The Italian Lakes

From Austria we went to Italy, on our way first to Lake Garda, near Verona, and then to Bellagio, Lake Como.

Driving through the beautiful Alps, we stopped at Trent (Trento), where the council of Trent was held, 25 separate session by which the 16th century Catholic Church responded to the Protestant Reformation, made statements, and issued clarifications of the Church’s doctrine and teachings, most still confirmed to this day.

The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the places the Council of Trent met.

From there on to the Italian Lakes. Now, my family has a special affinity for Italian Lakes, because we grew up in Harrisburg, PA, and the small lake behind our house was called, yes “Italian Lake.”

This book was in our Airbnb - and Harrisburg isn’t even listed!

So first we went to Lake Garda, a scenic, large lake in Northern Italy, where we stayed in the lakeside town of Sirmione. We toured the ruins of an enormous, beautiful Roman villa. Boy, if you had money in Rome, what you could build puts modern mansions to shame.

Then to Bellagio, in beautiful Lake Como (the view from our balcony at the top of the post). An idyllic place. Bellagio is built into the side of a number of steep hills, so boy, we are getting our cardio every day. Our friends Ana and Eric Robbins form Atlanta are staying with us for a few days, so today we rode hard many miles almost straight up. Thank goodness for ebikes!

This has all been vacation, and soon we will go on to Switzerland, where the work begins - appointments in Basel and Zurich to meet with people working in peacebulding and conflict studies. In the meantime, just trying to relax and detox the soul.

(Picture credits - all taken by me except the one of the four of us, taken by Ana.)