Lake Garda. A place for old people
After the somewhat turbulent visit to Milan, we set course for Venice. We had planned to be romantic and sail in gondolas. After all, we are still on our honeymoon. But then Lake Garda happened.
We had sat down comfortably in our seats and prepared ourselves to put a lot of kilometers behind us but … Suddenly signs began to appear pointing to Lake Garda. At first, we laughed, because Lake Garda was for us a place where old people went and we hadn’t reached that age yet! After a while, we decided to go to Lake Garda anyway, since we were in the neighborhood and wanted to confirm our theory. However, we were wrong …
Where did we go wrong?
Maybe Lake Garda was once a place for older people or maybe our perception has simply been completely wrong? Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised by Lake Garda. Peschiera del Garda was the name of the city where we stayed. At a cheap spot, dedicated to motorhomes. The place was looked after by an elderly and very friendly man and at one point, Malthe was going to the office, to ask for something and when he came back again, he had his arms full of ripe grapes, which the man generously handed out to his guests with a big smile on his face. That’s customer care.
Strangely amazing atmosphere
In general, there is a very special calm over the city. Buildings, squares, and green areas are incredibly beautiful, even though the city is characterized by tourists. Still, you’re captivated by the amazing feeling you had when you were little and were on summer holiday. Before one became aware of tourist traps, high prices at restaurants, and the backside of tourism. For these things do not exist in Peschiera del Garda. It is as if the city has come to a standstill, at the most pleasant time in life.
Passion, love and laughs
The food is, like most other places in Italy unsurpassed. Made from good ingredients and with a taste that only comes from love and tradition. In one place we got a meal which was a little below standard but it was kept up by the restaurant owner. A playful, voluminous, elderly lady in high heels and a colorful, tight dress. She laughed and talked loudly with guests and staff. The epitome of Italian Mama.
What’s not to like?
The streets in the city were, both during the day and in the evening, characterized by small cozy shops and stalls with everything from handmade soaps and creams to home-knitted hats and beautiful hand-dipped candles. Once again we were happy that we only have limited space in our motorhome. Otherwise, we would have bought almost everything.
Changing plans
So we did not regret that we decided to visit Lake Garda and it’ll definitely not be the last time we stop by. But the wonderful experience also had consequences for our trip to Venice. The night before we had planned to drive on, we sat and talked about it. Was it really what we wanted? It turned out that none of us actually felt like many people around us and in fact we had read a lot about the fact that Venice might not be quite as idyllic as the pictures often show. That the canals were often crowded with gondolas and the tourists had taken over the city. Therefore, we decided that Venice had to be another time. After beautiful Peschiera del Garda we were so much in zen that we had to come up with a new plan. More about that in another post.
E&M
– Text and photography: Eva. Addings, photography, and photo editing: Malthe
