In Venice, limited to narrow, canal-lined paths broken up by sudden bridges, we felt like game pieces trying to navigated a board game like Chutes & Ladders (Canals & Bridges?). We needed open space.
Our upcoming Milan dog-sit owners recommended Lake Garda, a local, Northern Italy favorite, although they had never been, which for us was a resounding endorsement.
We elected to bypass Verona and Padua (seen by bus coming and train going from Venice and that was enough for us) and headed to the town of Desenzano del Garda, the closest train stop to the lake and just about 45 minutes from Milan. The name is bigger than the town.
Lake Garda is a summertime vacation spot for Italians so of course we went in the winter when the area is typically covered in a blanket of smog. It was. Our apartment was on the main road, just behind a Chinese restaurant. Our landlord for our short 3 day stay was glad we were Americans and not “dopey Italians that ruin everything in an apartment, especially in the kitchen since they don’t know how to operate anything”. She proceeded to point out all the previous damage to the apartment. She was Italian.
Desenzano del Garda didn’t have much, mainly a kind of cute touristy strip of shops and restaurants across from the waterfront plus a Eurospin market, which maybe is the only European market chain we were not intimately familiar with since supermarket shopping is a favorite pastime. Its name also aligns with our haphazard travel style. We were delighted like in Salerno, and Marseille, coming across another alternative zoo. (https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/san-frenchisco/ + https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/coast-to-coast/
The draw of the area was the town of Sirmione, which is located on the tip of a broken finger of land that jutted into the lake. Easy bus ride there and a 10 km walk back. Like most Italian tourist towns, Sirmione, had a Castle (Scaliger), abandoned fortress plus it’s share of spa hotels, gelato (closed for the winter) and espresso bars.
But the highpoint was an amazing walk around the rocky tip of the peninsula with the Dolomite mountains shrouded (by smog) in the background.
Lake Garda was an unexpected pleasure and we didn’t break anything.
Chosen Fugue 