Southern Tip

Location: Southern Tip of Lake Garda, Italy

Introduction:

The southern end of Lake Garda is a tourist mecca. It’s obvious why when you see how picturesque it is. There are lots of family-oriented activities such as amusement, water and adventure parks. And, of course, there’s swimming and boating on the lake. You just have to be prepared for the crowds and heat in the summertime. We enjoyed this end of the lake better than the north but still prefer other parts of Italy more.

Sights Visited:

We took an hour boat tour on Lake Garda. A lot of the tours are four hours. Good thing we didn’t book one of those as our daughter surprisingly had no interest during the ride. She did however have plenty of interest in going swimming in the lake afterwards. The beaches are narrow and consist of smooth rocks and grass while the lake bottom was just as rocky in the southern end as it was in the northern end.

We had a family reunion of sorts at Piani Du Clodia, a camping resort on the lake, where we met up with Elizabeth’s aunt & uncle from Texas and cousins from Norway. The kids enjoyed the lake, pools and water slides.

The Verona Children’s Museum was on the small side but it gave us a nice afternoon break on a hot day. They time box visitors to an hour and forty-five minutes and that was plenty of time. Eataly was conveniently located right next door to pick up some goodies.

Play:

None of the playgrounds we visited had any form of shade making them unusable during the heat of the day. We had one on property where we stayed and another at an adjacent public park. We found a unique wooden playground in Verona not too far from the children’s museum.

Accommodations:

We used Airbnb to find a two-bedroom apartment at Bertoletta Village in Peschiera del Garda but it was cheaper to book on the hotel’s website so that’s what we did. It had an adequate kitchen and a European air conditioner in each room which we needed as the temps were in the 90’s. There were coin operated laundry facilities in the basement. The WiFi was inconsistent. The property included two pools, a playground, goats and chickens.

Food & Drink:

We’re in the land of Italian food now

Transportation System:

We drove the length of Lake Garda along the eastern shore. We benefited from a beautiful day enhancing the scenic coastal drive. The lake is about 50 km long and it took about an hour and a half.

Shout Outs:

We’re traveling with just two carry-on suitcases for the three of us along with our Backpacks. We purchased several Eagle Creek Packing Cubes in advance of our trip and they’ve been invaluable in helping to maximize our limited storage space.

For Your Amusement:

A traditional stove top espresso pot was our only option for coffee in the morning.

So much for the view.