Just come back from 2 lovely weeks at Lake Garda in northern Italy. I don’t think I’ve ever used the words Wonderful, Beautiful and Marvelous so much, Everywhere was spotlessly clean, the people were friendly  everywhere you looked you had a magnificent view.Birdwise it was like being at home with plenty of our common species present in the area incuding Robins which I’d never seen before abroad. I did see one life tick Alpine Choughs, the best of the rest being a Firecrest. Long-tailed blue butterflies were all over. We did a lake tour and  visited Venice while we were there. We also went up the cable car at Malcesne, this was where I saw the Alpine Choughs. All I can say about Venice is plenty of water, plenty of boats, plenty of people, plenty of pigeoens, we had a ride on a gondola but alas no Cornettos!!!!

The view from our hotel room

The pool at our hotel

Firecrest by the pool

Riva Del Garda at night

Long-tailed Blue butterfly

and again

and again

No shortage of House sparrows

Coot & Terrapin at Riva

A lake Garda Black-headed Gull

Typical!!! first stop on the round the lake tour, by the time the ladies had powdered their noses it was time to go

The Castle at Sermione on the lake tour

View from the boat on the lake tour

Salo a view from the boat on the lake tour

Back to the coach on the lake tour

Cable car at Malcesne

it revolves

The 4 black dots on this photo are Alpine Choughs

Gondola ride in Venice "alas" no Cornettos!!

"Plenty of Pigeons" St Marks Square Venice

The Rialto bridge on the Grand Canal Venice