We said goodbye to beautiful Slovenia with one last hike to the top of Mt. Matajur which sits on the border of Italy and Slovenia. From the top you can see into both countries and all the way to the Adriatic Sea which is over 40 miles away. With our long drive ahead, we took the shorter hiking approach to the top and made our ascent from the Italian side (after a bit of off roading on the Slovenian side before we realized we were in the wrong spot).

In order to split up our drive to the Mediterranean coast of Italy and Cinque Terre we decided to make an overnight stop half way, at the town of Sirmione on Lake Garda. Despite our two years living in Germany, this was our first visit to the ‘Gardasee’ or ‘Munich South’ as it is sometimes jokingly known as it is a favorite weekend destination of Germans (and we certainly noticed lots of them as well as all the German beers on the menus – weissbier and helles were in abundance). After arriving in the evening we relaxed, had our first Italian pizza and watched the Eagles game.

The next morning we borrowed bikes from our hotel and set off to explore the town. Sirmione is at the southernmost point of the lake and is an interesting town which has a peninsula that extends 2.5 miles into the lake. At the end of the peninsula is the historic old town with archeological site and the former fortress. We took in the views of the Dolomites across the lake, stopped for a nice meal on the water front, and walked along the shores before getting back on the road toward Cinque Terre. Next stop Vernazza – Cinque Terre for 3 nights before venturing on to Tuscany…