Day Trip to Bardolino

Tuesday, July 26, 2016--To Bardolino and Back

Wes wanted to make another side trip.  I think he thought we had seen and done everything in Desenzano.  Anyway, he researched possible stops on the lake and decided we should go to Bardolino today.

We took a large ferry.  Fortunately, it had air conditioning, because it was a HOT day.  We arrived in Bardolino at 12:45 and had a little less than four hours there before our return on the same ferry.

Bartolino is a quieter town than either Desenzano or Sirmione and has less to see.  There are plenty of hotels, sidewalk cafes, ice cream stores, and shops.  Otherwise, it is limited.  We walked down the promenade and sat for a while watching people.  We went to a beach and watched more people.  We went further and watched two fishermen on floating seats catching nothing.  Then we headed back through town on the shopping streets.

We went into the cathedral.  We took photos of some of the old buildings.  We walked beyond town to a grassy area with sunbathers and swimmers in the water.  Soon, the wind picked up and clouds started approaching.  We headed back to town and stood in a long, arched walkway during the rainfall which didn't last long.

By that time, we had only 30 minutes before the boat would depart again.  We walked back away from the waterfront to see two old churches--one that is still a church and another operated by Opera Bardolino as a concert/performance space.

It was quite confusing when it was time to leave.  TWO boats arrived, and many people were getting on the wrong one and then having to come back off.  We knew ours should be the same one that had brought us over, so we were okay.  But it was interesting to see all the confusion and to think about how it could have been handled better.

We returned to our local pizza place in the evening.  It has such good pizza that we have eaten there there every night.  We'll miss it since we leave for Trieste tomorrow.

A Surprise Travel Problem:  We got an e-mail in the evening from a group of lawyers in London saying that a website that we used for one of our hotel reservations has been closed and that none of the reservations have been paid.  It was a website that kayak.com guided us to, I believe.  We made the reservation on May 29 for July 30-Aug. 2 with departure on Aug. 3.  We did not find a way to contact the actual hotel except for toll-free numbers requiring a confirmation number from the hotel itself.  I did find an online form to contact the hotel group that owns the hotel.  I wrote to ask them to confirm our reservation (as a way to test whether they had any information about it at all).  I also called my credit card company to report it as fraud.  They said they would reverse the charge, but they didn't say if it would be permanent.  I am supposed to get two letters in the mail--one in about a week stating what has been happening and one later possibly asking for more information from me.  We figure we need to find another place to stay starting Saturday, but we are hoping to hear from the original hotel before making another reservation so that we won't get caught with two reservations if the e-mail was incorrect (which I doubt).  Anyway, it meant that we were hyped up by the time we went to bed while knowing we had to set the alarm for 6:15 tomorrow morning.  Go to hoteling.com to read the lawyers' statement that I received by mail.