Jeanne's Next Chapter: The Italian Lakes

14,000 years ago the glaciers retreated northward and left this part of Italy with beautiful deep, blue lakes. There are four major lakes, (from east to west) Garda, Como, Lugano and Maggiore. I have had lots of time to explore Lakes Como and Lugano because of their proximity and we had a great day last spring visiting Lake Maggiore which is about an hour's drive west of here. But it wasn't until last weekend, that I was able to see the largest Italian lake, Lake Garda.

Lago di Garda

Lago di Como

Lago di Lugano (on the border of Switzerland and Italy)

Lago di Maggiore

Lake Garda sits on the border of three Italian provinces - Trentino with its Austrian flavor to the north, Veneto (as in Venetian empire) to the east and Lombardia to the west, thus providing a rich blend of historical influences, traditions and cuisine. We made a spur of the moment decision to drive the 3 hours from Como to a a scenic village called Malcesine on the northeastern shore of the lake. It is still early in the season so we found a deal on a hotel room with a great view of the lake and the mountains rising beyond. The town reminded us of the villages in the Cinque Terre, oriented to the water with a jumble of narrow stone streets. The number of cafes and restaurants let us know that this town must fill up as summer approaches.

A rotating funivia or cable car took us up Mt. Baldo mountain to a station at 1,760 meters (over 1 mile high) with a panoramic view of the lake and towns below. This is an area that produces fine olive oil and on the ride up, we saw many old groves that still actively produce an olive crop. We also watched people with parasails jumping off the hillside to soar in the wind currents above the lake.

From the cable car

Above Lake Garda, Monte Baldo

Malcesine

After a hike high above the lake, we rode back down on the funivia and celebrated the appearance of the sun. The northern part of the lake resembles a Norwegian fjord with steep rock walls and forests rising above the water. The lake here is extremely deep, in places it is over 1000 feet down. Windsurfers and sail boats were taking full advantage of the windy conditions and in the sunshine, the lake took on the deep blue the Italian lakes are known for. We drove up and around the north shore of the lake, by the resort towns of Riva di Garda and Limone sul Garda and found a pizzeria near Pieve with a million dollar view The road on the western coast has been used for filming James Bond movies so Dave got a workout maneuvering the car on the narrow and twisting road. The view is scary but breathtaking. The lake gets wide and calmer at its southern end and one care barely see across to the other shore. Before we knew it, the road straightened out and we were back on the motorway headed home to what we still consider to be the most beautiful lake in Italy...Lago di Como.