Lake Garda: highlights and travel tips

The barking and growling is deafening, as if at least ten dogs jumped behind the big wooden door. Every time I ring Marina, the dogs are racing out. Then she shouts to me from the depths of her house, I should wait. After a short time she locked her three flatmates away and the door to the courtyard opens. No sound is heard. Marina laughs because I'm scared every time. In doing so, I have been driving to Lake Garda for more than 30 years and know exactly what will happen when I ring her bell.

The always again lake

Marina, our neighbor, is as natural to Lake Garda as "La Polenta", the circular hill behind our village. Fasano Sopra is located just above the western shore, near Gardone, where Lake Garda widens. Marina is probably between 70 and 80 years old, I do not know exactly. Every day she rattles around with her Vespa to do some shopping, almost always wearing one of her old-fashioned, somewhat dusty skirts. She has little money and a big heart. Every time I'm there I get eggs, lettuce, figs or sour pears from her, she has a bit of land not far from the village.

"Che bella giornata", what a beautiful day, she often says, when the sun rises over "La Polenta" and the surface of the lake glistens, as if thousands of shards of glass throw the light back. In her old face is then a glow, withdrawn, but clearly visible. She is happy when in February the mimosa flowers in front of her house and in summer evenings the great heat subsides and a breath of wind brushes the skin. Marina is one of the many people here who appreciate their surroundings and naturally adjust to the rhythm of the seasons. They can be happy about little things, and if it's just a bottle of olive oil, perhaps something of the olives from their own garden, which was brought to the oil mill in late autumn.

In Limone sul Garda some houses stick like nests on the granite. The village pushes up the lakeside in terraces.

This agreement with what is, I like and gives me a feeling of security when I drive to the I-know-not-so-times in our apartment on Lake Garda.

Of course, people also scold. In a loud dialect of which I do not understand a word. Because the olive harvest is hailed. Because the internet is so awfully slow on the hill where you live. Because in the summer the tourists, who are needed and hated alike, fall on the lake, block the streets and you do not get any free seats in the café. But quite often there is just this joy. And the desire to share it with others.

"Look, big guy," says a Milanese who has a second home in Fasano Sopra. He holds me a Coregone, a little Blaufelchen, right in front of his nose, he has just pulled him from Lake Garda. "I do not feel like taking out the cattle, but it can not be fresher." So I get up, the innards are pretty bloody, but it's not the first fish I'm taking out here. And that tastes so much better than the packaged fillet from the supermarket.

I LIKE THE UNPERFECT, THE REFUSAL OF MODERNITY

THERE ARE REGIONS IN ITALY, which have hardly changed in the past decades. This is, so to speak, the old Italy, which has no desire for great change. Lake Garda is one of them. Apart from a few modern holiday apartments and luxurious spa hotels, the lake has remained true to itself. Many hotels look as dusty as they did 30 years ago. Some tunnels on the west bank are just as ill-lit as they were then. The ships of the Navigarda, which drive around on the lake, exude a nostalgic flair. It's like getting into an old movie when you go on board.

You can like it all or find it completely "rancid" as my teenage son says when he's with me on Lake Garda. I'm one of those who like that creepy charm: the imperfect, the unkempt, the unspoken refusal of modernity. Lake Garda reminds me of traveling in my childhood, when I was with my parents at the Swiss lakes. Even then, I loved the trips with the steamers, on which we spent many hours and drove slowly over the water.

IF I AM LAKE GARDA, I notice how my tempo slows down by itself. This is mainly because I spend a lot of time just looking. Especially the mountains that surround the lake, do not let me go, it's like a secret compulsion. My respect for the mountains is probably because I am a northern light and spent most of my life in Hamburg.

The mountains that surround the lake attract attention. At Pregasina you can look east to Monte Baldo.

Above all, I like the Monte Baldo, a ridge that is about 30 kilometers long and in some places well over 2000 meters high. He is on the eastern shore, our apartment on the west bank, there I have him right under my nose. Only in summer, the mountains often disappear in the haze. In winter, however, they show themselves in crystal clear contours, not infrequently, the tops are powdered white, and in the late afternoon, they shine incandescent red for a moment, until the sun has set.

These pictures are very intense, like archetypes that ground me. I think the colors of Lake Garda have now passed into my DNA. "It's so nice here that you can almost go bad," a friend of mine once said. It is exactly like that.

IN THE BEFORE AND AFTER SEASON I LIKE THE LAKE GARDEN. I am happy in early spring, when the mimosas and ornamental cherries are in bloom, when the first cafés open their terraces and unleash the inevitable Italian delights on their guests. I enjoy it, when in the autumn suddenly the summer comes again, a mood of the sky, an unexpected gift. Then I sit in Salò, one of my favorite places, in my T-shirt in the café and look at the crumpled locals strolling across the long lake promenade.

In winter I am happy when the leaves of the olive trees shimmer silvery in the sun and the lush green of pines, cypress and laurel comfort me over the fact that nature has just completely disappeared. In summer, I'm less on Lake Garda - too crowded, too hot, too loud. On the one hand. On the other hand, bathing in the cool lake is great, leaving the beach behind and swimming towards the mountains. But at least when one of the many motor boats makes its engine howl, I turn around as fast as possible.

There are so many new and beautiful things to discover

In recent years, I have discovered hiking, every time I come across new ways and villages. In the gardens are old hoses and overturned tubs between tomato shrubs, accurately laid out beds are rather rare here. I like the enchanted "Valle delle Cartiere" behind Toscolano-Maderno, a valley where until 50 years ago paper was still being made in mills and a romantic stream was rushing. Another time I ascend to the 1,600 meter high Monte Pizzocolo on the west bank. The climb is sweaty, but the view of the largest lake in Italy, which has suddenly become so small, terrific.

At night, street lights illuminate the cliffs, as in Limone sul Garda.

Sometimes, after many walks in solitude, I feel like people. Then I drive for example to the Sirmione peninsula in the south, where you can see the famous grottos of Catull, ruins from the Roman Empire. A flood of people strolls there as on the Via del Corso, the Roman shopping street. Nevertheless, I stay. And let me drive out of the village, to the small Romanesque church of San Pietro in Mavino, where hardly anyone gets lost.

There it is, this very own Sirmione flair. Perhaps it is due to the many olive and cypress groves that the peninsula seems almost Mediterranean. The church is also surrounded by olive trees, inside are beautiful frescoes, the oldest date back to the 12th century. A stone in front of the church bears the simple inscription "Ascolta il silenzio"? hear the silence. On Lake Garda I can hear her in many places, even near the biggest pebble.

Travel info LAKE GARDEN

www.visitgarda.com: Here you will find, clearly arranged, detailed information on places, accommodation, events, the arrival up to the climate? and for surfers and sailors: Information about the wind on Lake Garda.

travel Guide: Eberhard Fohrer, "GARDA LAKE". Good mix of background knowledge and practical tips, including seven detailed hiking tours (360 pages, 18.90 euros, Michael Müller Verlag)

Stay:

Locanda Agli Angeli Nice location in the car-free center of Gardone Sopra. Courtyard with small pool, tastefully decorated rooms, sympathetic atmosphere. DZ / F from 100 Euro. www.agliangeli.biz

Villa Sostaga Boutique hotel near Gargnano in a former hunting lodge above the lake. Individually designed rooms, beautiful garden with pool. DZ / F from 170 Euro, www.villasostaga.it

Eat:

TRATTORIA AGLI ANGELI. Sophisticated, slightly more expensive cuisine. Unusual pasta creations (eg with guinea fowl), delicious fish. Via Dosso 7, Gardone Riviera

PIZZERIA NABLUS. Fabulous, crunchy pizza, fair prices. Large terrace with stunning views of the lake. Via Supiane 1, Gardone Riviera, www.ristorantenablus.com

TAVERNA KUS. Former country house over the lake with spectacular wine cellar. Regional dishes, eg. B. deer stew, truffle paste. Localita? Castello 14, San Zeno di Montagna, www.ristoranteveronatavernakus.it

Leisure:

THE BOTANICAL GARDEN OF ANDRE? HELLER is wonderfully lush and poetic, with flowering plants from all over the world. In between you come across sculptures by Keith Haring or Roy Lichtenstein? a perfect combination of art and nature. www.hellergarden.com

TO BATHE SirmioneThe "Lido delle Bionde" at the tip of the southern peninsula has a long jetty, the water is light blue-turquoise, framed by rocks with Roman ruins. Toscolano-Maderno: The "Lido Azzurro" on the west bank is one of the few sandy beaches on Lake Garda, with a view of the Monte Baldo opposite. San Felice del Benaco: The "Baia del Vento" is protected between two headlands, overlooking the Isola del Garda, boat rental.

VISIT Isola del GardaNeo-Gothic palace with old family pictures on the walls, perfect English garden in front of the villa and a densely wooded park. Tickets including boat crossing from 31 Euro, www.isoladelgarda.com

Vittoriale degli Italiani: large-scale ensemble in Gardone Sopra with open-air theater, submarine, residence and mausoleum of the poet Gabriele d? Annunzio, concerts in summer, www.vittoriale.it

HINGUCKER The Madonna statue "Regina Mundi" was created by a monk, she stands 532 meters above sea level on a terrace above the lake.

An article from BRGITTE Woman