Over the Mountains and Across the Lakes

Switzerland is an amazing place, ladies and gentlemen. It's too bad about the super high prices and the impossibility of getting a visa and the [mumble mumble mumble], otherwise I kind of think I could spend my life there. 

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We left Füssen and bade Neuschwanstein and its sister castle, Hohenschwangau, a fond goodbye. 

Then it was back over the mountains of Austria and Switzerland and Italy to Milan, where we would be flying to England. 

Unbeknownst to us, our route ended up taking us through the roof of the Alps. 

The road kept going higher and higher from the relatively flat farmland of the Bavarian towns until we found ourselves here:

At the highest elevations, the snow was piled higher than our car on the sides of the road - but the roads themselves were clear and well maintained. The views were breathtaking.

Eventually we made it through the highest passes and ended up in the gorgeous (I've been using that word a lot, I know) town of Breno, Italy. 

The town - of course - has its own castle. It was also the site of our last AirBNB lodging - the top floor of someone's mountain villa. 

I don't have many pictures of this area, so I'll just skip ahead to the next day.

Except... I do have these two pictures that we took while trying to figure out how to get to our lodging. I feel like sharing them here, just because.

And, also, this happened to be my birthday - so here's a picture of my birthday dinner. It may not look fancy, but it tasted great - and the fact that I was eating it in Breno, Italy made it even better. 

Sulzano, Lake Iseo, and Monte Isola

We took off the next morning for our last touristic destination of this part of the trip - Lake Iseo.

The lake is nestled in the mountains and surrounded by old towns and settlements. In the middle of the lake is the prominent island and town of Monte Isola - which we proceeded to visit by ferry.

We walked along the shore of the island and took in the sights.

It's a charming settlement that seemed to have more mopeds and scooters than cars. (Which sort of makes sense, since it's a relatively small island.) 

There wasn't much in the way of wildlife, but there were some donkeys and ducks. 

My favorite part was the "Cat Colony" - which appeared to house several dozen cats.

"Warning: Possible Cat Crossing"

There are several cats in this picture. 

There were several other smaller islands in the lake - I was quite taken with this one. It seems like it'd be a nice place to spend a holiday weekend relaxing, reading, and eating pasta:

After getting our fill of the island, we took a ferry back to the mainland and headed on towards the Milan Airport. 

And there we have it. Another section of my trip is completed, and another is set to begin. For my next blog post, I'll take you to one of the most famous ancient sites in the world.