From the snow-capped Italian Alps to the beach shore in under an hour, Lake Garda is filled with natural beauty and adventure that you won’t want to miss.
The lake was formed by a glacier during the last Ice Age making it the largest lake in Italy. Once the glacier melted, it left behind the massive lake with a circumference of about 144 kilometers. Located in northern Italy, Lake Garda is surrounded by quaint towns with lots to do and is home to breathtaking views. It’s also filled with history, amazing food, and kind locals. So, when I was presented with the opportunity to travel there with six other students from the University of Florida I didn’t hesitate.
People come from all over the world to visit Lake Garda, so there are hundreds of hotels and hostels to choose from. While I had never stayed in a hostel before, I was willing to give it a try. We stayed at ‘meet’ a garda lake hostel located in Peschiera del Garda.
The hostel lobby was eclectic yet trendy and everyone I spoke to seemed to be from a different part of the world. I spoke with the people in my room about where they were from and learned little bits from each of them. In our room, there was a man from Austria, a couple from Poland, a man from London, two women from Germany and a few others. While my overall experience sharing a room with eight strangers was a bit rocky, I can honestly say it’s something I think everyone should do at least once.
After checking in to the hostel, our first stop was Peschiera del Garda. Only a ten- minute walk from the hostel, it was the heart of the town and as soon as we saw it we were all amazed. The buildings were picturesque with bright colors and small balconies. The water was a bright turquoise, and, in the distance, you could see the outline of the garda mountains covered in a deep blue fog.
Astounded by the landscape, we searched for a place to eat dinner with a view. Once we found La Zattera, we knew it was just what we were looking for. It was reasonably priced, had a great food selection and was located on a floating dock.
I ordered the Tortellini Alla Panna. It was delicious, and everyone said the same about their meals. As we ate, we were entertained by many swans and a family of ducks that swam right up to us.
After dinner, we continued our adventure and visited Sirmione. While there was some confusion on when the next bus would arrive, we all agreed that the hour-long wait was well worth it.
As we walked up and down the streets exploring we came across Callas Pallas. Which was an incredible old Palace that dates back to the eighteenth century. I later found out that it is still in use today for special events.
After some more exploring and a stop for gelato, we headed back to the hostel just in time to watch Eurovision. Which as an American who doesn’t speak the language it was broadcast in (Italian) or most of the languages of the singing (French, German, Arabic, etc.) it was quite the experience.
I spoke to Dan Davidson,18, from Britain who we met on while visiting and he said, “ Eurovision is a quite exciting time of year. It can get very competitive really and often political like this year when the protester jumped on stage and sabotaged the UK’s performance this year.”
Still, we quickly found ourselves invested in this annual singing competition and rooting for the Czech Republic and Cyprus after some amazing dance sequences.
The next morning, we woke up early to catch a bus to Malcesine. The town was located about an hour away from our hostel and we booked a round-trip bus ride for about 10 euros each. The bus ride was scenic and went by quickly. The road curves the lake so there is always something to look at and you can see the mountains become larger across the turquoise water.
While exploring we stumbled across an information station selling tickets up the mountain in a cable car. For about 22 euros each you can get a round trip on Funivina Malcesine Monte Baldo. The trip up the mountain takes about 25 minutes and includes a stop up half way.
As I rode up the cable car I could see the towns getting further away until they were just buildings in the distance. We noticed many passengers carrying large backpacks and we weren’t sure why – but more on that later. The cable cars fit about 45 people and because they are spherical everyone had a great view. I can only imagine from the ground it looked like a giant floating fish bowl ascending the mountain.
As we stepped off the cable car we noticed the drop-in temperature. It was chilly and the air was crisp, but once we looked out we realized it was the best view yet. In one glance you could see the snow-capped mountains, the entirety of the lake and the tiny town below. We all stood there in pure awe of the naturally beautiful landscape laid out in front of us. We stayed at the top of the mountain for several hours just taking it all in.
While we were sitting on the mountain top we noticed many of the people carrying backpacks all heading in the same direction. We watched from our perch as they unpacked their backpacks and pulled out large colorful parachutes with harnesses for paragliding. It was thrilling to watch them run down the side of the mountain and launch themselves into the air. It made me especially excited because just two weeks prior to this trip I signed up to do the very same thing on one of our free days. I watched as they flew above the mountains and dipped towards the water and it made me even more excited to go paragliding at the Amalfi coast next weekend.
The trip down the mountain was just as beautiful as the ride up.
Once we were back on the ground we wandered in and out of small shops. We bought sandwiches and bottles of wine and headed toward the beach. Only a five-minute walk away we found the rocky shores of Lake Garda lined with small docks. We quickly choose a dock to call our own and picnicked staring up at the mountains we spent our afternoon on.
After about an hour on the beach, we took the bus back to our hostel. As we rode back through town the mountains slowly became further away I thought about what an incredible two days I had experienced and that maybe one day I’d love to return and keep exploring.
Comentários