Lake Garda's Torbole

Wednesday 30 June 2003. It's the first full day of our holiday in Italy and we have walked from our hotel at Riva del Garda across the top end of Lake Garda to the town of Torbole.

The temperature is somewhere in the mid 30s centigrade and as we arrive in the middle of the day it is approaching 40 degrees. We have walked the 3 kilometres from Riva and are hot and ready for a sit down and a drink.

Riva is the northern terminus for all the ferries that go up and down the 30 mile length of Lake Garda and Torbole is the first stop for any ferries that call in there. Some of them just head south without calling at Torbole.

Even away from the lake Torbole is a very attractive town. The northern end of the lake is in the shadow of mountains on either side, we are not all that far from the Dolomite Mountains between Italy and Austria and will be seeing them at closer quarters during the week!

That, coupled with some tall buildings and narrow streets, means that shade can be readily found but I wasn't convinced that there was much respite from the heat even in the shady spots!

Still, they were fun to explore once we had realised that motorists' understanding of pedestrian crossing markings are not quite the same as in the UK. In the UK most drivers give way to pedestrians and let them cross. Here they seem to get a strange light in their eyes that is the Italian equivalent of [TARGET SIGHTED!] and they will happily whizz past you with bare inches to spare ... or spear...

Seperated pavements for pedestrians are not necessarily a priority for the town planners in this part of the world so you must keep an eye out at all times. There were lots of scooters, Vespas, Lambrettas, whatever. Some with a single rider. Some with a pretty girl on the pillion. Some with a pretty girl riding pillion side-saddle and some with Mum, Dad, two kids, a baby and the family dog all hanging on for grim death. Believe me - you will gawp the first time you see this!

Cafes are plentiful, I mentioned latte machiatto in the previous article - it's served warm but not hot. The country is hot, you don't need drinks to be hot. Latte means milk - if you ask for that you'll either get a glass of milk or you will probably be asked "Solo latte?" which means "Just milk?" Also we grew to love the orange-coloured alcoholic drink Aperol.

We have wandered to the outskirts of town and are thinking we might turn back and forego the ferries for the day and walk back to Riva again.

Before we turned back towards the lake we found this ivy-covered house, not a common sight to come across here. In the next article we take once more to the Via Gardesana. Which means we will walk back to Riva the same way we came...

Lake Garda and Northern Italy, 2003 Index

To Riva del Garda, 2003

Tuesday 29 June 2003. We fly out from Manchester to Verona, Italy, from where we are picked up by coach transfer to our holiday destination for the week: Lake Garda.

It's not an early flight so by the time we get there we are tired, hungry and wanting to do very little except find the hotel and something to eat.

Our hotel - the Hotel Portici - is behind the flags. In fact it's the pink building behind the flags, the yellow building to the left and the orange building to the left of that. We find we have a suite of rooms in the orange bit, overlooking a narrow street on the side of the building. Not just the en-suite bedroom we were expecting, but a small kitchen area and a sitting room too. We are booked in for evening meals anyway so the kitchen won't get used for anything more than making the occasional coffee!

There's time for a swift explore after our meal before we collapse into a bar and vegetate for a few hours before bed calls.

Wednesday 30 June 2003. Ferries go off from here down the full length of the lake, calling at just about every town that exists around the lake. However there's a short walk to the opposite side of the lake which is only about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) or so wide at this end, with Riva being on the top left corner and a town called Torbole ("Tor-bow-lay") on the top right corner.

It's a very pleasant walk. Temperatures started climbing and didn't stop until they were in the mid 30s centigrade. About halfway between the two towns a river, the Fiume Sarca, flows into the lake and is crossed by a bridge.

We stopped and had a drink at the tables and I started a sketch but abandoned it... There'll be some later on! Take that as a warning... Incidentally, this being 2003, digital cameras were still only capable of producing small images and I've done quite a bit of work to sharpen them as much as I could. I did have my SLR film camera with me too, but used the digital most days.

In fact this was the digital. One of the first with a zoom function! Most people still hadn't seen one at all - it was astonishing to be able to see your photo straight away on the back screen of the camera as soon as it was taken.

Anyway, I'm digressing... As the morning wore on and the temperatures rose, the shingle beaches of the lake started to fill up with sunbathers. Quite a liberated place - you wouldn't see some of those sights on Blackpool beach I can tell you!

A regatta of wind surfers is under way and attracts a few spectators. We are nearing Torbole but we'll have a look at that in the next article.

Lake Garda and Northern Italy, 2003 Index

A Week at Lake Garda, Northern Italy, August 2012

My record of a week's holiday at Lake Garda in northern Italy, staying at the Hotel Sole in Riva del Garda at the top of the lake.

Each place of interest is shown on its own separate article, reached by clicking/tapping the eleven photos below. A link on each page will bring you back here.

Return to Holidays Outside the UK Index Page

From Riva to Torbole and Back

Sunday 19 August. Sunday morning and we set off to walk the 4km to Torbole.

This is the day for some wonderful Lake Garda scenery. Although we set out straight after breakfast the temperature was already in the mid to high 30s and climbing. The last 2km were gaspingly hot!

This is one of the most scenic walks to do. The Via Gardesana. From this little inlet you could hire boats and small yachts to go out on the lake. Tiny black fish were swimming in the water.

Now we come to the beaches. Pebble beaches but none the worse for that. This being a Sunday they were crowded. The north of Lake Garda is within easy reach of Munich and lots of Germans come down for the weekend either to laze on the beach and top up tans or to squeeze themselves into lycra and scare you to death by powering past on racing bikes, groups of ten or more all dressed exactly the same, determined looks on their faces, sparing neither man nor beast... Even if they are not exactly in a race they act as if they are and any lesser mortal who doesn't give way will soon be shy a limb or two!

I didn't take any photos of the beaches because I didn't want to be labelled as I labelled the several old guys who were wandering up and down past the bikinis and odd topless young damsel openly holding their i-phones in the air, videoing the female delights they passed. For Heaven's sake! Now I can appreciate the feminine form as much as anyone but this was a step too far methinks! However, nice to see that the Italian elderly have a grasp of technology...

And so we reach Torbole. Hot. In need of a drink. Wanting to sit somewhere in the shade. And this spot, overlooking Torbole's harbour with the delightful little building on the jetty affords us just that with a set of tables under a roof but open on the side to allow us the view.

We were sitting behind the arched windows seen on the right of this view. No matter what angle you choose that little building just looks perfect!

At the northern end of Lake Garda the mountains rise up on both sides and it's almost impossible not to point your camera here there and everywhere, snapping away.

What an expensive place this would have been twenty years ago when we all had to use film and then pay again to have it processed. I used to spend a fortune on film and "D+P" as we used to call developing and printing. I'd have bankrupted myself here!

We spend a little time in Torbole. Then walk down to the landing stage to catch the S. Martino ferry back to Riva. It's only 4km. But that is just too far to repeat the walk in this heat!

Back in Riva and we have the now inevitable stop at Gelaterie Cristallo. From here we can sit and watch the ferries arrive and depart. Tipple of the day is an Aperol Spritzer.

Return to Lake Garda 2012 Index