After adding up my kms a few days ago my calculations said about 2000km. My body said 'a break please?' and i said 'sounds good to me'. So with warning signs of a painful hip and knee, a general weariness all the time and 42°C heat at lunch times I have come to the lakes for a well earned rest. I had a little taster of lakeside life when took the train upto Lake Como to meet up with Idl again. Along with a few hundred swing dancers in town for the weekend! It was great to catch up, laze at the lido and watch the England v Italy game with a crowd of england fans. It was less fun losing on penalties and watching the massed ranks of Italian fans doing the ritual drive through town with horns blaring and flags waving, but that is what I have lived with all my life being an England fan!

Back off the air conditioned train, with a penalty shoot out hangover and back onto the farmland plains and sweltering heat to head to the hills. Happily the end of the day was again rewarded by lovely hosts' home cooking and in Inzago, a night cycle along the river to the castle and an outdoor cinema. In Bergamo I was able to climb up to the old city and look back across the huge, heat hazed flat lands I had been walking away from for the last week. I also met a couple of German fans who were experiencing the same feeling of being the losers in a winning nation after Italy's semi-final victory. Cycling through the empty evening streets was a weird experience - all you could hear were the occassional anguished yelps from infront of tv sets as the whole country watched the game!

Finally just outside of a town called Sarnico I put my bag down next to Lago d'Iseo and rejoiced in a swim. Clear, cool lake water and blue skies - no trucks, sweat tears or harrassing insects - I was in heaven. I spent the next few days at my host Lucia's appartement with a balcony looking onto the lake. I slept a lot in the breezey heat, swam a lot when it was too hot and cycled around the lake shore with my favourite music on, visiting the beautiful villages and grassy beaches. I really felt pretty smug with my lot! And to cap it all off i climbed upto the mountainside church, with a full moon and a beer to watch the twinkling of the villages lights around the lake below me. A local band were practising their Hendrix and Stones covers not far away and with the music drifting through the night my head was filled with memories of time spent at a special place in the Valencian hills in summers past.

I was also treated to another spectacular thunderstorm as a strange thing happened - water fell from the sky and the nightime temp dropped enough for me to have to sleep under a sheet! Outrageous! I didn't really want to leave but the pull of Istanbul (and the amount of people i have told i am walking their!) took over and i am on my way again. Not before a few town festival visits though - last night I followed my host to the "Crazy Cow Festival" - a brilliant name for a festival if you ask me! And it won't be too long before i am back by the lake - Lago di Garda this time, my next cooling station.