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Lake Garda -- post cruise suggestion -- a pictorial travellogue

Kreuzfahrtneuling

By Kreuzfahrtneuling,
in Italy Ports

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Kreuzfahrtneuling

Kreuzfahrtneuling

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A week off work in the fall holidays

… mhhh …

let’s drive to Italy and take the dogs along



That’s how it started – our spontaneous week away from home. This time it ain’t a cruise, yet maybe one or the other reader might plan to integrate our lovely holiday destination into his or her own pre or post cruise travel plans. It sure would be worth it.

But first things first: We are two women from Germany travelling with our sixteen year old fosterson and our two dogs – an eleven year old Border Collie Princess from an Irish rescue shelter and a feisty ten year old Pug/French Bulldog mix from somewhere around Berlin. Our travel destination for this Italian week would be Cassone di Malcesine, a quaint village right on the eastern shore of beautiful, stunning Lake Garda.

Just for your orientation: Malcesine can be reached from Genoa, La Spezia or Ravenna (Porto Corsini) in three and a half hours from either one of these cruise ports. From the port of Venice it is actually only two hours and fifteen minutes away. So just in case you’ve already seen it all in these fabulous ports…why not think about a stunning alternative?

Let me take you along on our dry-land trip. The readers who already know us might be a bit disappointed about the lack of sheer volume of both our activity-variation and picture range, yet let me promise you it should be worth your while even as it is. There will be pictures, stories and I do hope to portray a feeling of what it’s like to simply enjoy that part of the world for a week.

As I write this, I’m still busy sorting through the thousands! of pictures which the three of us took. I’ll continue this review slowly, so for those of you who want to read it in one piece - recheck in about three months, for everybody else - I absolutely love to talk to you while writing or just hear your thoughts, suggestions and insights ... it’s half the fun, so please don’t be shy to post anytime.

Allright … enough for today … we’ll get started soon… thanks for joining me!

Stef

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Kreuzfahrtneuling

Kreuzfahrtneuling

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Since our trip wouldn’t be a cruise, I’ll skip the packing and planning description this time.

Just let me say a sentence each:

planning:
merely 13! days to do it. (Imagine ma as a whirling dervish)

packing:
the evening before we planned to leave – grinning all the time since THIS time we could take the panicky-looking animals along.

The one thing I was looking forward to
most
concerning this trip, was the moment when we’d actually get in the car to leave and say “hop” to the dogs. The stoked and astonished looks on their faces, when realizing they’d be allowed to come along, would be priceless.

At least hat’s what I anticipated.

Well, we got up at three in the morning to leave at four. Our Border Collie princess Lena was appalled that we dared to wake her at such an ungodly hour. She had to be lifted onto the car seat, since she made no effort whatsoever to jump in herself. For the entire trip (10 hours!) we had a pouting black and white doggie who gave us annoyed looks the entire time.

Sigh … So much for the sparkly eyes I had expected.

At least the pug was giddy and ready for whatever adventure might come in front of his stubby nose. His name is Johnny … but we mainly call him Mops (pug in German) or John-mops.

Anyway, the drive was looong and pretty boring, since we had foggy weather and couldn’t see a thing until we finally passed the Alps and descended into Italy. We left the Italian freeway at Rovereto to reach the northern shore of Lake Garda. From there we’d enjoy the scenic drive south to Cassone di Malcesine.

Remember that the green-signed autostradas in Italy cost money! You draw tickets when you enter those roads and pay showing the stub to an actual human being when you exit. Can you imagine just how many people they must have working in those booths? I mean they have several of them at every single freeway exit! Incredible.

In Cassone we met our landlord for the week and moved into our little apartment. Perfect!

Since we were pooped from the long drive, all we were up to on the remainder of this first day was a short walk around town and a visit to the restaurant across the street. So we’ll start the first set of pictures showing you a bit of Cassone, allright?

Here we go:

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Parking lot right next to our apartment … luckily we had a private spot for our pick up, since parking can be pretty expensive otherwise.

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pretty tower right at the cozy harbor.

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This is the beginning of the Aril river….the shortest river in the entire world! It is only 175 meters long until it flows into Lake Garda. You can walk alongside the complete river front to back …. A fun gimmick.

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This is the “Stella”. Even before our trip I had read marvelous descriptions about the food and the staff and I must say it is all true! This place has stunning food and I absolutely recommend even long trips to try it out. We ate here three times during this week and every single time was unforgettable. Their pizzas are fabulous and their meat dishes and especially the seafood spaghetti plate are sure to blow you away! A gem in the middle of nowhere. Wow!

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After our meal it was dark outside

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Lol – after a bit of fun with this statue right on the shore of the lake, we called it a day, went “home”and slept like babies. Tomorrow would be our first day to roam around … get ready for some beautiful scenery shots and a thrilling hiking trip.

Stef

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Kreuzfahrtneuling

Kreuzfahrtneuling

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Not to hijack this thread, but I will be aboard the Spirit tomorrow. Flying out in several hours.

I will try and post and read your posts.

Looking forward to both!

 

no worries Spinnaker,

 

Have a safe trip and hopefully a wonderful cruise! Screw this review meanwhile! --- enjoy your cruise first!... We'll be here when you get back!

 

Stef

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Kreuzfahrtneuling

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Monday morning

The weather looked lovely and we wanted to start off easy with a comfortable hike to Malcesine. We’d get there via two marked hiking trails leading through the hills above those towns and back the easier route alongside the lake itself.

For all of this we thought we’d need half a day --- max --- even including an extended exploration of the old town of beautiful Malcesine.

Yeah right.

But let’s start hiking:

At first you walk uphill through the beautifully cobbled streets of Cassone:

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Steep – but doable and so many stuff to see that time flies by.

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First views of the lake behind the rooftops

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Man, this is getting steeper and steeper

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Time for us three old ladies and the pug to take a break. Tarik is still fresh as can be, taking this picture from above.

Before we leave civilization completely to enter the forest, we get a really nice view of the lake:

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Hang on…

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Trail to Malcesine continued....

But now the trail changes dramatically. Oh, don’t get me wrong … it’s still steep as hell, but additionally the ground now only consists of a narrow path of many layers of loose rounded rocks. Pretty much every step you take, your foot slides down a bit again and you have to be real careful not to strain or fall. And as if that wouldn’t be bad enough : when we took our first break, sweating profusely by now, I realized I had made a crucial mistake … I didn’t take ANY water along --- not for us ---- or the already panting dogs … I had it all laid out in the apartment …bowl and everything… but I forgot to actually pack it … Aargh!

Now my mind went into full panic mode. No way we’d be able to descend this rocky slidy path without anybody getting seriously hurt. I saw snapped ligaments, broken bones and concussions in the mental horror movie of my mind.

Since I thought the worst was already behind us we decided to carry on …how much worse could it get?

Well, it got so bad, that about half an hour later I was just about ready to lay down and cry. But of course turning around from here was even less possible than before. Tarik was the only one still breathing normally and so he volunteered to scout up ahead to find the junction where the path to Malcesine would finally lead us back downhill. After about fifteen minutes he hollered that he found it!

Hallelujah!

Now Tanja and I only had to conquer the last steep stretch to catch up with him. And then and there I needed to crash for a few minutes.

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My circulatory system was running wild --- see how pale I am? When I looked to the right I saw something light --- no forest anymore…but somehow sky looks differently … is my mind playing tricks on me now?

Then I realized we sat at the bottom of a huge, massive vertical rock wall, that shone so light, because the sun hit it directly. Tanja and Tarik thought it was way cool … I thought it was the most scary sight ever … really… I couldn’t get myself to even properly look at it. Tanja took these pictures for me, so I’d be able to check it out later. Here they are:

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By the way, this is that rock wall seen from Malcesine later on:

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Looks so harmless and small from down here, doesn’t it?

hang on ...

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trail to Malcesine continued once more...

Well at least from that junction it was all downhill. Yet some stretches were so steep that the pug was grateful to be allowed to sit on Tariks lap, while he carefully slid downwards on his butt. You never see this dog grateful … ever! It was quite the sight. Lena of course, being the heavier one had to climb down herself --- boy was she pissed with us. If Border Collie looks could kill, we’d be dead meat. But slowly the path evened out and we reached this watering hole:

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These paths were formerly used for mules, who pulled wooden sleighs. I had read earlier that they had metal hooks in the sides of the rocks along the trails, so the mule drivers could use iron poles to catch them to slow down the sleighs downhill … Mhhhh, should have made me think about the possible steepness ahead of time. Oops.

Anyway, the water dripped down constantly from the rock into the pool and it was pure ambrosia … for us and the dogs! We felt reborn. After a long break at this very welcome puddle, we continued on the now easily sloping downwards trail to Malcesine. Life was good again.

We saw multiple vast olive fields:

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Pretty views of the lake:

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Funky gnarly trees:

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Nice views of the mountains:

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See the red dot in the olive trees? Here’s a close up:

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Oh look – they’re harvesting olives!

The trip which started out so strenuously ended up quite nicely. By the time we reached the outskirts of Malcesine, we settled into a café right by the lake for a huge portion of gelato and drinks. Now we were ready to explore the oldtown … but that’s another post.

Stef

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Oldtown Malcesine

When you are able to ignore the abundance of souvenir shops left and right, you’ll find the true spirit of this place.

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The prominent building overlooking Oldtown-Malcesine is the castle. It is only one castle of many built by the family of della Scala, which ruled the lake and the surrounding region a looong time ago. I’ll tell you more about them when we get to our visit of Verona. But before I show you the pictures of our stroll in Malcesine, we’ll have to take a little time to look at the not quite
this
far ago history of the lake and the different regions surrounding it.

The lake is more than 30 kilometers long and three distinctly different regions have their borders in the middle of it.

The Northern shore belongs to Trentino Alto Adige, a territory associated with the Alps, especially the Dolomites. Here for a very long time, the Austrians ruled and left their marks in architecture and lifestyle.

The eastern and south eastern shore belongs to Venezia, you’ll find many artsy, romantic and opulent sights proving the vicinity to Verona, city of Romeo and Juliet.

The western and south western shore belong to Brescia. Some say with its breathtaking cliffs and villages towering high over the lake, it remains the most “Italian” region of Lake Garda. Here for instance you find the last tracks of the Mussolini era and the former home of Annunzio, who people still debate whether he was mad or a genius … however a visit to his extremely strange estate is definitely on my bucket list.

So depending on where you are at the lake … it can be a whole different experience. The geographics also come into account. In the mountainy northern part you feel like you’re standing next to an Alpine lake … in the flat southern part you rather feel like at the Mediterranean seashore.

We personally chose the Venezia- associated eastern shore. As it happened, the former boundary between Austria and Venezia ran just north of Malcesine. A very famous German writer Goethe spent some time in Malcesine and wrote about it. On one occasion he sat at the lake in the year 1786 and drew the Malcesine castle. Guess what happened --- he got arrested! The Italians thought he was an Austrian spy, wanting to uncover the weaknesses of this military fort. He just barely didn’t get thrown in jail after succeeding in telling them who he was and that he was only interested in the cultural and historical aspects of it. There is a tour through the castle, which would tell you more, but since we had the dogs along we didn’t check it out.

But now without further ado … here are our impressions of Malcesine:

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Streets like this one are typical. Many lead down to the lake, where you often find terraces of restaurants with spectacular views and of course yummy food.

The area of the harbor is especially pretty. I liked this sailing boat:

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bohoooo I want to be on a cruise again. Our pug looks as if he’d be ready to try it … we actually had a doggy life-vest along on this trip----always be prepared ;-) but sadly ended up without water excursions during this holiday.

Lol – there is art:

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And no matter how crowded it was, we always found a spot just for ourselves:

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But the very best we saw in Malcesine was this:

Imagine walking into a regular supermarket and right next to the fruits and vegetables you find this baby:

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Died and gone to heaven!

Stef

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A stroll along the lake between Malcesine and Cassone

After our explorations in Malcesine, we strolled back to Cassone right beside the lake. It is a simple walk, almost the entire path is reserved for pedestrians and bikes, only to be interrupted by a short incline and decline on “car” roads right next to the Val di Sogno (another post). We walked and biked this stretch pretty much every day, so don’t be surprised to see a bike in a picture.

So here are three sets with our impressions of that section of the lake … Enjoy:

bench with a view number one:

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or look at that view from this one:

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or how about this one on the grass?

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Tarik and Mops in front of the Val di Sogno.

this lake is huge! Looking south from Malcesine:

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and looking north:

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more to come...

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Kreuzfahrtneuling

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great scenery - but what about food! I like photos of food best

 

Eric

Liverpool UK

 

Hi Eric,

 

:(:osorry -- no food pictures this time. :rolleyes:Lol -- all I have is a picture of me doing dishes .... and that's not worth posting... but next time we go on a cruise again, I promise to take food pics again, okay?

 

I'll at least mention food in the next post if that's some sort of help:o.

 

Stef

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