Borghetto wasn’t on the itinerary…but oh, how it did appear. Lorenzo communicated the information provided by his father-in-law that “Borghetto is a nice place to stop” and so we did stop, on our way to our final destination of…of…I can’t remember where we were supposed to be staying, but in Borghetto we did stop, and stayed.

But first to our departure from dear Bologna; we bid our farewells to Lorenzo (and BonBon and PimPa), loaded up the Somas, and made our way down the hill to the station. We were advised (by Lorenzo’s father-in-law via Lorenzo) that the Modena-Mantova-Peschiera del Garda ride was pretty sweet, but it was a long haul. It made more sense to train to Mantova and ride from there. And so we did. Well, sort of…we missed about 14 (Ed: methinks AW may have inherited some kind of genetic tendency to exaggerate) trains along the way, so didn’t hit Mantova until well after 3:00PM. And this is where Borghetto comes into frame.

Yes, it was a nice place. Pretty and castles and cobblestones and stuff. Real nice. Thought we might stay here the night, find a nice Bed and Breakfast, nothing too fancy, like. But then we found La Finestra Sul Fiume, and with glass of Prosecco in hand before we could even check the price of a room, we’d committed ourselves to by-far-and-a-way the most expensive night’s accommodation of the journey. Oh well, uh, hm. Dear reader: we coped.