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 13th 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..
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