Lake Garda is Italy’s largest lake and the least popular among american tourists. I’m not sure why, the place is amazing. Heck, even Rick Steves hasn’t done an episode on Garda, big mistake. But Garda is very popular with the Germans, I mean REALLY popular as probably 80% of the visitors were German and the rest were eastern European and a few Americans/Brits.
Riva del Garda We decided to use the village on the very northern end as a base camp. Most people that want to travel the entire lake will stay in the village of Garda or Bardolino because they’re centrally located making travel by ferry between the villages easier and shorter for day tripping. We didn’t visit either of those villages for no particular reason.
Riva is surrounded by steep cliffs and mountains, the entire area is very focused around activies like kite surfing, mountain biking, hiking, paragliding, etc. Lots of outdoor activities and we happen to be there during a mountain bike festival so there were 1,000’s of riders crusing around the roads and trails. There’s a great hiking trail right in town that cut through the rock face over the water, it’s the orginal road and still have a few WWI hideouts and bunkers. Plus, there’s a bar on the trail… Ah Italy.
The town has a nice old walled area around the water and is easily covered in a couple of hours. It’s not the jewel of Lake Garda but we enjoyed the less touristy aspect. I’d say Riva is more your working man’s Garda versus places like Malcesine or Sirmione. Suprising to me, there’s quite a bit of locals running around at night after the day trippers have moved on.
Sirmione - This is on the southern end of lake and we decided to take the bus from Riva. Very cool place on a pennisula sticking out into the lake. Has the classic old world cobblestone streets, castle, 100 gelato shops, and the ruins of the largest private residence in Italy. This place sees a lot of visitors as it’s on the way from Milan to Venice so the trains and buses are constant. Seems popular with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the opposite of Riva. We took the fast ferry back to Riva which took about an hour with only a few stops. The views from the water are incredible.
Malcesine - good lord, this place is stunning. Old world, great restaurants, photographers dream, old castle. It gets busy during the day, but it’s surprisingly laid back for how incredible it is. We should have stayed here.
Limone - jumped off the boat here on the way back to Riva. Think Sorrento gone bad with all the shops selling lemon dishes, limoncello, and junk. Most people rave about Limone and do it together with Malescine as they are right across the lake from one another, but for us this is an easy pass. However, there are some cute qualities about it.
Food - They eat a lot of pizza, pasta, and gelato. Cigarettes and espresso for breakfast and they’re good to go.
In Riva we had a couple of really nice meals
I Momenti. Georgio is the owner, a wine dork, and a perfectionist. He’s a wineberserker in spirit. His place is really dominated by locals as he was born in Riva and knows everyone. He treated like one of his friends and would introduce us as “my friends from California” to the locals. Great selection of local wines and he has an excellent palate.
Pickadilly - crazy name, not sure the reason for it. They speicalize in bruschetta but it’s like nothing you’ve had before. It comes as a single slice of bread the size of a large pancake and lots of interesting toppings.
La Contrada - a little higher end, we ate down stairs in the cellar. Very good pasta. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g194883-d1746566-Reviews-Osteria_La_Contrada-Riva_Del_Garda_Province_of_Trento_Trentino_Alto_Adige.html