As forecast the weather broke during the night and continued with on off rain and cloud for the duration of our rather long drive (circuitous rather than miles), avoiding the toll roads (mainly because of the difficulty of getting and paying for the tolls in a right hand drive than cost) and heading inland to our next location – Lake Garda.

The first half of the drive was slowly wending our way up over and through the Tuscan-Emilian Pennines – many times breaking above the lower clouds – spectacular in itself….

The second half was very flat from around Parma with it mostly being arable farmland and more latterly vineyards as we eventually arrived at our site for the next few nights on the outskirts of Sirmione right on the shore of Lake Garda.

Once settled we took a break in the weather to wander towards Desenzano, disappointed to find that access to the lake was mostly taken by extravagant residences or luxury hotels (Lake Windermere all over again) and we had to make do with the odd opportunity to see the Lake….

Cloud cover prevented us from enjoying the full experience but the stunning palette of blues and wildlife helped!

As it looked like we might be pushing our luck weatherwise, we headed back to the site and enjoyed a few moments on the site foreshore, before returning to the van and settling in for the evening….

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 140
• Miles walked – 5
• Groceries – £28.64
• O/N – £24.09 (ACSI)