Lake Garda & " The Pot Plant Incident "

So we say goodby to  Massimo Spigaroli and Antica Courte.
Yet another great cooking and food experience. You can learn so much more than just the recipes when you ask question on....  Hmmmmm so how did you do this! or that! It all the little chefy tricks that we are picking up.

So we are heading some 150 km north today to Lake Garda the Lake District of Italy. 

We are in need some diesel so I stop on a small road just 20 minutes into our trip heading further north on our way to Lake Garda. 

We pull into a service station where you actually get service. The middle aged Italian lady is sitting on her chair waiting for the customers, greets me with a smile I I gesture to fill it up. Please sir go in side and have a drink at the bar and she will get it organised, well that is the interpretation.

Sure enough it was a bar, coffee and wine out in the middle of nowhere and the bar was full of people drinking wine at 10am. Hopefully not all driving on the same " highways " that we will be traveling today. It even had free bar snacks so we had a little express coffee and  some free bar snacks and were off once more.

 Diesel here is about 1.60€ have we have seen it between 1.50 to 1.70€ on our travels.

After a couple of hours driving through the Po River flood plains with Rice fields all round and amazing water diversion via stone channels to flood the rice fields, then as we got closer to the bottom of Lake Garda through the fruit belt. We arrive at Lake Garda the largest lake and the water play grounds of Italy. Our little village of Torri del Benaco is where we have booked in for the next week for some R & R as well as some cooking lesion with a chef on the hills above Torri.

We are staying in a Residence which is like a hotel as in it is manned 24 hours but are all individual villa. Again it is on top of a hill but this time the roads are getting a bit more narrow and people coming down the hill need to honk a horn to let the up traffic now to wait. We get up the hill and onto level ground and at the entrance to the underground parking is a pantec truck, goodness only knows how he got up the hill let alone how he will get back down.

The waiting bay was small and I reverse to make way for him to turn around and well it had to happen, I bump into a large heavy concrete pot plant positioned so you don't go over the hill......

Poop Poop Poop... well words similar, I have been driving now for some 2000 km up all sorts of narrow, winding roads on the wrong side and at 1 km an hour I bump into a "-----"  pot plant...... 

Well I must say I was a bit annoyed at myself I was hoping to return the New Car with out a mark. Well I suppose that's what travel insurance is for.

We are escorted to our villa and well that changed my mood to the better, up several stair wells and elevators inside the hill to the highest villa room with the best view.

Our young Italian lady informed us that this room was especially requested for us by the chef Andrea that we will be cooking with this week.

Nice one chef Andrea !! we are now really looking forward to meeting him.

It was as it they had flattened off this section of hill and put a villa on it just for us, we'll that how welcome she made us feel. 

The view from our 2 story windows was 180 deg of Lake Garda and the  mountains on the other side as the the back drop. A small lawn section with two sun lounges boarded by a low white washed stone wall  and out further a table and 4 chairs sitting on a tiled curved out balcony with a metal railing that was suspended out over the hill, a great place to sit and watch the old village with its many steeples below and we did.

So with a large G & T in hand to help steady my nerves after that " Pot Plant incident " we both sit and admire the amazing view.... We have a few hours before we make our way further up the hill for dinner at the chef Andrea and Lara's place.