It was bittersweet to leave Roma. On the one hand there is so much more to explore and learn, but on the other hand we were headed to beautiful Sirmione and Russell and Julia's castle wedding.
We all caught an early train to Sirmione which took about 3hrs with taxi to the hotel. Once in sight of the lake we realized it was much bigger than anyone had anticipated. Our hotel was on a peninsula that juts out from the south end of this inside down "Y" shaped lake.
We were greeted by Sergio, the hotel owner and manager. I don't think we have had any hotel experience more inviting and personal. Sergio treated us all like guests to his house and was always ready to make you a coffee.
We also met up with Russell, Julia, and the rest of the wedding party. It was great to see everyone and get to meet the other guests. Everyone was kind and a lot of fun during our stay. Now we were surrounded by Ukrainian, Russian, and Italian language. Not to mention the area is a hot spot for German tourists. We were probably the only unilingual people there..
Day 1 in Sirmione we grabbed some amazing pizza, hit up the old castle at the end of our peninsula which was full of shops and restaurants, and went for a swim. The swim was particularly interesting as the "beaches" are all rock. Right on shore they are little polished pebbles but into the water you find huge slabs of natural stone that create the lake bed. The stones were mostly covered with moss and extremely slippery. It was a hilarious ordeal to slide your way into the deeper parts of the shore line. The day ended with a nice dinner at the castle with most of the wedding party group. Lots of fun and lots of great food and wine.
Day 2 was the big day for Russell and Julia. We set sail from our peninsula around 8:30am for the ceremony which was at yet another castle on the northern part of the lake. It was about a 2hr cruise up the lake which provided amazing views of the mountains and small villages along the way. The ceremony was on the balcony of an old castle which also had incredible views. The ceremony was beautiful and it was great to be a witness to these two lovebirds getting hitched. We had a post ceremony lunch and back on the boat for the return trip. Dinner and drinks were at a modern restaurant just up the road Fromm the hotel. The night was fun of great food, drink, and dancing. We were very lucky to have been a part of the whole day. Congratulations Russell and Julia!!
Day 3 no one wanted to leave. We blew off our train in favor of sleeping in and more amazing pizza from the place next door. Colin and Adam had one last dip in the lake. We sadly packed our bags and said our goodbyes to everyone and headed for Milan and home.
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