debbspero

great reports anneeby! my husband and i are "over 50's" and we had this fab trip to the dolomites planned out for next week. and now the forceast for next week is rain/snow every day of our trip! do u think we should go for it anyway or should we reroute to warmer terrain, such as tuscany or the lake district? thanks much!!

anneeby

debbspero,
That's a tough call. It depends on your transportation, how comfortable you are exploring in the rain, and where you are staying. If you are okay with wearing a hooded raincoat and if the person driving has no problem driving in the rain, I would go. The roads are very good. If it's raining, the Lakes and Tuscany wouldn't be much fun, either.

grumlin

We enjoyed Lake Garda, Verona and Milan last year. Did you enjoy Lake Garda?

elnap29

Loving all the details in your report. We'll be in some of these areas next Spring. Thanks.

JulieVikmanis

Wonderful report. Almost can't believe the prices you found on what look to be great hotels.

We have been talking for years about taking our son to the Dolomites to ski some year during Christmas/New Years. If we headquartered in Canazei at your wonderful little Hotel Croce Bianca would there be enough to do in Canazei and surrounding area to keep his non-skiing parents interested?

anneeby

Thanks, everyone! More to come later about exploring the lakes...

JulieV--Canazei would be a good home base IF you and your husband enjoy driving around the mountains in the Winter. How old is your son? Would you need to stay with him while he skis, or could you go exploring? I would also look into Castelrotto and Ortisei.

JulieVikmanis

Thanks for the reply. Our son is in his 30's so mommy and daddy can leave him on his own. Yes, Castelrotto and Ortisei are other places we're looking at. Glad to have Canazei to add to the group. Really like the look of the hotel there. Thanks for posting about it.

tavistockdoc

Just signed up with Fodor's and immediately chanced upon your wonderful report which brought back memories of our month long trip to Italy in June 2010. We are 2 +50's early retirees, away from the UK ratrace. We decided to drive to Italy from our home in south west England, taking Brittany Ferries cross channel ferry to France. A lazy couple of days driving through France and took the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy. Wow! I thought France was beautiful but ... wow!

Initally stayed at Lake Garda, which still brings a lingering broad grin when I think about those long sunny days. Long story short, our trip took in Pisa, Lucca, Verona, Venice (an especially big wow!), Florence/Firenze, Siena, Gerona and of course Rome. Soooo many outstanding wonderful memories ...

Your report is therefore close to our hearts so cannot wait for more of your experience to come. Thank you!

anneeby

Castelrotto--Are we in Italy or Austria?

This charming alpine village was our home for three days. We stayed at Haus Silbernagl, www.garni-silbernagl.com, a pristine B&B run by a woman named Petra. The price was 38.50E per person, including breakfast. Our cozy room had fluffy down comforters and a big balcony overlooking the church tower and the countryside. Breakfast was a hearty offering of yogurt, granola, eggs, meat, and cheese—and of course, good coffee. Petra joined her guests at breakfast to give directions and advice about hiking and exploring. Her English was good but her native language was German.

All of the signs in this area are in both German and Italian. The food is butter and cream based rather than olive oil and tomato based as in southern Italy. I think I had apple strudel every day!

We are not what you would call “hikers.” We are more like “strollers.” Nevertheless we climbed on the bus that takes the hikers to the lifts and followed the German speaking travelers with their poles and boots to the Alpe de Suise. It’s like another world up there! I had an uncontrollable urge to break out into “The hills are alive with the sound of music!” We saw tiny villages way down in the valleys, goats, cows and horses on the grassy plains, and all around us were the rocky mountain peaks of the Dolomites! It was breathtaking.

Along the path we came to a “hutte” that served food and also had rooms for rent. We enjoyed a strudel and coffee with the other hikers.

The hike was long but not at all strenuous or dangerous. I just wore my Merrill trainers and was fine.

The next day we ventured out in the car to explore. We went through the Val Gardena, through the Passo Sella, Passo Pordoi and down to Canazei (where we had spent the night on the way here) and then back the same way through Selva, St. Cristina, and Ortisei. The scenery was incredible! We had to stop every few minutes to take pictures, but they really don’t do it justice. You just have to experience the giant, rocky peaks engulfing you while breathing that clear cool mountain air! This turned out to be our favorite stretch of road.

After three days of mountains, strudel, and German, we were ready continue our travels seeing the more “Italian” part of the country. Auf Wiedersehen to the Dolomites, Buon Giorno to the lakes...!

anneeby

Lake Garda

Just a short drive south of Castelrotto, through Bolzano via the autostrada, we arrived in Riva del Garda, on the northernmost tip of Lake Garda. We wound our way around to the west side of the lake, driving along the edge. The lake drive is beautiful, peppered with little towns and a backdrop of mountains.

I had read somewhere (maybe on this forum?) about a village called Sirmione. Located at the southern tip of Lake Garda, I read that it was a favorite location. We were determined to find it and perhaps spend the night, as this was one of the nights we did not have a reservation anywhere.

Sirmione! We finally started seeing signs for this popular historic village! Sirmione is located at the end of a long, skinny peninsula that juts out into Lake Garda. It is known for its thermal springs that were popular even during Roman times, and has Roman ruins that you can explore at the very tip of the peninsula. We arrived on a Sunday and it was crowded.

We stopped in the tourist office to inquire about a hotel, and were told that if you stay in the pedestrian-only area you are allowed to drive your car to your hotel. We chose the Hotel Ideal, mainly because it was located at the very tip of the peninsula with gorgeous views of the lake. The price for a double room was 160E including breakfast. The tourist office made the reservation and gave us a driving pass.

We slowly inched our way through the crowd, down streets (are you SURE this is a street?) so narrow we had to push in our side mirrors! The ancient village is full of stores, gelato shops, hotels, restaurants and tourists. Since it is a long narrow peninsula there is water on both sides looking out to the beautiful Lake Garda.

We arrived at the Hotel Ideal and were given a small room with a balcony that looked over the pool and the side of the lake. We were tired from driving, so we enjoyed an espresso as we sat on the terrace looking straight out to the lake.

We watched the sky burst into flames over the lake for one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen. Away from the crowds, we could really appreciate why it was worth the trouble to find Sirmione.

anneeby

The next morning we enjoyed the hotel complimentary buffet breakfast with a beautiful view of the lake. After exploring the Roman ruins, we packed up and loaded our little car for Lake Como.

ellenem

cliffhanger?

jent103

Just found your report, anneeby - very excited to see it, since I'm hoping for a trip to some of the same places next spring! Can't wait to read in more detail and hear the rest.

sarge56

anneeby, loving your report! I have friends traveling to Italy first time next spring and I think this is the area they will find best suits them. They are hikers and cyclists.

Can't wait to see the pictures!

anneeby

I'll figure out how to add pictures at the end.

anneeby

We drove from Lake Garda to Lake Como on the autostrada through Brecia and Bergamo towards Milan. The countryside is beautiful, farmland in the foothills of the Alps. I would have liked to explore the area just north of Bergamo and perhaps stay in an Agriturismo (farm that offers room and board, kind of like a B&B). But we had reservations at a little fishing village near Bellagio called Pescallo and we really didn’t know how long it would take us to get there.

Lake Como is shaped like the bottom part of a person—two legs and a body. Bellagio is located, well, if you don’t mind me being graphic, at the crotch. We started at the “foot” of the eastern “leg” and drove up the “inseam” along the lake. (this description of the shape of Lake Como made us giggle hilariously at the locations of the towns we would visit…) The road was very narrow and curved around the edges of the lake. We had been warned that the Great Dolomite Road was terrifying; it was NOTHING compared to this! The views were gorgeous; however, when we finally arrived in Pescallo we were exhausted from the stress of driving.

Pescallo is a quiet fishing village just a 15 minute walk down and up cobblestone paths to the not-so-quiet Bellagio. Our adorable B&B, Hotel Miralago Bellagio, overlooked the lake and was 85E including breakfast. Our room was small but spotless and very comfortable. Double doors opened to a little balcony with a direct view of the lake.

We walked to explore Bellagio and were so happy that we were staying in Pescallo instead. Bellagio was crawling with wall to wall tourists. The lakefront area was pretty and there were nice restaurants and shops, but I personally would not want to stay there.

We hopped aboard a boat to Varenna. The lake was beautiful. Not as big as Lake Garda but to us it was much more commercial. Varenna was much more laid back than Bellagio. We walked along the old section built at the very edge of the lake. We stopped at an old hotel and had coffee on the veranda. Looking out over Lake Como on a beautiful fall day, sipping Italian coffee poured from a silver pot, we felt so lucky to be us.

Breakfast at Hotel Miralago was a plentiful buffet of fresh pastries, yogurt, fruit, cereal and good coffee. Our hostess was a friendly woman with a great sense of humor. When I asked her the name of the Irish Setter who greeted us, she said, “That is not a dog, that is the concierge!” She recommended a wonderful restaurant (I can’t remember the name, so sorry!) within walking distance where the food was outstanding and they even shuttled us back to the hotel!

On our last day at Lake Como, we had signed up for a cooking class given by the chef of a restaurant in a little village above Varenna. I mean, literally above Varenna. We took the ferry to Varenna, left our car in the parking lot, and waited for someone to pick us up. Soon a taxi pulled up and said, “Cooking class?” and we jumped in. We drove straight up the road, high above Varenna, to a small village with a gorgeous view of the lake. The taxi let us out in front of a very old restaurant that has probably been there for centuries.

We were two of a class of about 14. The class was 30E a piece. We enjoyed learning how pasta is made from scratch, how the food in different parts of Italy is based on what ingredients were readily available, and hearing commentary about the chef’s life growing up in Italy. It was a fun class, but we both agreed that it was way too long. It started at 11:00am and we didn’t get out until nearly 3:00pm, and we still had to take another ferry and drive to Lake Maggiore that day. Two hours would have been plenty.

We bought our tickets for the ferry to Menaggio so that we could start our journey on the western side of the lake. Our next decision was to go straight over to Lugano, up to Locarno on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore, and down the western side of the lake to Cannero Riviera where we were staying, or to go south down the western leg of Lake Como towards Milan and up from the south side of Lake Maggiore. According to the map, going through Lugano was the obvious choice, but we chose to go south because: 1) Lugano and Locarno are in Switzerland. There is a 40E tax just to drive through Switzerland. 2) Going north meant more mountain roads and we were tired of winding through the mountains, and 3) the weather forecast called for snow in the mountains and we really didn’t want to drive in the snow.

So we headed toward Milan, clutching our map and hoping we had made the right decision.

Next….Lake Maggiore

anneeby

tt

anneeby

It took us only about two hours to reach Lake Maggiore. We approached the lake from the eastern side, going through small towns and many round-abouts. We learned later that it would have been faster to take the autostrada all the way around the southern part of the lake and up along the western bank, but it looked so much farther that way on the map. (Note for future travel in Italy—always take the autostrada unless you are sightseeing, even if it looks farther.)

We drove the car on to the ferry in Laveno. We were tired and anxious to get to our hotel in Cannero Riviera.

Driving up the western side of Lake Maggiore, we sensed that this lake seemed less crowded and more residential than lakes Como and Garda. It was peaceful and beautiful.

We arrived at the charming village of Cannero Riviera and found the “promenade” by the water’s edge. We pulled the car up in front of the beautiful old Hotel Cannero. There were tables set outside overlooking the lake, and we could see a busy formal dining room inside. This was by far the nicest hotel we had stayed in the whole trip.

A lovely woman greeted us warmly and another woman led us to our room. I had reserved a room (standard, 116E with breakfast) with a balcony and had hoped to have a view of the lake, but our room was in a back building with a very nice terrace next to the swimming pool. The room and the bathroom were pristine, but the beds were like rocks! Oh well, we were so tired it didn’t matter. We cleaned up and went down to the dining room for dinner. The prix fixe menu was 25E for guests and well worth it. We felt like we had really “stepped up” for our last two nights in Italy.

Despite the hard beds we slept like babies. We took a table outside right on the lake and enjoyed our coffee and buffet breakfast. An array of cheeses, meats, boiled eggs, fruit, cakes, panne cotta, cereals was served with amazing coffee and fresh juice. The food was incredible. The service was incredible. The view was incredible. Wow! We had really picked a great spot!

Dayle

anneby,

I have really been enjoying your report. What a great trip you had! We loved Lago di Maggiore too, but stayed on Isola dei Pescatore off Stresa. Quiet, awesome views, great food. We also had several of those "lucky to be us" moments!

TDudette

Wonderful!