272. Stretched

Lake Maggiore - Italy

Rain promised through the day though little arrived. A day at camp with little to report and little achieved. Fyfe (zitwitcool being his login name) got a Duolingo award emailed for having done his online Spanish five days in a row. The best part being that it inspired Iris to do more German and French in order to stay ahead in the number of lessons completed.

Had wondered about rowing across
the lake till I looked at the map.

I did odds and ends including replacing some cupboard latches then went for quite a row up to Nautica Lavazza, the local yacht club, mainly as a destination to row to. Iris rowed there, not really getting the hang of lining up two points behind the dinghy to maintain a course which didn't worry me as we took a tacking course with the result that she had further to row. I rowed the return leg. No photos unfortunately as my phone is required as the data source for those doing home work or surfing.

Brenton recommended that I read A Farewell to Arms as it is set in this region, further to the east from Lake Garda being the Italian front, facing the Austrians during The Great War. I knew remarkably little about this theatre of the war with five million casualties including over half a million civilians. Difficult to believe enjoying these balmy borderless days by the lake.  Reading progress is slow going for two reasons. The first being that, thanks to the www, I am constantly distracted looking up the places and events mentioned by Hemingway and secondly, while reading, I fell asleep in the hammock only woken by the pain in my knees from being stretched the wrong way, lying in the hammock. Such are the perils faced when doing time in Italy, one hundred years later.