.

Hunting for dinosaur footprints 🤣

Heading back to Lago di Cavedine

The following day we set off on our bikes to explore the surrounding area - definitely lush vine country,  and looking forward to trying the local wine 🍷 Yet again, this really is biking country - miles and miles of cycle routes, and apparently a very well known cycle trail through the valley to Lake Garda  - so many cyclists and biking cafes around 😃

Hillsides covered in vines

Ripe for picking

Ended up at Castillo di Drena, built around the 12th century, dominating the Marocche. Built to defend the whole valley it is clearly visible all around. The really kind guide in the museum part of the castle was insistent on changing the audio visual film to English for us - it did go on for a while though, but as she had been so kind we thought we’d better sit it out 😂

Castello do Drena

Sword man

Coming down from the Tower

The valley below 

The castello cafe - so very Italian 😂

Dave explored further on his bike, heading up higher into the huge limestone mountains, finding a small bike park - I settled for a walk around Lago di Cavedine.

Huge limestone mountains of Le Marocche

Lago di Cavedine

Our camp was lovely - beautiful views from the van of surrounding vines and mountains. There was a little bar which opened for aperitifs in the evening - seemed rude not to participate 🤣 After a few days the storm clouds were catching up with us, again, so we decided to pack up and continue with our journey south. 

Nibbles with aperitifs 
Olive oil & paste from their farm

The storm was approaching 😟

The storm arrived overnight - Packing up in the rain

Onwards south to Emilia Romagna - arrivederci 😃