Enchanting Lake Garda

Verona wasn't the only town in Northern Italy that we fell in love with. We also found our hearts captured by Tremosine (Tray-MOH-sin-ay), which is actually made up of several villages. We stayed in Pieve, where the church is located. (Pieve means church.) The elevation of the village is 414 meters above sea level and the lake is 213 meters above sea level. That means the dining room of the Hotel Miralogo, where we stayed, hangs in midair about 656 feet above the lake! I could feel every foot. (It's the white portion of the building hanging out over the cliff.)

The piazza outside our hotel.

A couple of roads serpentine up the hill to Tremosine from the lake. Arriving, we took the one featured in the James Bond film, "A Quantum of Solace." A scenic, but winding, often one-lane road with precipitous drop-offs, it was such an experience to drive it, and I was sorry there was nowhere to get off the road to take a good picture of it. I was clinging to the door handle the whole way, but I am glad we took it. 

The village itself was also a delight! Plus, it had the added benefit of a laundromat directly across from the hotel.  That may sound like nothing, unless you've been living out of a suitcase for months, and know the problems of finding any kind of laundry when you need one. (It's always a challenge to learn the system at a new laundromat too. I was fortunate to have a German lady show me the ropes.)


We also visited Malcesine (Mal-CHES-in-ay?) on the opposite shore of Lake Garda, right on the water. It had its own charms.

Of the two towns, though, I preferred Tremosine.  It is small and relatively undiscovered. We never heard anyone speak English there, unless it was when we were talking between ourselves. Tremosine is not in any of Rick Steves' guidebooks yet. And while I think a lot of Rick Steves (he personally helped us plan the itinerary for our first trip to Europe in 1982), he encourages people to find their own European "back doors." Tremosine is that kind of place, a little hidden gem that we somehow stumbled across.