Stories

Where better to listen to the sound of bobbing boats and rippling shores, watch the watercraft that are the varnished ‘rivas’ and witness what the Italians do best: ‘dolce far niente’, take pleasure in relaxing? With their imagination and eye the Italians really know how to make the most of often small, steep terrain. The lakeside towns have a pleasing similarity with long waterfront boulevards dotted with cafes, bars, churches, coloured houses and little marinas. Lake Garda is calm one day, choppy the next. It’s 200 feet above sea level and the steep, rugged cliffs are in the north while the softer hills are southwards. There’s picturesque Salò, the ever-popular Sirmione peninsular and the mesmeric Isola di Garda. As for Lake Como it’s where the Duke of Windsor holidayed with Mrs. Simpson, Verdi wrote La Traviata and George Clooney has his villa at Laglio as hosts of celebrities are drawn like moths to this visual and sensual delight. Hotels include Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, Grand Hotel Gardone Riviera and Villa Giulia