North Lake Garda tour (part 2)

While the South part of Lake Garda has sandy shores and has Mediterranean vibes, the North is instead more Tyrolean and Alpine looking, almost like Lake Como.

As long as you drive North, the landscape changes dramatically and you get to see a different geology and sense of place: fjord-shaped waters spotted with sails and surrounded by mountain peaks.

Torri del Benaco, Castelletto di Brenzone and Malcesine are towered by Medieval castles on steep rocks. Stone- built ancient villages, spread in lush green vegetation, overlook the cliffs underneath.

Your private driver picks you up with car/minivan at your place in Verona or lake Garda. You meet your guide at the lake and go together to visit Costermano, a cypress filled WWII cemetery: a peaceful place worth visiting for knowing more about this controversial part of the Italian and German history.

You head to Malcesine for seeing the castle and the charming, well-preserved Medieval village. and you visit the castle on the rock. The site is so charming that the first travel blogger ever, Wolfgang Goethe from Frankfurt am Mein, praised it in his journal... back in the year 1786!

After a time for lunch, you embark to Limone (30 min. boat ride) and get to the western, Lombard shore. Limone had been the most isolated, almost unreacheable village of the entire lake, today still famous for its lemon glass-houses.
Your driver picks you up and takes you to Riva along a very scenic water-side road.

Riva del Garda had been a piece of the Hapsburg Empire up to WWI: you really get the Austrian atmosphere in the architecture and in the general mood.

Driving through Torbole you are taken back to your place.

Schedule of the day:

• driving time from Verona city to Costermano (cemetery): 1 hour
• Malcesine visit and lunch: 2,5 hours
• boat transfer: 30 min.
• visit of Limone: 1 hour
• transfer to Riva: 30 min.
• short walk in Riva: 30 min.
• transfer back: 2 hours
• total tour duration: 8 hours