a visit to lake garda.. and first day of class

Yesterday we went to one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Lake Garda is a large alpine lake about an hour outside of Verona, and it is absolutely gorgeous. We went for a boat ride across the lake, had a leisurely lunch in the town of Lemonello (where lemons are growing all over the place!)

Martin (our fearless group leader) told us an interesting tale about the lake. There's a small island in the middle of the lake that used to be an arsenal for the Italians during WWI. After the war, the soldiers had no use for the weapons but didn't now how to dispose of them, so they simply dumped them in the lake. Years went by, and eel harvesters/divers realized that the local eel population became very concentrated around the submerged weapons, so naturally they began to dive there, where they could catch more eels. Well, this wasn't such a good idea.. Several divers were killed when the weapons that were thought to be inactive exploded. A cleanup effort was begun decades later after the island became off limits, but even then people were killed trying to remove the weapons from the lake bottom. Today the island is a prohibited area, but local teenagers still make the trek over there occasionally..

vineyard on the way to Lake Garda

the three L's in Castellano (I think that's how you spell it!)

the AWESOME medieval castle we looked around. pirates lived here!

Lizzie and I got married, haha! There was a wedding set up on a balcony inside the above castle

Lake Garda view from the top of the castle

As you can see, we also went inside a medieval castle that was well worth the 6 euros we paid to go inside. 

Now for today..

My morning class was a little rough. 8 a.m. is no fun. My first class is Post-Industrial Democracies with Dr. Ornston. Come to think of it, I should be doing the reading right now.. 

After we got out early (wahoo!) I took a shot of espresso from the hotel breakfast room then went to Strategic Intelligence with Dr. Johnson. VERY cool class! I paid attention for the entire 2.5 hours. 

This evening we had a special treat: Martin's son owns a wine shop here in town, and he (Martin's son) put on a wine tasting for all of us! The wine was delicioso, the prosciutto amazing, and the pasta magnifico. Whenever we eat with the group, we eat well. It's experimenting cooking in our kitchen here at the apartment that doesn't turn out the best grub. Hopefully our skills (and kitchen cleanup skills.. really entire apartment cleaning skills..) will improve soon.

That's all for now. Ciao!