Lake Garda
In the realm of travel cliches, it’s all too easy to label Lake Garda a fairytale lake. But how else do you describe a place where terracotta villages creep up to the shoreline, snow-capped mountains protect the waters from the fiercest winds and fire-red sunsets cast a golden glow over green-hued waters?Monumental castles guard now glittering marinas, botanical gardens bloom with tropical plants from far away shores and the beaches? Well… some seem lifted straight from the Caribbean, rather than the shores of a European lake. But this is no fantasy world, nor an all-too-eager exaggeration from the pen of a whimsical travel diarist. This is Lake Garda. Italy’s largest and most lavish lake.
From each shoreside town to the next, you can feast on foods that are familiar yet foreign. Ravioli comes with added perch and risottos are flavoured with pike and tench. There are, of course, richer pickings, particularly in the pannacotta and tiramisu laden dessert menus. Plump lemons glisten in the sun waiting to slink into lakeside G&Ts and long drinks sparkle alongside the aperitivo conversation. A little mundane for a fairytale? Not on Lake Garda. Enjoying the simple life here feels like you’ve been given the key to a hidden world. Enjoy every second of it.
