Well, to tell you the truth we mainly drank and ate during our trip in Italy. I also worshiped all the wonderful exteriors this country (and now my camera’s memory cards) is FILLED with.

We had some plans before leaving. Visit to a home chef, wine tasting by e-bike and a local guide in Verona. We cancelled the wine tasting as the forecast predicted 29 mm of rain that day and the local guide cancelled on us because… we don’t know.

In Bergamo we really had no plans but to walk around Citta Alta and buy a Atalanta football jersey. So we stoped at different sites, museums, bars and restaurants and just took the offers as they were.

My dear husband had done some research and found Cesarine. A home restaurant were you can either be served food or learn how to cook food, in a person’s home. We had “only” chosen to be served food, but our host Bianca showed us how to make pasta.

This is a wonderful way to get to know, not only the food, but the country and culture. Bianca, our cesarine, joined us by the table and we talked all night long about food and our home countries. She also made sure we got a cab that didn’t over charged us as we were quite in the outskirts of Bergamo. I truly recommend you to do one of these visits.

After eating our way through Bergamo, we once again (as when we went to our cesarine) utilised the public transportation system and took ourselves by bus, train and rental car to the agriturismo we booked by Lake Garda. Already before arriving we realized (due to the rental car) that it was further away from Lake Garda than I think we both were thinking from the beginning. The agriturismo had a pool and with the heat (not the rain) we met it was worth more than any km closer to the lake.

Their restaurant was not open our first night, but my clever husband searched for one nearby, after all we had a car. I was very skeptical going there. This area (Rivoli Veronese) is (probably) well known for their quarries for the amount of marble, granit, onyx and quartz manufactures located here was ridiculous. I never reflected were these giant slabs comes from. But naturally they come from even more gigantic rocks. To see these magnificent boulders lined up one after another was absolutely breathtaking. Anyhow, we drove to an industrial area (as Google maps told us to) and there it was – a true Italian diner, with truck drivers from all over Europe. With the help of some English, some German, Italian and hand language we got what we ordered.

The next night we ate at the agriturismo together with (what we believed was) the local schools’s summer party, with karaoke and all. We even asked for a song and the teachers delivered. Great food to the price of nothing. This is the place where I realized I love tiramisu and where I once were reminded that life in Sega and Båstad doesn’t differ that much.

While here, we went on a day trip around Lake Garda. The love of my life handle the Italian traffic beautifully and I read the map flawlessly. We stoped for walk and ice-cream in Torre del Benaco and later aimed for Malcesine where we took the ferry to Limone sul Garda. Our host at the Agriturismo adviced us to stay away from the south side of the lake, Peschiera del Garda and Sirmione, as they were so touristy. Malcesine and Limone was that as well, but we passed through Perschiera the day after and realized that it was crazy.

We drove our rental back to Densenzano and from there we took the train to a hot, hot hot Verona. Here we had rented a smashing apartment from AirBnB, right in the center of the part of town where one wants to be. Once again we walked, ate and drank. The first night we had a tasting menu and the combination of wine and tiramisu floored me (no, not literally). But we also got around to some shopping and played cards, which was fun until it became clear that the Mr himself was cheating. We ended back in Bergamo for a last night before we headed home again.

It was truly a wonderful trip. We had a lot of fun and it makes me so happy, that we after 30 years still laugh every day (wether it is in Italy or Sweden). I hope we will be looking like this in 30 years from now ❤️.