Bogliasco Giorni: Andiamo al Lago di Garda

Time to head on again.......this time off to Lago di Garda and San Vigilio. This is a place which we first visited about 28 years ago and it has always remained ingrained in our memory. It is a bit hard to describe why this is the case, other than it was a wonderful surprise at the time. The small hotel, Locanda San Vigilio, has only 7 rooms and consist of some of the outbuildings of an old estate. It is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Italy. There are several special memories of our first trip that are probably not helpful for the blog. The key issue is that we were terrified to return.......worried that the visit could never match up to our initial experience. So often, the return visit falls short......

But we were determined to take another run at this one as it was just to special to not give it a second chance. We hung out at L'Albereta until almost 1:00, as Andi offered me her complementary massage in the morning. After a lingering departure we headed out, back through the Franciacorte vineyards to the autostrada and off to Lago di Garda. On the way we planned a quick stop in Sirmione on the southernmost tip of the lake to grab some lunch. This turned out to be a really bad move! It was Sunday and most of Italy heads out for a family lunch.......and we think that most of them were headed to Sirmione! We finally found a parking space about a half mile from the historic center (no cars). Coincidentally, the morning sun was giving way to an enormous black cloud. We sat in the car for a few minutes and decided that this venture was not looking promising, so off we went.

We stopped briefly in another town just up the eastern side of the lake, Peschiera......similar to the town we visited on Monte Isola. We were thinking of a quick cappuccino, but the dark clouds looked like they were chasing us! so off we went towards the town of Garda. It was a bit incredible. We knew that this was a dense tourist area, but figured that it was too early in the season to run into a tourist logjam......but we were wrong. The road was packed with RV's and campers, as we slowly crawled past GardaLand and MovieLand.......very nasty places, but obviously popular spots. We must have also shared the road with a couple of thousand bicycles.

We will leave off some of the painful details and pick up when we arrived at San Vigilio around 2:30. In so many ways it looked just the same.......except there is now a security guard at the entrance to the property and the public park. No cars are allowed down the path unless you are staying at the hotel. We headed down the rutted dirt road and parked in a small lot at the top of a hill. This all looked familiar, although we were allowed to take the car right to the front door the last time! By the time we had parked, a golf cart arrived to load our bags and our bodies and drive us down to the hotel. Upon arriving at the front door, we were warmly greeted and immediately shown up to our room. It was a wonderful room on the front overlooking the lake. There are only 7 rooms, and ours was probably in the best location. It had a large bedroom, a bath and what was originally an outdoor porch, enclosed many years ago and acting as a sunroom. The views were more than we had hoped for.

We went out on the stone breakwater to the tavern/bar which is owned by the hotel. By this time it was almost 3:00, but we had missed the lunch crowd. The tables are lined up single file on the stone plinth, with only a few feet to pass by. This is just like it was so many years ago......almost captured in time for us. I can still remember doing the water color that hangs in our upstairs hallway of this scene.......quite eerie and quite wonderful at the same time. We had a great lunch of tomatoes, cheese and wine. After a long walk around the peninsula, we collapsed and enjoyed a long nap.

Dinner was quite spectacular as we were seated at a window table on the porch......and watched an hour of dramatic thunderstorms pass just to the south over the lake. The food was enjoyable and the wine continued! Before going to bed, we sat on the sunroom with the windows open and watched the last of the thunderstorms. It was nice to return here.

Sorry, some of the pictures at San Vigilio are a bit out of sequence......too lazy to change!