Anne & Kirk Woodyard – Music and Markets Tours

The morning sun glitters on the colorful village across the water from our hotel in Sulzano, the Rivalago – wake up, Peschiera!

Below us, tables are prepared for an alfresco breakfast.

The ducks know it’s mealtime too, and squawk from one table to another, begging for crumbs.

Our car’s staying in the parking lot today, we’ll travel on the water as we do when in Venice. The  ferry glides us quickly across from Sulzano, Peschiera’s  colorful stack of homes looking prettier the closer we get. Antonella, the lovely young lady at the front desk who with her father imagined and brought to reality beautiful Rivalago five years ago, has told us about a simple homestyle trattoria, La Spiaggetta, on the lakeside path, so we stroll along the water, enjoying the views on this sunny day.  Have you ever seen such a pretty place to hang the laundry?

We find La Spiaggetta, ask for a reservation in an hour, and are offered our choice of tables – waterside, thank you!
Not far down the path is a hillside haven crawling with cats  – there must be hundreds, mostly white. And further still is another tiny village, just a few houses, no commerce at all.

We’ve noticed this tiny island, San Paolo, from the hotel, and from this side can see that there is more than just the trees and tower we can see from Sulzano. As early as 1091 the island was occupied by monks from Cluny, and a large monastery was built there in the 1400’s, thriving for centuries. I was saddened to read that in the 1900s the buildings were razed when a private owner bought the island and built a home there… who knows what tales those stones could have told?
Lunch is simple and delicious, with a view even better than the food.

Then we’re off to explore some more, checking out the church of St. Michael up cobbled and stepped lanes above Peschiera.

Enough walking, time to ferry back and relax by the lake again, where a swan glides by just to make things picture perfect…. then back on the water to Iseo town, a ferry ride south, where there’s  a Festival of Lakes this weekend, complete with knights and dancers,

and a plethora of samples from lakeside villages around Italy.
We peek in a shop or two, find a table at a popular trattoria for dinner, then sample a few sweets from the booths on the way back to the waterfront.
A sunset ferry ride takes us “home”‘  across the peachy shimmering lake. We’ve loved our lazy lakeside day!

The best way to describe us (Kirk and Anne Woodyard) is that we’re interested in the stories that make the places we visit come alive.
We’ve visited Europe more times than we can count, learned some entertaining stories there, and met some warm and helpful people who also enjoy the wonders of music and life in Europe.
Between our music-related travels, we split our time between our homes near Washington DC and the south of France. We look forward to sharing these stories and friends and experiences with our Music and Markets guests.
While both of us have experience in organizing travel and music groups Kirk’s background is in project management and competitive writing, and Anne is an accomplished pianist with over thirty years of teaching experience, and a travel and food writer specializing in France and Italy.