Verona - Lago di Garda Travel Guides | Verona | Sub Regions | Verona - Lago di Garda

Wide and surrounded by plains at its southern end, progressively narrower and enclosed by mountains to the north, Lake Garda is an exceptionally beautiful place which mass tourism has done its best to blight. It’s just about big enough to be able to cope with the hordes of package holidaymakers, especially if you head away from the coastline itself and up into the hills and mountains around its northern end. It’s the lake itself most come for, however, and the beaches and lakeside towns and villages have plenty of facilities for watersports and boat trips across the water. If you really want to worship at the altar of 21st-century tourism, or you’re with kids who’ve had their fill of Renaissance Italy, Gardaland offers Italy’s most famous escape into a theme park world, complete with rides, queues and assorted rip-offs.

At the southern end of the lake two large towns, Peschiera and Desenzano, are served by the main Verona-Milan train line as well as frequent buses from Verona. They also offer the best onward travel options to the rest of the lake. There’s little to see in either, though Desenzano is the less objectionable. Nearby Sirmione is similarly over-touristed, though it does have a sight or two to justify its popularity. On a narrow peninsula jutting out into the southern part of the lake, it has sulphurous springs, a Scaligeri castle, and remains which may once have been a Roman spa, or, alternatively, Catullus's villa. Working up the eastern side of the lake, Garda, Malcesine and Torri del Benaco are more traditional towns in attractive settings and Torbole has a thriving windsurfing industry and some surf culture to go with it. Malcesine also has a cable car which takes passengers up to the high slopes of Monte Baldo. At the top of the lake, Riva del Garda is a relatively old-fashioned resort, and down the western side Limone and Gardone, though touristy, back onto more spectacular and relatively unfrequented hills.

Sights

Possibly the lake’s most attractive town, and only an hour by bus from Verona, ‘Torri’ has a cobbled, pedestrianized old centre, a Scaligeri castle, hills that slope down behind the town, good beaches for swimming, some decent restaurants and great views across to the mountains on the other side.

The walls around the town were enlarged and strengthened during the 14th-century Scaligeri rule of Antonio della Scala, who also built the castle on the ruins of an existing 10th-century castle which stood on the same spot (the west tower is a remnant of this earlier structure). At around the same time the Fisherman’s Guild of Torri and Garda (still in existence today) was also founded here and the town became the most important on the lake. The Castello Scaligeri (viale Fratelli Lavanda 2, Jun-Sep, Mon-Sun, 0930-1300, 1630-1930, Apr-May and Oct, 0930-1230, 1430-1800. E3, T/F 045 6296111) has displays about the Fisherman’s Guild as well as olive presses, parts of some of which date back to Roman times, and maps and models of Torri as it once was. The three towers give good views over Torri, and down into the turquoise waters of the lake.

Piazza Calderini surrounds the small, pretty harbour and has some touristy shops and cafés opposite the castle. These continue along the pedestrianized main street, corso D'Alighieri, leading to piazza Umberto I, an elongated space which leads down to the lake, with some good cafés and pizzerias. Via C Battisti leads to piazza della Chiesa, and the town’s church. Towards the northern end of the town a good, but narrow, shingle beach fills up quickly on summer weekends. To the south the Lido is a pay beach with a hip-hop and R’n’B based disco on Friday and Saturday evenings in summer from 2230 (viale Marconi 4, T 045 6290405).

Baia delle Sirene on the Punta San Vigilio , one of the Lake’s best swimming spots, is only about a five-minute bus journey south of Torri (E1.60 single).

Pay beach E9 a day.

On the Punta San Vigilio, between Garda and Torri del Benaco, an attractive small bay has both paying and free beaches and is an excellent place for swimming. The pay beach has grassy terraces with trees curving around a shingle beach. The free beach can be reached by walking north along the coast road for about 250 m to where a steep path (signposted “free entrance to mermaid bay” in English) leads down to a stonier, less tidy beach. There are olive trees to give shade though, and rocks from which it is safe to dive. A floating snack bar visits both beaches in season, selling ice-creams, drinks and sandwiches.

With some favourable winds for sailing and windsurfing, and a slickly modern cable car which whisks passengers up to the top of Monte Baldo , Malcesine attracts a slightly more active kind of tourist, but also an enormous number of package tourists who cram its narrow sloping streets and never get more than a few hundred metres from the top of the cable car. The town itself, jutting out into the lake on a point, and with a castle used by both the Scaligeri and Visconti families, is a pretty, medieval place when you manage to scratch below the flip-flop shops.

The Castello Scaligeri (information T/F 045 6570333, http://www.malcesinepiu.it Apr-Nov, Mon-Sun 0930-2000, last entrance 1930, Dec-Mar, Sat, Sun and holidays 0930-2000, last entrance 1930. E4) in a prominent position overlooking the lake, has, like that of Torri, a tower which predates the della Scala fortifications. The castle was under the control of the Veronese rulers betweem 1277 and 1387. Since that time it has also been owned by the Visconti family and by the Venetians. In 1786 Goethe was arrested on suspicion of being a spy after making sketches of the castle. There is a sprawling old-fashioned museum which focuses primarily on geology and natural history with dead bugs and an assortment of stuffed animals and birds. There is also a temporary exhibition space used for photographic exhibitions and the like.

The town is mostly cobbled and pedestrianized, with narrow sloping streets which lead down to the sea. Piazza Giglielmo Marconi is busy and touristy, piazza Donquirico Turazza is smaller, with trees and a couple of decent cafés. Piazza Magenta Gia Porto Vecchio is the most picturesque of all, and has modern sculptures which sit against a backdrop of lapping water.

Cable cars leave every 30 mins from piazza Marconi 1, Malcesine, early Apr-mid-Sep 0800-1900, mid-Sep-mid-Oct 0800-1800, mid-Oct-early Nov 0800-1700. E14 return, E9 single, cash only. Station T 045 7400206.

Ridging along much of the eastern side of Lake Garda, Monte Baldo separates the lake from the Val d’Adige, the valley of the river which flows through Verona. The modern Funivia Malcesine (Malcesine cable car) is the simplest and most spectacular way to get to the summit of Monte Baldo, though if you have your own transport, there are various places along the lake from which its slopes are accessible. The cable car climbs from 100 m to 1750 m in around 15 minutes with a break in the middle. On the upper section the cars revolve slowly to give a spectacular panorama of the lake and its surrounding mountains.

The highest part of the mountain is at Cima Valdritta to the south, at 2218 m and there are a few ski lifts dotted around, including one above Brenzone, though a network from the top of the Malcesine cable car route at Tratto Spino covers 11 km of runs. In summer, it’s walking territory, and plenty of paths wind their way around the peaks, with vertiginous views down to both east and west. In spring and summer there is a profusion of wild flowers, and eagles, chamois and marmots are among the wildlife you might see. Maps of paths are available from the Malcesine tourist information office, though sometimes the paths they mark are less than clear. It’s also possible to rent bikes at the bottom cable car station, carry them to the top and cycle down. The walk down takes around two and a half hours from the top, around an hour from the halfway station.

At the northern end of the lake, separated from its larger and more famous neighbour Riva del Garda by the Sarca river and the high plateau of Monte Brione, Torbole is famous for its windsurfing, and international championships are held here. Windsurfing is, however, just one aspect of a wide range of sportiness which happens at Torbole – everything from beach volleyball to sailing, and the atmosphere is younger and hipper than at Riva. Which is not to say that there isn’t also a fair proportion of middle-aged spread, and outside of high season and big competitions the place is less vibrant than you might expect. The old town is small but reasonably attractive, its position at the top of the lake is spectacular, and as a place to learn to windsurf or sail it takes some beating. There are also some good beaches and excellent views down the lake.

The Chiesa di Sant’Andrea, rebuilt in the 18th century after being destroyed by French troops in 1703, is back from the lake up winding alleys and is worth a visit for the views. More spectacular, but much more of a climb, the Castello Penede is an ancient ruin perched high and precariously above the town in a spot which was once used by the Romans. Another interesting excursion is to the Marmitte dei Giganti (Giants’ kettles), en route to Nago. These enormous glacial basins were carved out of the rocks between 130,000 and 12,000 years ago.

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