Riva del Garda - Dolomites

Today we drove from Mantua to Riva del Garda, which is on the shore of Lake Garda, at the top end of the Lake. We wanted to explore a little bit of the Dolomites area.

Northern Italy produces 70% of the milk supply and Montova is a large Dairy Farming area. Its flat contour, quality soils and wetter climate make for good growing conditions although there is still need for irrigation. Neil wanted a closer look so we headed into the country side from Montova down narrow roads and small towns all supported by Dairy and other agriculture. We only saw 1 cow in a paddock as they are all housed and fed inside, mainly because of the heat. The farms had very few fenced paddocks and were growing maise and grass for a cut and carry system.

We stopped for coffee in a small village where a group of ladies were having their Monday morning get together. When Italians have conversations it always seems as though they are arguing, they are loud, forceful and effusive. I am sure they are not arguing, just seems like they are. Along side the cafe leaning against the planters were about 6 bikes and sure enough, when the ladies had finished they hopped on their bikes and off they went. The average age would have been about 75 - 80. Definitely one way to keep fit.
The road around Lake Garda is built up with residential and commercial buildings, the homes looking out to the lake were very impressive. We must have gone through at least 30 tunnels as the mountains were straight up from the lake so we had to go through. The many cyclists made it tricky at times.
The scenery was outstanding with towering mountains all around, it really did remind us of Lake Wakatipu. There were yachts, wind surfers, motor boats, baby skiffs and everything in between on the lake.
Parking is always an issue in old towns, we were told to park on an unloading bay to get our luggage out and walk 100m to the apartment to drop it off then back to take the car to a pre-purchased parking spot in a parking garage 3km away. All went well until we tried to get into the apartment on the 4th floor (or so we thought) Neil went back to the car to make sure we didn’t get a fine while I sorted it out with the cleaning girls who were fantastic. With the help of Google Translate they rang the accommodation manager who gave them the apartment number we were going to be in. Back up to the 4th floor, I carted both suitcases, two backpacks, chilly bin and dirty washing bag down 2 flights of stairs to our room then out to Neil to give him the directions to the parking garage. It was 3km in a loop to the garage, because of the one ways streets, but thankfully only a 4min walk back to our apartment! The joys of travelling.
Neil had done a bit of research and said that a walk to Forte Garda would be great exercise and an interesting excursion. Fort Garda was built between 1904 and 1907 by the Austro-Hungarian Army as a war fortification. The track was steep and rocky but we made it to Forte Garda and were feeling fresh so carried on to Forte Batteria di Mezzo. We underestimated how far and high it was! We did get fantastic views and a great sense of satisfaction of making it, so it was worth it. We decided to take a different route home, down a steep road then a mountain biking track to then loop up again with the track we walked up on. This time we entered Forte Garda, they are in the process of renovating it, 3 floors and many rooms.
We walked back along the lakefront and it was jammed pack with holidaymakers making the most of the sunny hot weather.
There were cyclists everywhere, lots of cycle ways up into the valleys and mountains surrounding us.
15,000 steps and 11km later we were back in our apartment.
Then we decided to try and get some present shopping done, an hour later we were back in our apartment again, probably too tired to try and make any hard decisions 😆
For dinner we walked out our door, sat down in the restaurant in our alleyway and had a delicious dinner with wine served in ceramic jugs - very cute.
There were a lot of German speaking tourists here, I guess it is not far through the mountains to come to this outstanding area.
We were impressed, the scenery was outstanding, plus so clean & tidy, we would definitely recommend anyone visiting Italy to come and visit.En savoir plus