Lake Garda, Italy
As I sat down to write my first blog post in five years (almost to the day), I had to decide what trip or location I wanted to write about. SO, I decided on what was probably my favorite place that I visited when I went to Europe in 2016, Lake Garda!
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Peschiera del Garda
Shelby (my best friend) and I set off from Verona to Peschiera del Garda the morning of April 20. By day six of driving in Europe (day 14 overall), I had taken so many wrong turns, gotten lost and almost killed my friends (more than once), all with my driving. I promise I’m a good driver… Shelby and I were hyperaware of every exit we passed just waiting for our GPS to steer us wrong again! “You suck, Opal!” was a common phrase muttered between us during our trip…
Travel Tip #3: Plan More Than a Day at Lake Garda
On one curvy turn, I slowed down and Shelby leaned out the window to take a picture of some wildflowers. I only had one regret and one semi-regret from the trip, the regret being that we didn’t stop to take more pictures of the countryside! The semi-regret came when we first arrived in Peschiera del Garda and realized we should have planned more time around Lake Garda (and Italy overall).
We stopped in for a quick lunch at Marco e Daniela Time (here’s their Trip Advisor page), had some bruschetta and sandwiches. The food was great, the staff super friendly and the service was quick! Which is exactly what we needed since we needed to get onto our final destination around Lake Garda and then off to Munich.
Sirmione, Italy
And this is where the story was meant to begin. There were three castles I wanted to see on our trip in Europe. Scaliger Castle, also known as the sinking castle, was second on my list and the second one we visited. I was amazed at the number of castles (and waterfalls!) we could see in the distance as we drove through Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and, of course, Italy (further intensifying my regret of not pulling over and taking pictures).
I can’t speak to all lakes in Italy, BUT, Lake Garda did not disappoint! And really, neither did the streams and rivers we passed in Italy, some looked like they had been dyed, honestly, the water was an unbelievable color. (SO MANY COMMAS!)
Anyway, we don’t have “real” mountains in Texas, they’re mostly just oversized hills. ‘Cause you know everything’s bigger here. I’ve seen mountains in New Mexico and some far off ones in Arizona, California and Nevada, but driving through the Alps is a completely different story! It was amazing to see them green at the bottom with white tops. Even more amazing was actually driving through them in parts of Italy where they were still covered in snow and had tiny waterfalls coming down from them. (I was driving, so I don’t have any pictures.) And do you know what’s visible from Lake Garda?!
Yup, those are the Alps! Which we drove through in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Italy. (Also, I seriously did just notice that shadow from the tower in the picture ?)
Now in Sirmione, we commenced the taking of dozens of pictures of Castello Scaligero and Lake Garda and then proceeded to wander around the city. We decided to stop at Gelateria Mancini for gelato and coffee. Surprisingly this was only the third time we got gelato while in Europe and the second time in Italy. And sadly, I dripped my chocolate hazelnut gelato all down the front of my white shirt and didn’t realize it until about an hour later, lost in the moment I guess! Funny thing is, it was around this time a guy tried to get our attention by yelling hello in a bunch of different languages, “Hola, hallo, hi, ciao!”
Leaving Lake Garda
Our walk to and from the castle was pretty even when you weren’t looking at the lake, so leaving wasn’t super depressing. Somehow I missed uploading the picture below on the left to my Instagram, I’ll have to sneak it in as a bonus on Instagram somewhere!
I think this is the only one day adventure that has so many pictures (of mostly the same thing). Like I said, we had only planned for an afternoon here. And when we arrived, we knew we had planned wrong. There was so much to explore around the lake and we had to leave far too early to try and make it to Munich. Check out my Instagram, @TexanTravels, for more photos of Lake Garda (and of my other travels)!
Have you been to Lake Garda? Let me know in the comments below ??
Arrivederci!
Ana Robu
I love everything from Italy. I never visited Lake Garda but seems to be a great place to start my vacation.
Jac | Texan Travels
It definitely would be! There were several cute bed and breakfast places that I looked up after we left!