Lake Garda | Italy Trip: Stop #1

After a transatlantic redeye flight into Venice airport, followed by a bus transfer to the nearest train station in Mestre, and onto a high-speed train pointed west across northern Italy. Eventually, Courtney and I finally reached the first stop on our Italy trip which was a little tourist lake town, called Peschiera del Garda, which sits directly on the southern edge of Italy’s largest lake, Lake Garda. Yes, even larger than Lake Como. After walking from the train stop, through the fort’s walls that now surround the small vacation town, we got to see the lake for the first time. Unlike so many places that don’t exactly meet your expectation because that one photo you saw was shot at the perfect conditions, in the perfect light, and maybe even edited for even more likes on social media, this view was nearly identical to all the photos we had seen when planning this trip. Turquoise blue waters so clear you could see the bottom, small pristine towns lining the lakeside, and of course, the mountains of the Dolomites surrounding the northern side of the lake.

Fortunately all of our flights, customs lines, trains, and transfers were right on time, and we actually arrived a bit too early to check into our small little hotel, so with all our bags in tow, we dropped into the chairs outside a small restaurant. Courtney ordered her first Spritz of, well, I can’t remember. I ordered some wine and a small focaccia pizza. Admittedly, was not blown away by the first bite of the pizza, only to realize these were pretty much snack-style pizzas to accompany a couple of drinks before moving on to a place that really makes food. And this became our new reality for the next week. Stopping at one restaurant after another, for a single drink, snacking on chips, olives, nuts, and sometimes even pizza that would come included with our drink orders.

With only two days planned for each of the towns we wanted to see and do as much as possible. At the same time, the jet lag was kicking in full-force after our red-eye flight left me dragging. So, we just started walking. Walking to explore the path along the lake, passing by all the rocky beaches, and eventually to the countless open air restaurants and bars. And as they say, do as Romans do, or to current times, as the Italians do. Which meant you sit down for a single drink, enjoy the warm spring days, and up and leave after that single drink before stopping at the next place. There was never any pressure from the servers to order anything else, order food, or really cared at all what we did. As long as we were having a good time, that was all that mattered. This was the same everywhere we went across northern Italy, and we loved it.

The best way to get around Lake Garda, or better said, across, is the incredible ferry system through Navigazione Laghi. There are 13 towns that you can access via ferry, where a 10-20 minute boat ride on a 100 person ferry drops you off in these fantastic, little towns frozen in time. Sure, they all cater to tourists, but at the same time, it’s really very normal. There are dozens of restaurants in each town, all serving the same dishes, with chairs and tables out facing the open street or piazzas. In the short time we had, starting from Pechiera del Garda, we made it to Bardolino, over to the peninsula of Sirmione, and across to Lazise, all in one day.

Following the dozens of other passengers off the ferry at the stop for Bardolino, we wandered past the marina filled with sailboats and small fishing boats. The water was so clear in the marina, you could see all the fish hanging about, staring back up at us. Walking up the piazza, which was covered in marble and stone tiles, only further boasted how much care for detail the history of Italy has in all their architecture.  The facades of the buildings I’m sure have been updated, but only to be repaired to look like this street did hundreds of years ago. And the only hard part was trying to decide which of the dozen cafes and restaurants we would stop in for lunch. Eventually we settled on the cafe with the town’s namesake and spent the time eating pizza, drinking beer and spritz, while watching the locals and tourists alike wander the city. To be more specific, we really just were in awe of how well behaved all of the dogs were since we spent most of the time watching them. Rarely would you hear barking or even dogs trying to play with one another. It was very much business as usual, behavior, walking through the town.

When Italy refers to its history, a few hundred years is a blink of an eye compared to the history of this country. And we got to witness it first-hand at the ancient Roman ruins of Grottoes of Catullus. Dating back to 1,000 BC, this Roman Villa had a sprawling square footage of over 5 acres. Not the property, but the physical building. However, by the 1900s, all that remained was a pile of rubble that took decades to excavate properly to have the accessible historical ruins available for tourists to walk through nowadays. The scale looks like a shopping mall with stone walls two, to three stories tall, fit with windows and door frames that still stand today. You could imagine hundreds of people being tasked to upkeep and maintain the daily life of these Roman ruler’s, essentially, summer homes. Of course, the best part is that this villa is surrounded on three sides by the beautiful blue waters of Lake Garda. But standing in the building’s foundation, looking up at the masonry and detailed carvings of the stone to build such a structure was shocking. To see this place in all its glory would have been amazing, but I guess we’ll just have to settle for their ruins and the paintings of what it once looked like. 

Being that this was the first stop on our trip, this was also the first chance to experience incredible Italian food. And in Pechiera, all of the restaurants sat along a small canal fed by the lake. So every meal was overlooking the water, or better yet, on a floating barge on the water. What I didn’t realize is the standard courses of a normal Italian meal, where pasta is generally just an appetizer to the main dish. So the entire time there, I was essentially ordering small, appetizer portions of pasta for my meal. Only in hindsight, was the food not nearly as good as in Parma or Venice, but you weren’t going to hear any complaints from us! Especially when the meal was paired with a carafe of house wine for only a few Euros. Was it the best wine Italy had to offer, I’m sure it wasn’t, but it’s hard to beat the price for such excellent wine made locally.

This was also the first time I got to experience the feeling of not being overstuffed, full, or sluggish after a full Italian dinner. Everyone we talked with told, or rather, warned us about it, and I never believed them. But it is 100% true. The portions are nearly half that of American meals, the sauces are not thick and heavy, and the quality of the food is top quality without any additives or preservatives. Each night, we slowly ate and drank our way through the town and never felt like we had a bowling ball in our stomachs from some greasy burger that we’d normally get out at a pub. 

Luckily, this was just the first stop on our trip, and we were off to Parma next. Located in the Emilia-Romagna region, or the bread basket of Italy, we were very excited to experience some of the best quality food that Italy had to offer. Especially the parmigiano reggiano!