Sirmione and lots of friends.

Sirmione was one of the few places I had wanted to go to before we even arrived. The photos our friends had put up last year looked amazing. We had worked out we could take the fast boat to Sirmione and then get the slow boat back, giving us 4 hours to explore the town.  With the sun promising a hot day, after breakfast we made our way down to the lake to wait our tranport. As we sat enjoying the good weather, Dawn and Jason, the couple we has spent the day with in Garda strolled up. They were intending to return to Garda but when we mentioned our plans and that the internet had informed us it was market day in Sirmione they soon decided to tag along with us. 

Minutes later our 'join us for a coffee' friends (who turned out to be called Jill and Allen) also arrived. Their idea of a good day out was to catch the ferry to one town then hike the 55mins to the next town and catch the ferry back. That was until they realised the ferry timetable didn't quite allow for that, and did we mind if they joined our little expedition.  This was followed by a further two couples who also wanted to join us. I was going to need a large umbrella at this rate. 

As it turned out, once we reached Sirmione everyone was soon swallowed up by the hoards of people already there, leaving us to wander around with Dawn and Jason. 

Sirmione is a very busy bustling place jammed full of tourists and Italians alike. The roads are narrow, and packed. At first we believed them to be pedestrianised so were shocked to find cars coming towards us, barely able to squeeze between the buildings, leaving shoppers and sightseers to rapidly grab their tiny children and or dogs and sardine-like squash into doorways to avoid being run down or hit by wing mirrors.

Soon we came to the volcanic baths. Seeing no way to make further progress we turned and meandered down more people filled busy roads. We were disappointed that the castle was shut

 and we couldn't find a way through to the promised roman ruins. We queued to amble over a bridge that everyone else seemed to be crossing only to find ourselves  in a large car park. We enjoyed the gold plated roller though.

We retraced our steps, found a bar and people watched while chatting nine to the dozen to Dawn and Jason. We seem to get on really well with them. 

It appeared, on returning to the ferry that none of our party had managed to find the way to the ruins. A shame as from the boat they looked really interesting.

Jason and Dawn had told us they had opted to eat in the small pizzarier near the ferry terminal by our hotel as the food was better and the drinks cheaper. We gave the hotel one more shot at feeding us, but the starter of 'meat' (undefined and unrecognisable) with apple salad (what??) even had Martin stumped, so after stumbling through the menu we strolled down the hill to spend a pleasant evening drinking wine and laughing and giggling with our new found friends.