Sunday July 10th 2022

Today we set off for Lake Garda, I place I have long wanted to see. Unfortunately, I did not quite realise the huge size of it - it’s the largest lake in Italy - and we have visited only a small part of the north of it, though it’s the south I had been hoping to see. The north is very beautiful as well of course, but today was also very hot indeed so we did not have the best experience.

We began by driving along the side of Lake Molveno, which was like a mirror this morning and I would have loved to take a photo. But I was on the wrong size of the bus again, and the lake is screened by trees anyway so photographs from the road are almost impossible.

Our first stop was Malcesine, on the north east side of the narrow top part of Lake Garda. There is a historic castle and there are some old parts of the town, but it was already so hot at 10am that we walked south away from the town along the lakeside, looking for a bench to sit on in some cool shade. This is a view from just south of the town.

The walk along the side of the lake was charming, with lovely views.

We kept stopping to appreciate the views and sit on benches in the shade to watch what was going on. Lake Garda is famous for flowers, and there were some stunning displays of roses, oleanders and Busy Lizzies. There was also a variety of bird life. We spotted a whole fishing fleet of cormorants, 6 or 7 of them, sunning themselves on rocks and drying their wings before all setting off together to fish, creating an interesting looking disturbance out in the lake. There were ducks with ducklings, mother coots with tiny chicks, and this duck who hoped we had some food and looked as if he was thinking about sitting on our feet.

After wandering for a while and sitting in the shade quite a lot, we realised it was midday and time to start back and look for a sandwich before catching the 1pm ferry boat to Riva del Garda. It was fiercely hot by then, and there was no shade on the open top deck of the boat. So although we thought there might be a nice breeze, we also thought we might fry so we sat inside.

The ferry crossed the lake to the west side, to Limone, a strange little resort squashed into a narrow strip beneath beetling cliffs.

There were a great many people windsurfing and kite surfing, and some paddle boarders as well. The whole of the west coast of this narrow north part of the lake is breezy so it’s  popular for windsurfing and kite surfing, and some of the participants seemed quite unconcerned about getting in the way of huge ferry boats. 

It took about 30 minutes for the ferry to cross from Malcesine to Limone, and another 30 minutes to Riva. The harbour at Riva is in the most historic part, so the dominant thing you see as you sail in is the Torre Apponale

This tower is probably 800 years old, having been built in the early 1200s to control a trade route between 2 towns, one of which was called Ponale. Hence the name Apponale. It later became a prison, and has been altered a bit over the centuries. 

There are other interesting old parts of the town, dating from the 1300s and 1400s. The arcades around the main square used to house shops, though there are no shops there now. We wandered up some side streets to appreciate the old buildings. This is the view I liked best.

After sitting in the shade for a while, we though we would walk further around the harbour. There was a beautiful paddle steamer in another part of the harbour, near the fishing boats.

It was much nicer than the huge old repurposed car ferry we had arrived on! It was obviously still in use as a ferry, as when we came back later, it had gone.

Further round past the paddle steamer, we found an even older building than the tower.

This one is called the Rocca, and is part of a castle originally built in 1124. It has been added to and changed over the years, of course. It now houses a museum which we would have liked to look at, but we were just too hot and tired, so we pressed on to the park in search of shade and benches.

There were some gorgeous displays of flowers in the park

The beach was extremely crowded, but on the way down to it we crossed  this very pretty little river on an old wooden bridge.

Like every other lake beach we have seen so far, the beach is pebbles and sharp stones. So we won’t be swimming off any beaches, having failed to bring any rubber flip-flops or any plastic shoes. 

Soon it was time to wander back to the harbour to meet the bus back to the hotel. Tomorrow is a free day, and we won’t be getting up early!