The campsite I'd stayed in overnight was set in the mountains and was still quite far away from where I planned to visit today, Lago di Garda, or Lake Garda. It was an amazing drive though, through mountains and villages and the road afforded some pretty good views. I had to stop at one point though, picking a parking place on the side of the road in order to go take a photo and marvel at this view on the Lago di Santa Massenza...
I made it to Lake Garda itself at about 9am, and found a park in a place called Riva del Garda. This is the first town on the North part of the lake.
Did you know that Lake Garda is the biggest lake in Italy? I don't recall ever seeing many really BIG lakes in my life, but this was REALLY BIG. Like an inland sea! At a lot of points, you couldn't even see the other side, it just looked like the ocean, albeit with the most amazing blues ever!
Anyway, I left the camper and got out to have a look around. The best thing about Riva, I think, was the beautiful gardens right by the lakefront. Oh it was lovely. The little town was very pretty as well.
I walked around Riva for about an hour or so then went back to the camper. I wanted to get to my next destination before lunchtime, as it's notoriously hard to park anywhere at that time!
It was about half an hour drive away and it was quite an interesting one too, as the road goes right alongside the lake, through tunnels cut into the mountains above. There were a lot of people driving that road - I could see why, it was winding and scenic. I got to my next stop and looked for a park right away. I drove into a parking station and I'm pretty sure I got the last parking spot in there. Phew! That was the good thing about having a camper that was basically a minivan - it could park in normal car parks. I wouldn't have liked trying to find a park for a bigger motorhome along those roads, they were so tiny.
You had to park for Limone sul Garda on one side of the main road through, then there was a pedestrian tunnel that went to the village on the lake on the other side. There were no cars in the village, all pedestrian streets, which was very nice, and I popped out of the tunnel into one of the prettiest little villages I've been to! It was really lovely.
It was early for lunch, but there were so many people milling around that I thought I would go find a table somewhere. I ended up at this restaurant right on the water and ordered a spritz, since that seemed to be all everyone was drinking and I'd never had one. Turns out that I'd rather drink wine.
I also ordered a pizza, and had my early lunch in what was such a glorious setting.
After lunch I had a wander around the little town. It was very touristy, yes, but I managed to get away from that and find some of the quieter areas. I did buy a bottle of lemoncello though, and a packet of the tastiest lemony biscuits. Yummy!
Oh, and about the name? Apparently not really to do with lemons, despite the lemons growing on trees around the lake and the ubiquity of lemoncello... Limone is derived from a Latin word meaning "boundary", the association with the lemons is just a happy coincidence!
The next part of my day was a bit of a miss... the next stop was Sirmione, right at the south end of Lake Garda. It was quite a long drive from Limone, but it was a nice one so I didn't mind. The problem started, however, as soon as I got close to Sirmione - no parking. I drove in, nothing, I circled around, nothing. I ended up finding a park quite far out of town.
Sirmione is a pointy bit of land that goes out into the lake with a castle at the end, and I wanted to walk there. But as I started walking, and walking, and walking I just got hotter and hotter - there was little relief or shade, and I didn't have much water with me and I had a headache. About halfway along, I looked at the map and decided I'd had enough, I'd go back to the car and try to find a campsite (I figured it would be a bit difficult in this touristy area).
I went back to a campsite that I had passed while driving down to Sirmione, and pulled up behind another couple. I chose this one because it was a bit further away and so I thought there was more chance that they would be a bit cheaper and have a free space. It was good timing too, as we were offered the last two spots in the campsite. I was just glad to get under some trees, have a drink and cool down a bit. I decided I'd choose tomorrow whether to go back to Sirmione or just miss it and head on.
Campsite: Camping La Ca
Rating: 7/10. Right on the lake. Tiny and not very private pitches, but underneath trees which is nice. The roads within the campsite are quite tight. Lots of facilities - pools, restaurant and bar, etc. Wanted to keep my passport until I left (said no, got him to take a copy). Pretty cheap for Italy, but price dependent on where you were - water's edge pitches were expensive.