Summer Holiday to Malcesine, Italy, part 3

On the third day, Tuesday, we decided to hop on a boat and cruise down to the south shore of Lake Garda, to a town called Sirmione. My parents told us that it is well worth the visit, so we decided to see for ourselves.

We slept in fairly late, and had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed out to the harbor. We bought a two way ticket to the normal ship. There are three ships to choose from: The normal ship, Servizio Rapido and a catamaran. If you are travelling to Limone, a town just across the lake from Malcesine, you can also take a small motorboat. The normal boat is a three story (+sundeck) boat that visits all the towns, goes fairly slow and also accepts cars onboard. Servizio Rapido is a faster boat, and only visits about half of the towns. It’s also few euros more expensive than the normal boat. The Catamaran is a fast way to travel from one place to another, but it’s the most expensive alternative. Also, we chose the normal boat because while onboard that, you can also see the sights and the nature of Lake Garda. And hey, we are on a holiday, we are in no rush!

After getting the tickets we started to wait for our boat. It’s important to remember to buy the tickets from ashore, because on the boat they just check them, but don’t sell them at all. The boat arrived right on time, we got on, and headed to the benches outside to tan and see the sights.

We had been sitting outside for about an hour, when I started feeling a bit nauseated. We went inside and bought water and coke from the bar. When going on one of those cruises, it’s a good thing to remember good sunscreen, hat to prevent sunstroke and preferably a coat of some kind: it’s very windy outside, and it soon starts to hurt on your shoulders and neck. Also, a bottle or two of water is a good idea: not all of the boats have a bar. And remember; at least in Malcesine the tap water was drinkable.  If you buy bottled water, it probably comes from around that area. So no need wasting your money on bottled water there!

We then started talking about the fact that we have been cruising for an hour, and we have no idea where we are going: are we near Sirmione already, how much longer we have to wait? We walked around the boat, trying to find a map or a schedule. We didn’t find much, only a list of towns the boat visits. The list was very long, and then we realized it’s gonna take a while. We also found a map, which had the boat routes on it. Then we could follow the towns the boat visited and the landmarks, and could roughly conclude where we were. Also all the town harbors have a sign with the town’s name on in. So it’s a good thing to try to catch the name once in a while, so you won’t fall off the map altogether.

 The sights from the boat were awesome! The towns are so beautiful, and the north part of the lake is surrounded by the gigantic mountains. The towns in the north are very typical small Italian villages, with narrow streets and different color houses. The towns in the south are more colonial, with marble textures, big arches and mosaics. There are also no more mountains, so the scenery resembles Mediterranean shores.  Sirmione, our destination, is also known as the cat’s tail, because it is located on the Sirmio peninsula that divides the lower part of Lake Garda. The main attraction of the town is the The Scaliger Castle (yes, Malcesine has a castle with the same name.. The noble Scaligeri family were lords of Verona in the 13^th century, and ruled the whole Garda area. That’s why they have castles all around the lake).

The boat ride took 3 hours in total. When getting to Sirmione, firstly we headed to a pizzeria for lunch. After eating we walked around town for a while, and then went to the castle. The entrance fee was 2 euros/adult, and I was let in free because I was under 26 years old. The castle has high walls, and lots of stairs to climb to get to top of them.  We were standing on one of the walls, and looked down.. the water underneath us was swarming with big fish! Apparently the castle’s trench is now being used as a fish farm. My boyfriend managed to take a picture of the fish; I naturally couldn’t because of my fear of heights. The castle also has a big tower, but after the experience at the Malcesine castle, I declined to climb to the highest level. The sights were nice from the floor below too. :)

The tour in the castle was pretty nice, and since it wasn’t that late yet, we decided to walk a little more around town. We visited the town’s beach, and saw a hundred happy Italian kids running to the water. Apparently it was some sort of “Take the kids to swim”-day at the schools of Sirmione. But it was fun watching their joy. We then thought that it’s best to go back to the harbor; after all the boat ride will take another three hours, and we were hoping to get back to Malcesine for dinner. After getting to the harbor, we checked the schedules, and noticed that the last boat had left about half an hour earlier. The tour guides at Malcesine had told us that since it’s June, there are boats leaving every half an hour.. Apparently they are only leaving from Malcesine, but not to it. And just to mention, it was afternoon 4pm, so one would think there are plenty of boats going, but no. We then decided to go and talk to the man in the ticket booth, if we could change our tickets to a faster boat. That worked, we paid a bit more, and got tickets to the Servizio Rapido –boat. We then checked the schedules again, and noticed the boat we were meant to take was marked red. Back home in Finland, red in schedules means Sunday schedules. After closer examination we realized that red only meant special service boat. The boat was supposed to leave at 5:20pm, so we still had plenty of time to walk around. We got some ice cream and sat in the harbor, until it was time to go and wait in line for the boat on the docks.

And then we waited. I started to get nervous, because it was way past 5:20, and there was no boat in sight. Then finally, there is an announcement that the boat will be 40 minutes late. The docs started to fill up with people waiting for the next boat, and then after them, for yet another boat. It was hot and I hoped for something to drink, but because the 40 minutes had passed, we couldn’t really leave. Boats came, announced their destinations on the speakers, and then their passengers got on them. And we waited. Then finally one boat arrives that announces that it has Malcesine on its route, and we got in. Sadly, the boat didn’t have a bar, so I didn’t get anything to drink. The ride from Sirmione to Malcesine only took 2 hours this time, and we were back to at the hotel just in time to change clothes and head out for dinner.

Wednesday was a day off for us. We were resting after the long day in Sirmione, and prepared for next day’s trip to Venice. We were hanging on the beach, walking around town, ate well and also, finally, got do some shopping! It was probably already on the first day when I noticed a fabulous handbag on the window of one of the countless shoe and bag stores. I explained to myself that I really need the bag because of the trip to Venice, because my own handbag was really small, and I really, really need a bigger one for the trip.  I marched into the store, and it turned out the bag was cheaper I had expected. So now I am the proud owner of Gola by Tado –bag. It is fabulous and looks so me!

Wednesday was also Italy’s national day, and we wanted to celebrate with the locals. We dressed up, and went to our favorite restaurant, Lago di Garda –hotel’s own restaurant. We were wondering about should we order appetizers or not, but we didn’t need to wonder for long, because when we got in, our “own” waiter greeted us, led us to our table and immediately brought us spitzers. Problem solved! I finally decided to eat a good ol’ stake, and ordered a beef fillet with green pepper, cognac and cream sauce. The waiter asked which wine we would want, and because we weren’t really sure, he suggested Chianti.  It was delicious, we loved it! And I, once again, got the honor of tasting it before the waiter poured it into our glasses. Once again I felt so special :) The beef was like a piece of heaven on my plate, it was so delicious and tasty, just perfect. After we had finished our plates, we just sat at the restaurant, talked and drank the wine. For Italy, we wanted to celebrate with desserts. I got strawberry cake and my boyfriend had a tiramisu. I also got a Café Amaretto, and my boyfriend had Irish coffee. We had the best time, and when we were ready to leave, and had paid the bill, the waiter brought us little glasses with something yellow in them. He then explained that it was Limoncello, local citron liquor. It was also great.

We weren’t ready to go to sleep yet, so we walked around the town once again. And once again, we ended up at the store with the little car models. We also wanted to check out Wine Bar Otto. The bar was downstairs, and after we got our wineglasses, we headed upstairs. The upstairs patio area was filled with white wicker chairs and couches, all the tables had candles, and the big palm tree in the middle was illuminated from the ground up.  Other than those candles and the palm tree light, it was pitch dark, you could see the stars. It was very intimate place with good wine. I can definitely recommend it to everyone.  On our way to our hotel we stopped for one more glass of wine at another hotels downstairs bar. We were really enjoying each other and the place and the atmosphere, but also getting anxious about the next day’s trip to Venice..

Summer Holiday to Malcesine, Italy, part 2

Monday morning we woke up in our 16^th century hotel, and went downstairs to get some breakfast. The breakfast was pretty light with some bread, ham, lettuce, toast, marmalade, cereals, yogurt, juices and of course coffee. The weather outside looked warm and sunny, so we knew it's going to be a good day. After breakfast we headed to the new part of the village for some shopping in the market. In Italy they still have those EuroSpar-markets, which disappeared from Finland several years ago. We ended up buying some chips and chocolate and few bottles of wine. In Italy wines are sold in normal grocery stores and one bottle costs about 2€. Of course some finer wines are more expensive, but still cheaper than for example in Finland. I lost my mind over the different kinds of Milka- and Kinder-chocolates they had. Also the amount of Hello Kitty products was overwhelming.

After bringing the groceries back to the hotel, we decided to explore the old town and visit the Castello Scaligero, built on the highest spot of the old town. On the way there we walked all around the old town, and took notice of all the places we just have to visit during our stay. The town was full of small restaurants, little stores and comfy looking little hotels. And ice cream parlors! One of the most famous ones is the one located near the entrance of the castle. Tradition is that when a newlywed couple comes out of the castle, they stop there for some ice cream. Also, we heard that the pistachio-ice cream was well worth the try!  This time we didn't stop for ice cream, but instead walked straight to the castle. 

The castle was fortified by the La Scala family, and built in the 13^th century. The tower is even older. Also, an Etruscan tomb has been found within the walls, so one can say the place has been inhabited for a while! The castle has a museum of natural history, with exhibitions on the local animals and plants. One of the most interesting features of the museum was the exhibition of shipwrecks on the bottom of the Garda Lake. Sadly, all the other tourists also considered it interesting, so we didn’t see much. Creepy part of the museum was enlargements of the insects found crawling on the beach.. we had been planning on going to the beach later that day, so I didn’t necessarily need to know exactly what can be found under my feet and on my towel and in my bikini..

Other interesting parts of the castle were the Goethe-hall and of course the gigantic tower. The castle definitely looked like a very, very old place, it hadn’t been much restored.  A romantic little detail about the castle is that it is used daily for weddings. During our visit to the castle we saw an English wedding party. The bride apparently had bad shoes, and was running around bare feet, with the groom walking behind her, holding her shoes. Actually we saw wedding parties almost every day during our stay at Malcesine; apparently the Castello Scaligero is very popular place for weddings. In case some of you got really interested, I suggest you check out www.lakegardaweddings.com for more info.

We were walking all around the castle premises, but the highlight of the castle is definitely climbing up to the tower.  When we got the bottom floor of the tower, we noticed the stairs, which to my opinion seemed a bit rickety.  We started climbing carefully, and I started to feel a bit nauseated. I could see the bottom through the stairs and my fear of heights started to kick in. After climbing about 4 floors, the stairs got steeper and finally, before reaching the top, reminded a ladder, which led outside from a tiny hole on the ceiling. I just thought that the view from the top is worth it, and started climbing, just wondering how am I ever going to get down from there.  But once we got to the top, the view was breathtaking!  There really are really no words to describe it. The mountains, the village and the deep blue lake with pretty much no clouds in the sky, it just couldn't get any better. So if you ever go to the castle and lose hope with the stairs, it's most definitely worth the climb!

After walking all around the castle premises, we finally left and headed to the new harbor for a lunch.  I got a plate of roast beef slices and French fries, and my boyfriend had a fresh salad. After lunch we went to hotel to change clothes, and then went to the beach to get some tan and swim. The water was freezing cold, so I skipped the opportunity to swim. We tanned for about an hour, and then walked back to the  hotel for a short siesta, and a shower. Then we opened the bottle of white wine, changed into something bit more fancy and headed out to search a nice restaurant for the night.

We didn’t get very far, because the restaurant of Hotel Lago di Garda looked very tempting, located on the same street that our hotel. We decided to eat inside, and looked like we were the only ones who did that, all the other customers were outside. The atmosphere was very intimate with candles, and just the two of us in the whole room. We ordered pasta and red wine; the waiter let me taste the wine, I never got to do that before! I felt so special :) The spaghetti con ragu (or Pasta Bolognese) was so delicious and the wine was just perfect.  The night was perfect with us sipping on wine and talking. For desert we ordered some drinks, I had a drink called “Screaming Orgasm”, and it was definitely delightful!  

After dinner we still didn’t want to go back to the hotel, so we ended up walking all around town. We found this awesome toystore that had the most extensive collection of mini car models. The basement was full of them, and included some real rarities. My boyfriend went mad in there! :)

At the end of the night we went for a nightcap on a bar at Piazza Statuto. It was most definitely the best Cuba Libre I have ever had! 

Summer Holiday to Malcesine, Italy, part 1

Lucky we, me and my boyfriend got our summer vacations arranged to be at the same time. This allowed us to make a little trip a little further than just our own home country. We booked a trip to Italy, and left early Sunday morning, not really knowing what to expect. 

Our plane took off at 6:00am Finnish time from the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and right after we had reached our flight altitude, the cabin crew started to serve us breakfast. Warm food, bread, yoghurt, orange juice.. pretty decent in my opinion. After eating, I fell asleep. I woke up a bit later with the plane shaking a little, and saw that the light was on that indicated that passengers should fasten their seatbelts. I thought we were just experiencing some turbulence, but soon I heard the captain explaining that we will start landing. The whole flight took 2,5 hours. We landed to Valerio Catullo Villafranca Airport of Verona (yes, the hometown of Romeo & Juliet) at 7:30am Italian time. We got off the plane, got our luggage, and headed out. Finnish tourist guides  greeted us, and showed us to our bus to Malcesine.

Busdrive from Verona to Malcesine took about an hour, during which the guide told us little about Italy, Lake Garda and of course Malcesine. The village of Malcesine is located on the shores of Lake Garda, notably one of the most beautiful places in the world. When we arrived at the bus station, all the people headed for their own hotels. One of the best things about Lake Garda is that none of the hotels there are owned by some major international hotel chain; instead the hotels are relatively small and managed by locals.  We stayed at Hotel Modena, and the owner was there at the station to greet us and to take our bags to a vehicle that could be only explained as vespa for three people with a sunroof. The hotel owner, Gino, took our bags to the vehicle so we didn’t have to carry them, and drove in front of us to the hotel. Me and my boyfriend were only accompanied by four other elderly Finnish couples. No kids here, hurrah!

The small vehicle was the only motor-run thing that can drive on the narrow cobblestone streets of the village. The only ”big” road that can be driven with a car passes the old town, but never enters it.  Our hotel was located right at the center of the old town, only one house away from the shore. Our room was located on the second floor (ground floor being floor 0), with windows facing the inner court. The room itself was small but very comfortable, and was entered though a terrace. We loved the place right from the beginning.

Since we arrived to Malcesine so early in the morning, our room wasn't ready when we got to the hotel. We had prepared that the room wouldn't be ready until 2pm, but to our surprise the owner said that the room is ready at 11am. We left our luggage to the hotel for safe keeping until then, and decided to head out for some good old Italian breakfast.  Since it was raining, we chose a cafe next door to our hotel. We got some traditional italian snacks, and probably the best cappucino ever. Trust me, it tastes so much better in Italy.

The Finnish tour operator Aurinkomatkat organized a walk around the town for the new arrivals at the afternoon. They showed us all the most important places, like a pharmacy, ATM's, best restaurants, places worth a visit, etc. The tour ended at Al Marinaio restaurant for a toast to celebrate the beginning of our vacation. The restaurant itself is worth the visit. It's located at the old harbor, and has real napolitan pizza, with the thick edges and thin center with the toppings.

It’s also a good idea to remember how the italians themselves enjoy their food. The breakfast is pretty light, with different types of ham, bread, cereal, and espresso or cappucino. Italians also always use warm milk in their coffee. The lunchtime is around noon, and is also pretty light, usually a pizzaslice or a panini. Afternoon is a time for a siesta, when most stores are closed for about 3-4 hours. Dinner is served around 7pm to 9:30pm, and is the heaviest of the day. It is usually started with a drink, aperitivo (our favorite was a Spritz), and followed by appetizers, antipasti.  The dinner itself includes three servings: First course,  Primo piatto, is usually a pasta or a soup. The main course, secondo piatto is fish or meat. The side dishes contorni is ordered separately, and is usually potatoes or salads. The dessert, dolce, can be either a cake ice cream, and is finished with a digestivo, a drink to help start the digesting. Our favorite was a citron liquor, limoncello. The wines are also fairly cheap there, so we usually ordered a bottle of red wine with our food.

After the tour we headed to a restaurant close to our hotel, and ordered a pizza for both. We also got Spritz for apetizers, and since I wanted to celebrate our first day there, I got a mimosa drink with my pizza. Mimosa is a mix of orange juice and sparkling wine. And tastes delightful.  The pizzas were served from a pizza plates, that were still too small for the gigantic pizzas. I don't know was it just the ecstasy of the first day, but those pizzas were awesome and so tasty. Best pizza I have ever had! After lunch we headed out of the restaurant, and noticed a ice cream parlor called La Dolce Vita right in front of our hotel entrance. Their ice cream was heavenly, we ended up visiting that place several times a day, every day during our vacation.

We took a little siesta ourselves, and decided to head out for a walk to the south side of the town. We walked for few kilometers, and reached Lungolago,  a place noted as a nice beach for swimming, and also for having a beach bar. The view was breathtaking:  Malcesine at the horizon, the deep blue Lake Garda and the majestic mountains. After the walk we sat down for an ice cream at the new harbor plaza. The ice cream plates were big and tasty and the band playing at the plaza was very groovy and talented. The night was warm and starts were shining.. perfect beginning for our holiday. 

Back home..

Yesterday we got home from our trip to Italy, and let me tell you, we both wish we could have stayed there. It was warm, pretty, good food, nice people.. pretty much everything was better. Now we are just sitting here at home, looking at holiday photos and hoping we were there. A real after-vacation blues! But it's all gonna get better, it is just a sign that our holiday was beautiful and we wish it didn't end at all. 


During our vacation I got the idea that after we return home I should write a blog about our experience and also give some advice for people traveling there, so that their vacation will be as pleasurable as ours was :)


So stay tuned, I will be posting the blog in several parts in the following week or two.