Lago di Garda, 2026
For the middle part of our Italian trip, we decided to rent a car and drive to the our next hotel in the beautiful Lago di Garda (Lake Garda) area. After the mild confusion of finding the car rental place at the train station in Milan, the drive out was quite easy. The Google maps route was very straightforward, however, I noticed that there’d be tolls on the highways and we weren’t sure if our car was equipped with a toll sensor. Nick was able to find the car rental attendant and ask him, and he told us that our car did not have automatic toll payment, so we’d need to manually pay the toll. He then told us the following:
Blue Lanes: payment by credit card
White Lanes: payment by cash
Yellow Lanes: DO NOT USE THIS, it’s for payment using the automatic toll payment system that we don’t have in our car.
In practice though, the white and blue lanes were combined into one, so if you see that, you should be able to use both card or cash there.
We were grateful for this information, and got in our tiny Ford Puma and drove out of the garage. We were initially annoyed that they gave us such a small car, especially because Nick asked for a medium sized car, but as we found out over the next few days, having a small car was actually quite useful.
On the highway, there were multiple service stations, but one that we enjoyed seeing were the various Autogrills:
Nick appreciated the 80s design of the restaurant, as well as how it was on top of the highway. We didn’t actually need to use any of the service stations for this drive, so we never went inside one of these, but maybe we’ll do so on our next drive through Italy.
Eventually, we made it to the southern part of Lago di Garda and got some great views of the lake from road:
I apologize for the rather unimpressive photo, there were numerous bikers and walkers on the side of the road, and there were many, many tunnels that we had to drive through. But still, you can get a sense of the lakeside vibe in this photo.
Once we got to the lake, it was a much slower drive because we were on a narrow two lane road, and at some tunnels, we were behind some bikers and had to wait for it to be safe enough to pass. The tunnels were also narrow and short, which meant that one small RV at the front of our line of cars waited many minutes for the tunnel to clear until they felt comfortable enough to drive into the tunnel. As I had alluded to earlier in this post, we were now happy we had a small car because there were some points on the drive where we were close to the tunnel wall or close to the oncoming car in the other lane.
Eventually, we saw our hotel Eala Lake Garda, and pulled into their entrance to have our car parked. Once we walked inside, we started the check-in process and then were invited to have a seat outside for a welcome drink. It was a nice way to relax after having been in the car for a couple of hours, and we definitely appreciated the view:
While we enjoyed the refreshing drink and view, we really wanted to get into our room to freshen up. So we waited around hoping that someone would come and let us know that our room was ready. After about 20 minutes, we overheard the table next to us ask a server walking by, and they were told to go to the front desk whenever they were done with their drinks. We’re pretty sure we weren’t told this when we were seated, but it was good information to know for future hotel visits.
After going back to the front desk and completing our check-in, we were shown to our room and were immediately stunned with the view:
We could have spent the rest of the evening on our balcony, but we wanted to explore the hotel and headed down to the lake to take a photo on the pier:
There’s a beach at the shore, but it’s quite rocky and not really pleasant to walk on barefoot. However, the hotel put out some covered cabanas for guests to relax in during the day.
For dinner, I made a reservation at Senso, the hotel’s Michelin starred restaurant. Our dinner started with some wonderful custom mocktails from the bar and a great view of the lake:
Similar to Seta the night before, Senso offered two different tasting menus as well as an a la carte option. We opted for the larger of the two tasting menus, and we were not disappointed:
For the ice cream sandwich and the kumquat dishes, we were escorted to a small bar that’s in the kitchen, where we were greeted by the chef. He was super friendly and described the two items in front of us, which were…interesting. He actually acknowledged that these items might be polarizing, but wanted us to try them. The ice cream sandwich contained a mustard ice cream and the mustard was definitely the main flavor of that bite. I can’t remember what was inside the kumquat, but it was also something that was mildly savory and an odd combination. In any case, we applauded the kitchen for being bold, but I don’t think we’d order those items on our own. Even though we weren’t fans of those small bites, the entire dinner was still wonderful, and after a long day, we were ready to call it a night.
Malcesine
We only had two full days in Lake Garda, and being the largest lake in Italy, we needed to be selective with what we wanted to see during our time there. And since we were staying in the north end of the lake, we decided to visit some places up there, starting with our first town: Malcesine.
We wanted to get there before lunchtime so that we could find some parking. Some of the issues with driving to these smaller towns is that parking can be limited. Fortunately for us, we had read that if you’re planning on leaving Malcesine before 7:30pm, you can park at the Mount Baldo parking lot. We arrived there following a line of cars getting into the lot and began to worry that it would be full. The sign above said that there were 60 spots available, which gave us some comfort. I don’t know if the 60 spaces was accurate because it felt like the 15 cars inside were fighting over the last remaining spots. We later saw a ramp to go down a level, which was far less busy (I don’t understand the need to only find parking on the entrance level). Nick skillfully parked our car in a tiny spot next to a column, and it was at this point we really appreciated having a smaller car. When we were walking out of the garage, we saw a family parking their full sized Mercedes, with a woman standing outside gesturing instructions to the driver. It seemed like there had already been multiple attempts, and I don’t know how many more attempts were needed to finish.
At some point later in the day, I took this photo of the entrance to the garage:
We actually were coming down the hill, so Nick needed to make a sharp U-turn into the garage; many other cars were doing the same and it caused a lot of traffic in this area. But yeah, for future reference to those wanting to find this parking garage, this is it.
Once we left the parking garage, we immediately walked down the hill into Malcesine itself, and eventually down to Lake Garda where were were took in the gorgeous view:
From there, we headed back into the city to find the Saturday market, but we quickly realized that it wasn’t really a farmers market, but rather a clothing and home goods market. Further up the hill, we saw a large nursery stall:
As well as a booth selling hens!
We’re pretty sure we’ve never been to a market that had a vendor selling farm animals, but we’re totally here for it. These silkies are super cute and fluffy, but it made us a little sad that we had to give away our two silkie pullets many years ago because they were males. I’m sure they would have grown up to be like these gorgeous chickens.
From there, we headed to Malcesine Castle, which is hard to miss as it’s perched above a rock overlooking the town. When heading towards the ticket booth, we were impressed with how part of the castle is currently jutting out over the area below:
Some of the medieval architecture is also visible on this walk, such as the castle crenellations.
The castle area is rather small, but one cool thing you can do is walk up the stairs to the top of the tower to get a great view of Malcesine and Lake Garda:
Afterwards, we wandered through the town, appreciating the design of the homes and the cute, narrow paths:
It was time to head out of the town, back up the hill to the Mount Baldo cable car, where we would ascend to the top of Mount Baldo:
The online schedule said that there would be a car every 30 minutes, but in times of heavy demand, they’d run the cars more frequently. When we arrived in the mid-afternoon, we had inadvertently timed it so that our wait was like five minutes, so yay us!
There are actually two cable cars that you need to take, as there’s a mid-station on the way up where you have to change cars, but the whole journey is around 20 minutes. And at the top, we were met the local greeter:
Yes, a donkey! Actually, there were multiple donkeys in the area who were super friendly because they would freely walk around the area and didn’t mind being petted.
We continued walking away from the cable car area and saw this:
ALPACAS!!! I felt like we were back in the mountains of Peru, but no, this is Italy. For a fee, you could go on a group hike with the alpacas, but we passed on this.
So in the US, hiking generally involves driving to a trail and then bringing a backpack with your food and water and peeing on the side of the trail. In Europe, they have multiple restaurants along the wide, flat path where you can grab a drink and use the bathroom:
Once I saw this, I immediately told Nick that this is my type of hiking!
We basically stayed in this main area, walking to the end of the main path and then down towards the lake and taking in the amazing views:
While our trip up the mountain was easy because there were no lines, the trip back down took a while because many people wanted to leave at the same time. We had to wait for a second cable car, but it could have been worse because the line behind us kept growing.
Soon we were back at the base, but before we left Malcesine, we decided to stop and get some gelato:
But of course Nick couldn’t just order a scoop of gelato, no, he needed to get the brownie sundae—it was sooooo worth it though.
Riva del Garda
On the drive back to the hotel, we decided to stop by the town of Riva del Garda. It’s much bigger than Malcesine, but there were still many cute walking areas and a large plaza by the lake:
There’s something so majestic seeing these pretty buildings in front of the beautiful mountains that seemingly shoot straight up in the background. One cool thing that happened was that in the plaza, there were various dance shows going on, including some teen dance groups and the local tango group:
Nearby, you can take a funicular up to the Bastione di Riva, a tower built in the early 1500s, and whose remains are accessible. The view at the top is also amazing:
There are actually numerous trails from the tower that go to further up the mountain. If we had known this, we would have prepared for a long hike.
Back down in the town, we walked around to find a restaurant and I noticed Ristorante Al Volt, a Michelin recommended restaurant that appeared to have outside seating available. Nick asked if there was a table available, and soon we were seated in a corner of the street, which was great for people watching:
We ordered a light dinner that was delicious:
We had already commented that we were having a quintessential al fresco dining experience, and then we saw a parade of people dressed in period costume walking up the street. While they were walking, a smart car was driving down the street and had to stop because of the parade. It was highly amusing seeing this contrast of old and new clashing together:
And with that, we headed back to the hotel to relax and enjoy the awesome nighttime view of the lake:
Limone sul Garda
We wanted to spend some time at the hotel today, so our only excursion for the day was to visit the cute village of Limone sul Garda. Our hotel offered a free shuttle service to/from the town, which we took advantage of.
The weather was starting to get warmer at this point of our trip, and in fact, a heatwave was beginning to hit Italy, so being by the lake with its cooler temperatures was nice. We arrived on a Sunday, so it was quite busy with the weekend crowd, but we were still able to experience some of the quieter parts of the village in the morning:
As implied in the name, this village is known for the various lemon trees, and the theme carries into the village’s design, like their street signs:
Yeah, they really love lemons here!
We then walked up to visit Limonaia del Castèl, a garden/museum full of various citrus trees. It's terraced into the mountain and the trees are surrounded by open, wooden structures. That’s because in the winter, they can cover the entire structure with glass to make it a greenhouse. This explains how they can grow citrus in this climate because usually you need a much more consistently warm environment for these trees to survive.
There’s a small fee to enter, and really, you’re basically walking amongst many citrus trees and enjoying the view of the town and the lake. There’s also a small museum with plaques explaining the history of the grove as well as the various citrus that is being grown on the property:
With the temperature getting warmer as the day went on, we decided to go down to the dock to get some lemonade:
And of course, the strong lemon theme is very prevalent here. Nearby, there was a free bench in the shade where we were able to cool off with our refreshing lemonade:
Oh yeah, remember how I said that it was a Sunday and it was busy? Nick took this photo before the Lake Garda ferry arrived, and in a few minutes afterwards, it was insanely crowded in this small area, so we left and continued onto the boardwalk. On the way there, we found this cute fountain and tried to take a photo of us with it:
In the back, you can see one of the various passenger ferries that go to the many towns along the lake. Limone sul Garda is one of the most popular stops for the ferries, so there appears to be a steady stream of visitors coming and going throughout the day.
Continuing to follow the lake, we made it to the boardwalk with its beautifully manicured landscaping:
It makes us wonder what the water bill is during the summer because it must take a lot of water to keep these flowers alive. I suppose the lake being right there helps with their water needs…
By the boat docks was a large walking area with numerous lounge chairs for the public to enjoy. Unsurprisingly, with the nice weather, these were very popular.
We loved the vibe of the town (not the crowds though) but the one thing we did NOT like was their official logo:
It’s sooooo creepy, and if you go to the official Limone sul Garda website, the logo’s pupil moves and it blinks! It’s giving big brother vibes, or possibly something that we saw at Omega Mart in Vegas, but yeah, we weren’t loving this logo.
From the boardwalk, we walked over to the very popular beach:
At one point, we saw a family laying down near a picnic bench, and on the table was an empty bottle of wine. I wanted to take a photo of the scene, but it felt intrusive. It really did seem like such an Italian way of enjoying the beach.
After continuing to walk around in the sun, it was getting too hot, so we headed back to the hotel to relax by the lake. One of the cool things we discovered was that they had little lounge areas built into the hill going down to the lake. They weren’t occupied so we took advantage of it:
We could have spent the rest of the day here, but we were hungry and needed to go back up to get food at the cafe. If it were later in the summer, the nearby grill would have been open for lunch.
For dinner, we made it simple and had dinner at the more casual restaurant in the hotel and then headed back to the balcony of our room. While we were walking around Limone sul Garda, I noticed a sign for a fireworks show that happened to be that same night at 10pm, so we made sure to get back to our room before then so that we could see it, and it was awesome:
I think the whole show was around 15 minutes long, which is very impressive for a local fireworks show. We were very lucky that we happened to be staying there on one of the fireworks nights, and it was a magical way to end our evening. Tomorrow, we leave to head up to the Dolomites.
Tenno
Before fully leaving the area for South Tyrol, we stopped by Canale di Tenno, a small medieval town located within the village of Tenno. While there are many other medieval towns along the lake, Canale di Tenno is worth a visit because the medieval architecture is mostly intact. Because we arrived on a Monday morning, we were able to find free parking in a nearby small parking lot, and there weren’t very many people walking around at that time:
It was cool to meander the paths and see the intact medieval architecture. We also saw a sign for Monumento alla Vicinia, which was only a five minute walk away, so we decided to head in that direction only to discover that it’s a small plaza with a statue:
If it weren’t so hot, I could see this being a nice place to sit and admire the views of the mountains and lake.
And with that, we headed back to our car, where someone was already waiting for our spot, and headed north to South Tyrol for the next two nights!