Lake Garda

The greenway we were following to the Northern end of Lake Garda showed signs of the tourism hotspot this area had to offer. We saw more bike shops and campsites along the way and a few signs to some bike trails. We were tempted to stop and do some riding but decided to hold out for some riding once we found a place to sleep for the night.

Aggressive downhill on a greenway

We stopped at a bike shop along the way to find a map and some potential trail options. We saw that there were lots of mountain bike “trails” with some single track sections scattered throughout. The shop owner mentioned that the better free ride areas were farther West and the other mountain bike trails were on the North side of the lake.

We rode on until we reached Torbole where we set ourselves up at the first campground we came across with beach access.

Despite being in the busy season in a very touristy area, we were able to camp there fairly cheaply since we only rented a half size site. For most of the RV campers this would be an issue, but for us it was not a problem since we only have a tent and 2 bikes.

For the rest of the day we decided to find a trail to ride. We checked out our trail map and chose a shorter 20 km ride which started 12 km away. The east side of the lake was filled with smaller beach towns similar to the one we were staying at and had some great views of the protruding mountains along the lake side.

The trail was very difficult to find, since it began by climbing up one of the mountain roads, and our trail map lacked road names. We eventually found our way and saw some faded bike markers that assured us we were on the right path. We somehow always seem to find the steepest climbs during our adventure and this trail was no exception. At times, it seemed like walking would be faster but we continued up. The descent was very steep and rocky, much like the Dolomites. The trail was loose and unmaintained making the descent another white knuckle ride.

Half way down, the trail opened up to the lake to show off its beauty. The downhill after this point was more like what we enjoy riding, but was mostly double track trails back to a paved road to town. We finished with a quick ride back to our campsite for a total of around 40 km in addition to our morning of touring.

The next day we hung by the beach a bit. The very north side of the lake was filled with windsurfers. In the morning when the winds are low, all of the beginners are out on the water taking lessons. By the afternoon, the wind picks up enough to make waves that could pass as an ocean front, and the expert wind surfers come out to take advantage.In the early afternoon, w headed south to a friend’s house in Desanzano. What we thought would be a short ride ended up turning into a half days journey since Lake Garda is Italy’s largest lake. Since we had already ridden a third of the way down on the east side of the lake the previous day to get to our trail ride, we rode down on the west side for a change of scenery. The terrain on this side is very different, so much that it requires over a half dozen tunnels for the road to get through the mountains, one of which being 3 km long. We found our way to our friend Valeria’s home where we relaxed until dinner and shortly after a group of her friends came over for a dessert party.

The next morning we walked into town for a drink and to sightsee. We saw the local castle and some ruins from an ancient Roman town.  Later on after some pool time, we took a tour of Lake Garda on the family boat. We saw a beautiful private residence on the water which used to be a castle, an ancient Roman spa, a beautiful rock formation where we went swimming, and stopped at another castle that was larger and accommodating for tourists.

The next day two other friends of Valeria’s were flying into Milan so we all took a day trip together along with one of Valeria’s other friends who is an Engineer Architect. We saw the Duomo, walked the famous and expensive shopping district of Milan (and tried on the most hideous cloths we could find), saw the first theater in Italy and the first Roman Catholic church, and walked through the cities castle. Valeria’s friend was able to give us our own private tour since he knew lots of Milan’s history.

The following day we each went off on our own to find some entertainment. We both had plans to take the ferry back to the northern side of the lake, but ran into difficulties since only a few of the ferries will take bikes. Matt found several unique beaches along the South part of Lake Garda. The best beach was one that beautiful clear shallow water with flat rock for 100 meters from shore. Andrew decided to take a short ride around the lake, before heading back to the house and joining our host family for lunch and another boat ride on the lake. We regrouped that evening for a dinner party that Valeria was hosting with more of her friends coming over.

We spent a few hours the next morning walking around a nearby city, Verona. This popular tourist town had an ancient Roman amphitheater which is still used today for shows.

We visited Juliet’s house of the Capulet family from the fictional story “Romeo and Juliet.” It is tradition to grab the statue of Juliet’s breast, and you can see the right side is shiny and clean compared to the rest of her. There was a line of people waiting to partake in this tradition. In Milan there is a large tile of a Blue Bull where it is tradition to spin on your heal 7 times on the Bull’s testis when you come to Milan. This was evident since there was a large divot in the tile. Another tradition we heard of was to touch the foot of St. Peter at St. Peters Basilica in Vatican city.

The last landmark we saw in Verona was to go up to the bell tower. From the top, there was an amazing view of the city and parts of the cities surrounding wall.

We rested and researched the rest of the day to figure out our plan to Zurich. Since we were running out of time, the next morning we took a train to Lake Como, another beautiful lake city on the border of Switzerland.