Insight Guides: Lake Garda Mini

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• eBook ISBN: 9781780056333
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

This ebook guides you round the sights and experiences that you can enjoy on and around Lake Garda, Italy's largest lake. Its shores border three provinces (Veneto, Brescia and Trentino), and the landscape is as diverse as it is beautiful. The Dolomite mountains to the north drop sheer into the lake, creating a dramatic Alpine landscape, while the sheltered southern shores harbour a Mediterranean micro-climate where lemon groves and vineyards thrive. All around Lake Garda there are historic towns and villages to discover, alongside beautiful gardens and villas, as well as delicious food and wine, family-friendly activities, and of course boat trips and water sports on the lake's clear indigo waters.

Lake Garda

The largest and easternmost of the lakes, Garda is bordered by three different regions: Lombardy, Trentino and the Veneto. The scenery is enormously diverse, from the fjord-like north, where the Brenta Dolomites drop sheer into the water, to the gentle hills of vineyards and olive groves, and the sea-like southern basin, fringed by beaches. Sheltered by the mountains, it enjoys an equable climate and luxuriant vegetation along its shores. Garda is the cleanest lake and the most popular for swimming, windsurfing and sailing. The lake is a favourite playground of German and Austrian tourists and in season you can expect crowded campsites and coachloads of day-trippers, particularly in the south.

The Southern Shores

Sirmione ! [map], Lake Garda’s most famous resort, has an enticing setting on a narrow peninsula that juts 4km (2.5 miles) into the lake. The old town is heralded by the photogenic Rocca Scaligera (Scaligera Castle; Tue–Sun 8.30am–7pm, off season 9am–4.30pm; charge), accessed via a drawbridge over the fish-filled moat. The castle was built in 1259 by Mastino I della Scala, the fishtail battlements being the trademark of the della Scala family.

Sirmione

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

The narrow alleys around the castle teem with tourists throughout the season – Sirmione is just minutes away from the Milan–Venice motorway and a mecca for day-trippers. But beyond the castle you can escape the worst of the crowds and find pleasant lakeside terraces, beaches and a headland of olive trees and cypresses. At the tip of the peninsula lies the famous Grotte de Catullo (Mar–mid-Oct Tue–Sat 8.30am–7pm, Sun 8.30am–5.30pm, mid-Oct–Feb Tue–Sat 8.30am–4.30pm, Sun 8.30am–1.30pm; charge), the ruins of a vast Roman villa. The site was named after the Roman poet Catullus, but although his poems make reference to a home in Sirmione there is no evidence this was his villa. The archaeological remains – some of the most important of their kind in Italy – cover over 2 hectares (5 acres) of the promontory, and are set high above the lake amid olive and cypress trees. Deciphering the various rooms on the various levels is not easy, but it is lovely just to wander around.

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