Our Italian Adventure

Wow, three days without any concrete plans except to relax, soak up some rays, and enjoy Lazise on Lake Garda. On Tuesday, June 3rd, we started our day by walking into town toward the lakeshore path. Similar to Riva, Lazise has a nice path along the water for walkers and bicyclists. From what I can gather, there is a lakeshore path around a large segment of Lake Garda. With Lazise being on the southeast side of Lake Garda, we started walking southbound on the path. This is in the direction of Peschiera del Garda which is on the southeast tip of Lake Garda. According to Google earth, the distance is about 10 kilometers from Lazise to Peschiera.  Gardaland resort is also in that direction.  Gardaland is a large amusement park with rollercoasters. I love rollercoasters, but we didn’t come to Italy to fight crowds at amusement parks. Our goal was to check out the various beaches just south of Lazise.

Several beaches seem to run together and it’s difficult to discern when a beach ends and another starts.  As is the case for most of European beaches, these are not sandy beaches, but are covered with small pebbles. In a few small areas, there might be some sand, but beach shoes would be in order here. The reviewers were spot on about the condition of the beaches and water. The beaches improve with cleaner water and beaches the further away you walk from Lazise. The water at Lazise Spiaggia and Golden Beach isn’t what I would want to swim or play in. The conditions do improve at Vanon Spiaggia. I’m not sure when Google earth captured their map image, but a long line of algae can be seen at Lazise and continuing south & north. I would probably not stay in Lazise if your goal is to swim in Lake Garda. With our pool, it didn’t bother us at all. One bonus was that there were cute families of ducks and swans along this stretch.

Upon returning back into town, we walked past Castello Scaligero. This powerhouse family from Verona built the castle in the 14th century to protect Lazise. The castle with a moat came under attack when conflicts between Milan and Venice erupted. Twenty towers were also built around the walls, and access to Lazise was through three city gates. After Verona lost their power, the rulers of Venice controlled Lazise for the next four centuries. It has been privately owned since the latter 19th century. The city walls and gates are still well-preserved.

Castello Scaligero di Lazise

We walked around Lazise and had some gelato. We purchased our mandatory souvenir thimble which we have had great luck with everywhere in Italy. With great weather, we returned to our rental to hang out on the deck. For dinner, we had a reservation for La Forgia which is located in the Lazise harbor. The award for best waiter went to the poor guy who was the only server in this crowded restaurant. I could see he was on the phone attempting to find another employee to help out, but no luck. The host and the cook also helped by taking food orders out to customers.  They kept working hard without complaining. I gave him an extra tip to show our appreciation for his hard work.

Shopping in Lazise

Lazise

While walking back to our place after dinner, Amy noticed an flyer on a business door.  This advertisement was for a cooking class on Wednesday at 10am. She signed up online and was ready to cook, Italian style.

On Wednesday, June 4th, Amy left for her cooking class. I just hung out at the unit and had an easy morning. Around 11am, I left for Lazise to check out the weekly “market” day.  Lazise hosted a “market” every Wednesday. In Wisconsin, a public market means someone can buy fresh fruit, veggies, pastries, and local food products. In Italy, a public market apparently means vendors selling clothing, purses, and many other non-food items. There were a couple of vendors selling fruit, but that was about it. Despite this food limitation, Lazise was completely packed. It was wall-to-wall people all wanting to buy something. There were multiple charter buses parked nearby, so apparently, markets are big in Italy. I finally found Amy’s cooking class through all of the chaos.  The student chefs had just finished cooking their pasta dishes as I arrived.  Amy had a big smile on her face and had learned to make a tasty Italian meal.  Oh yea, there was wine to go along with the pasta! There were five student chefs in the class which is offered by Cusina by Fracca. Can you believe three of them were from Wisconsin?! What are the odds of that happening in this little town on Lake Garda Italy. The other couple was from Denmark. What I found amazing was that there are 168 google reviews of this cooking class and they have a perfect review score of 5.0! Usually, there is always at least one Debbie Downer. Amy highly recommends this activity to anyone finding themselves in Lazise.Pasta Ingredients

Pasta Machine

Getting ready to cook the pasta

The Finished Product!

Afterwards we walked northbound on the lakeshore path. We ended up walking to Bardolino which resulted in a twelve kilometer roundtrip hike alongside peaceful Lake Garda. I didn’t know anything about Bardolino, but according to the reviews, it’s another great option for those wanting to stay on Lake Garda. I’m often asked why we didn’t stay on the more famous Italian lake. The easy answer is that we never received our invitation from George Clooney to stay with him on Lake Como.  I have a feeling that Lake Garda is much calmer than Como..

Bardolino Italy on Lake Garda

The weather turned cloudy in the afternoon. Just before it was time to decide where to go for dinner, a light rain started to fall. We had fantastic weather while we were in Italy. Considering we were there for 35 days, the amount of rain was very low. One evening in Sorrento, and a couple of light rain segments elsewhere is all of the precipitation that we had. After our 2022 trip to Norway, this was quite the change. We took our raincoats and walked down to Lazi’s Pizzeria. This was a takeout place only, so we ordered our pizzas and walked back with a light rain still falling. This turned out to be the best pizza of the entire trip! Plus, there was enough left over for dinner on Thursday.

Thursday, June 5th marked our last day on Lake Garda. We hung out at the pool and relaxed. Just a quick jaunt into town. We returned to enjoy our leftover pizza and get ready for our trip on Friday to the Dolomites.

Our Path from the VRBO to Lazise

Thank You Lake Garda, Our bodies and minds needed a relaxing period. Bring on the Dolomites!