Closed for the holidays.

Yesterday I visited Torbole. It is a nice village some km far from Riva del Garda. I had a stroll in the old core and also to the beach (a peeble beach).

Goethe stayed at this house. I think it was a hotel when he was there.

Most of the shops in Torbole were closed (see the title of this post...for the holidays). 

This should be called "Casa del Dazio (Custom House) This nice huse has lots of flowers and a statue of a madonna on a corner.

a "not to miss" flowers shop.

Some days ago I went at Ognibeni's. It is a large flowers shops located in Levico Terme. Some weeks before Christmas you can also find lots of Christmas decorations there.

This item  isn't Christmas related, but I like it!!!

A cupboard full of nice things. These bears you see were very expensive.

A snowman...I could stay at Ognibeni's for hours!!!!

This should have been my first post...Valencia!

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain.

Here's one of the landmark of Valencia; the Miquelet, or Miguelete. It is the cathedral belltower.

I visited a couple of museums. One of these was the ceramic museum. Here's its main entrance.

The ceramic museum has lots of items on display. Things from ancient to modern times.

The highlight of the museum is a typical Valencia kitchen made entirely with tiles.

There is also a fully furnished apartment inside of the ceramic museum.

Another museum we visited was the fine arts museum.It is housed inside the building with a blue dome you see in this pic. The collection of pictures here it is really large.

Valencia has a very long park that surrounds the old center. It was built in the old bed of the river Turia. They decided to divert it south of the city long ago the last time it flooded. This park; its name is Jardines del Tùria is crossed by 19 bridges. Old and modern.

El mercado central. The main covered market in Valencia has around 1000 stalls. It is a food market.

There are lots of fruits and vegetables stalls inside the market.

Plaza Redonda (= round square). It is really round! In fact the buildings here are join together and each one is curved. So that the whole is round.

We stayed at a large four star in Alboraya. Hotel Olympia and Events spa. Alboraya is a village some km from Valencia.

A place not to miss in Alboraya is horchateria Daniel. We went there several times to eat their homemade pastries.

A birthday trip to the lake of Garda.

I am 50 years old now...poor me!!!!! Today it is my birthday. I chose to do a daytrip to the Lake of Garda area. We (me and my mother) spent the morning in Arco; a town some km from Riva del Garda. I only took a pic there, but I didn't upload here...sorry. The first pic I took today was this. I liked this bunch of Cristmas decorations...

This is part of the town hall in Riva del Garda.

Here's the small square near the main square in Riva del Garda.

These violet Chrismas decorations caught my eyes.

Piazza delle Erbe.

There is a fortress in Riva del Garda. is commonly called "la Rocca". It houses a collections of paintings and various archaeological remains inside.