Bella Italia: Lake Garda

Lake Iseo

After getting our bag from the outskirts of Milano, we started our journey towards lake Garda. We like to take the smaller more scenic routes when we travel like this. It's a lot more fun to look around, enjoy the sites, maybe find a viewpoint here or there than drive the motorways.

Lake Iseo

My husband and I are a good team when it comes to this. He plans routes and becomes my GPS man and I drive. He planned this one so we passed by another lake on the way: Lake Iseo. Surrounded by a little slightly abandoned looking town but charming none the less, probably because it's so close to Milano that it's only a summer destination and this was already September, but it's really beautiful! The water, the mountains on the other shore, the little marina and all the little cafes by the water. We stopped for photos, took a look around and had lunch in one of those cafes before continuing our journey to Garda. We basically spent the day on the road and reached the hotel by sunset, were welcomed by the cutest member of the family: Perla the cat 😄 (of whom unfortunately I have no photos...), checked in and went for dinner by the lake, the temperature was good, the food was good, generally a good end to the day. Day 4 dinner: Not pizza!

Somewhere on the way to Garda

Out little family owned bed and breakfast was really cute! Though our room was slightly too small (we didn't have a place to put our bag without having to step over it on the way out or to the bathroom, but it was nice, the man owning this place is also a chef, so breakfasts exceeded expectations, and they had such a view over Garda 😍. We've booked two nights, but decided we want to stay here until the end of the vacation. They didn't have the room for 2 extra nights, but we still extended by one. Not bad.

Toscolano Maderno (or somewhere very close)

The plan for day 5 was to drive around the lake and go up Mount Baldo. As usual, we took the smaller roads by the sea: Drove through Salo, Toscolano Maderno, Limone del Garda (yes, it means what you think it means 😃), Riva del Garda, Torbole and Malcesine where the cable car is. The drive was beautiful! All these little towns by the water, the road by the water, the mountains around...I simply fell in love with Garda.

Lake Garda

The queue for the cable car was loooooooooooooooong, very long! We stood there forever! But finally made it up. The day started fogging already on our way here, so by the time we came up, we could see nothing. We had lunch here, bought some water and a small snack and decided to walk back down. Let me tell you it's not for the fainthearted! Baldo is steep, the walk is long, and the amount of flat bits is very limited. It's around 10Km that take about 3 hours. And when you've passed 2 and your legs and feet are screaming, the forest tracks turn to asphalt 😒. It was such a relief when we finally came down and had to walk up a slight uphill to the car, it was delightful to go up 😁!

Lake Garda

But the views from the mountain are gorgeous! About half way down the fog also cleared and you could see the town of Malcesine, the shimmery surface of the lake and the castle by the lake in the town of Malcesine. Would I do this again? Doubt it. Was it worth it that one time? Yeah.

Mount Baldo

This would've been a great point in time to dip into the lake, but unfortunately we haven't thought of that earlier, so didn't have clothes or towels to do that. Oh! It would've done miracles for my knackered feet...But anyway, we were also quite hungry by now so we drove back to Riva del Garda to have dinner. Just one of many very pretty and cozy little towns surrounding the lake, we walked a bit around its narrow streets then found a restaurant and sat down to eat. Day 5 dinner: Pizza!

Mount Baldo

Walking was a challenge the next day but we didn't have big plans of climbing up or down anywhere. Today's plan was to walk around Sirmione and go for that swim in the lake. Weather forecast said a storm was coming but the morning still looked sunny and nice. Sirmione is a narrow bit of land jutting into the lake at the south end of it, and it was more popular than expected. The amount of people here! We had to park quite far from the little bridge to Sirmione but it was a nice walk in good weather so we had nothing against that.

Malcesine

The concept here is the same, old houses, narrow streets and a little fort right after you cross the bridge (there is a piece of land but it connects to this fort only). It felt more colorful though. And once you pass through the hustle and bustle of the town, there's gardens, a church and a beautiful though rocky beach.

Riva del Garda

We found a hotel with a cafe over the water and stopped for a coffee (and strawberries with creme for me 😊), watched the hydrofoil boats coming and going (this is super exciting for an engineer by the way), enjoyed the warm weather and just had a great time. Then walked around some more, took some photos of a knitting project of mine that you'll see soon but decided we won't be swimming here.

Sirmione

That we decided to do on Spiaggia Toscolano in Toscolano Maderno, we had lunch there then a dip in the water. Don't let the warmth of the weather deceive you, the water is cold! Not something that gets in my way though, I swim in colder fjords here but still.

Sirmione

This was also the first time I swam in fresh water, I've been warned against it since I was a child, but a bit of googling and assertion from my husband put me enough at ease to try. It's safe to do it in most of Europe apparently. And it was a nice swim (with ducks 😃), and just as we dried a bit on the beach, the predicted storm started forming, but we made it to the car before the rain started and got back to the hotel. Dinner tonight was in a fancy restaurant called Capriccio and the food was awesome! So Day 6 dinner: Far from pizza!

Church in Sirmione

Hotel: Hotel Florence B&B in Manerba del Garda.
Impression: Very cozy, loved the breakfast, loved the view, loved Perla the cat.