Italian Lakes: 16 Rock drawings and that boat

The last full day dawned with the promise of heat, heat and more heat. I completed my penultimate trip to the bakers and returned to a general desire to do nothing in the female members of the party, other than eat by the lake. Huw and I however were made of sterner stuff so we worked out a route by which the party could split. Female members could do what they liked, provided they made the boat to Salo that evening. Male members headed off for the Rock Drawings of Capo di Ponte and Lake Iseo, missed on day three. Admonitions to daughter that this was an anthropological day met with the response that she intended to specialize in material cultures, a good choice …

It was more than worth it, although in the mountains the rain was a problem and prevented out doing the complete circuit of the paintings. Interestingly (see picture) interests do not change much over the centuries! Another mountain town, with its distinct architecture contains a museum, and from there you set off around the mountain to see the rock art, all a UNESCO heritage site. I love petroglyphs for their age (eight thousand years in this case) but also for their prosaic intimacy.

Lake Iseo also looked interesting, we were running out of time so could do nothing more than look and photograph the spectacular the island which dominates it and regret not being able to visit. I debating the spectacular but narrow mountain road but was still not confident with the electronic hand brake so we took the easy route back to Salò and headed for the pier to greet the lazier members of the party.

On that route we came across one of the most beautiful artifacts we had seen, namely the boat pictured. Now normally, as a former dingy sailor, I regard motor boats as a perverts toy, but his was a delight. After we picked up Sheila and Eleanor we were luck enough to see the owners return and it take off for the other side of the lake.

As the last day we had reserved the Restaurant 100KM in the Hotel Bellerive (also a great place to stay for a short break). All food is procured within 100km of the location which means it varies. The owner knows his wine and is welcoming. If you go have the pike, not many people know how to cook pike, but this place does.