A Trip To Lake Garda – When the Lake Lies Stillā¦
Wait a minute, seriously Lake Garda, the Italian favorite of the Germans with a license for hustle and bustle? It’s all a seasonal question, as C&C author Cornelia Menner has discovered.
Lake Garda has always been the (easily accessible) destination of longing for Germans: Once over the Brenner Pass and then, after just under two hours by car, enjoy the Italian flair of Lake Garda, indulging in gelato, pasta and pizza. It is probably this special mixture of beaches, high mountains, steep coastal roads and green countryside that makes Lake Garda, as the Italians call their country’s largest lake, so unique. And somehow there is something for everyone, whether you want to swim, surf, bike, hike, paraglide, climb – or simply enjoy.
Not so easy when you’re surrounded by āmillionsā of like-minded people. In high season, the queues in front of the ice cream parlors, ferries and sights are legendary – and the famous Gardesana road, which connects all the coastal towns, can only be negotiated at walking pace. The overtourism syndrome that has long been known from Venice has also arrived at Lake Garda after corona at the latest, with the tourism board reporting over 24 million overnight stays in 2024. With a license to go up.
Away from the tourist crowds
Good to know: The flow of tourists is largely limited to the summer and the vacations. When I visit Lake Garda in November and the following year in March and April, the picture is completely different: there is little going on on the lake, the souvenir stalls with lots of cheap stuff are still closed. Only a few restaurants and hotels are open, waiters and hotel staff are relaxed. A few words of the local language wouldn’t go amiss: the purely German-speaking staff will probably only be recruited for the summer season. This makes the whole thing all the more Italian, especially as Sicilians, Sardinians and Romans have also long since discovered their country’s largest lake as a vacation destination.
Of course, water sports are not yet or no longer possible – and I’m definitely not one of those hardened ice bathers. When even the ferry service has a winter break, from November onwards, the water birds are in high season: I could watch the red-brown pochard with its oversized head forever as it glides calmly across the lake, diving as fast as an arrow in search of algae and aquatic insects.… weiterlesen
CultureAndCream-Autorin aus MĆ¼nchen
Beauty was my first love…. oder doch Reisen? Gesundheitsthemen? Sprachen? Als Journalistin und Autorin mit der Lizenz zur Neugier kann ich alles ausleben, vor allem, seit ich mich vor 11 Jahren selbststƤndig machte. ZusƤtzlich bin ich Wirtschafts-Mediatorin und Dozentin an der Uni, was zu meinem ursprĆ¼nglichen Kommunikationsstudium perfekt passt. Denn es geht es immer um Menschen ā und was gibt es Spannenderes?