Lake Garda is located between the Alps in the north and the Po Valley in the south. The weather at these latitudes is already a lot better than behind the Alps and so this region often offers a good option to escape the German weather when the summer is not so nice or is waiting. The north of the lake belongs to the Trentino-Alto Adige region, the west to Lombardy and the east to Veneto.
Basically our favourite region in Italy, easy and quick to reach from Erlangen, we know our way around there relatively well, know what to expect. Going to Lake Garda feels a bit like coming home.
There are excellent cycle paths, Bardolino itself is a really nice well-kept town and there La Formica on Piazza Lenotti, Giorgio's restaurant, is our restaurant. This is where we are at home in Italy. And if we are completely honest, we really only go to Lake Garda and Bardolino because of La Formica - the best food ever.
We like the south-eastern corner of Lake Garda with its vastness and the gentle hills surrounding it. Further north it is already too narrow and too steep for us.
It is always a challenge to find accommodation on Lake Lago, especially if you haven't booked anything a year in advance. Here, too, there are only a few accommodations that meet our requirements - quiet location, clean, private terrace with lots of privacy, a good bed... so nothing really out of the ordinary.
This summer we stayed in a small villetta a little above, in the hills of Bardolino. The cottage had one bedroom, a bathroom, a living room and a small kitchenette. The most important thing - an absolutely private terrace with a water connection, a small plunge pool (a pop-up pool) and a great view of the lake.
If you disregard the bathroom from the 60s with a broken toilet lid and broken toilet seat, the worn, partly junk-ready inventory, the broken plastic couches and the rat in the front garden in front of the front door - a really perfect accommodation.
The bad thing is that this accommodation is still one of the better ones compared to what else is on offer. Of course, there is also great accommodation, renovated or newly built, well maintained. However, the prices are often completely overpriced.
We enjoyed our stay at Lake Garda - as always - very much, rode our bikes a lot, ate well every evening without exception and simply had a good time.