Adventures of David and Paul: Northern Italy - La Dolce Vita, with a Side of G-Forces

It's time for our big vacation of the year! After David missed out on Paul's two-week roller coaster trip to Europe, he got to pick this year and he decided it was time to head back to Italy. After wanting to go to Northern Italy for a few years, it seemed like the logical choice for a two week fall trip.

Next stop Italy!

After the overnight flight, we arrived in Milan on a Friday morning at 9:30am. We decided to start the trip with a rental car, which we would have for about a week, to explore the more rural areas of Northern Italy around Lake Garda and the Dolomites. The first thing we noticed driving away from the airport was the bad air quality. The Po river valley is a natural basin shape, and in fall and winter the surrounding mountains trap stagnant air from Italy's industrial heartland. Luckily this would clear up when we left the valley a few days later, but our first couple days had poor visibility - which actually impacted our plans around the lake.

We've been to central Italy (Rome, Naples, Florence) and Southern Italy (Bari, Matera, Puglia), so this time we planned a vacation in the north. Paul was briefly in Milan in 2012 at the start of a roller coaster trip, and in Venice/Padua when he was a teenager, but otherwise we haven't been to this part of the country. You can find our other Italy trips with this tag - David & Paul Italy.

Driving northeast from Milan, our first stop was the city of Bergamo were we would spend a few hours. We parked just outside the Città Alta, which is the historic center of the city perched on a defensive hill surrounded by Venetian walls. We started at the city museum, which we hadn't planned but it was right next to where we parked. It mostly had exhibits on the modern history of the city from the past 150 years or so, but was a nice quick stop.

We then walked around the small pedestrian center, had a pastry (sfogliatelle with pistachio) and coffee, and then climbed the tower and visited the attached museum. The views from the tower were nice despite the haze. A man was singing opera for tourists in the city center, near the church where he found a spot with great acoustics.

We then visited the Venetian walls that surround the old city, which are a UNESCO World heritage site. We walked around a bit more before going back to the car. Bergamo is a pleasant place to visit and a nice stop to spend a few hours if you're passing through - but there's not too much to see here.

Bicycle dudes in the city museum photo exhibit.

Chimneys of Bergamo.

Woo! Italian pastries!

The main piazza in Bergamo.

Views from the tower.

Paul on top of the tower in Bergamo.

Looking down at the basilica.

The museum had a few high-tech exhibits.

One of the multiple facades of the basilica.

David on the Venetian walls.

Random sheep next to the walls.

We continued driving east, stopping for a little pizza snack at rest area. As we approached Lake Garda, which we would be exploring for the next few days, our first stop was Desenzano del Garda. This is a small tourist town right on the lake shore, also known for a Roman villa archaeological site. There were some remaining floor mosaics and also an active site they were still digging up. We then walked around a little bit by the lake before heading back to the car. There are a ton of towns around the lake. The ones on the south side where the lake reaches the Po Valley are a bit larger, with more space to grow. Many that we visited along the east and west side and the north are very small with steep grades up to the mountains.

Our first pizza of the trip! Gas station pizza. :)

Mosaic floors in the Roman villa.

Walking down to the lake.

It was now late afternoon, and we had one more stop before sunset. We drove to Sermione, a town on a thin peninsula at the southern end of Lake Garda. It's very popular, with a huge parking lot and a lot of groups of tourists on tour buses. It's a picturesque little town, with an entrance through a castle gate and about a million gelato shops. We started with the castle (Castello Scaligero di Sermione), climbing up the tower for early evening views. We walked around the pedestrian streets, had our first - but not last - gelato of the trip, and then walked back to the car.

The castle in Sermione.

Late afternoon views from the tower...so hazy.

Sermione is on a narrow peninsula in the lake and used to host a Roman villa at the tip.

Most of the town is pedestrian-only.

Gelato time!

Our hotel, Hotel Campanello, was a short drive away, on the southeast side of the lake. This area was less busy because there's not really a town there. Our room had a big terrace overlooking the lake, where there was a nice walking path. We were only here one night, but could have easily stayed a few days enjoying the relaxing atmosphere and touristic places on the south side of the lake.

Since the weather was unseasonably warm, we had dinner al fresco at Porticciolo del Campanello which was one of the few restaurants within walking distance of our hotel. It was a great first dinner, with yummy pumpkin and sage ravioli and lake fish. We would see a lot of pumpkin dishes on the trip since it was in season.

A few things we noticed already on our first day: there are lots of ducks and swans on the lake. Realistically, this make sense, but since Lake Garda is so big (it looks like a sea) it was a bit surprising! There are also a lot of people on bikes. Usually, we associated bikes with northern Europe, and on our previous trips to Italy we didn't see many people on bikes, but this trip we would see a ton of people using bikes to get around in cities that seem to be increasingly retrofitted for them. There are also a lot of German-speaking tourists around Lake Garda. Our hotel even had German channels (no English ones) and this would especially be common as we went further north into the Dolomites. Also Italians be smoking. This isn't so much a surprise, we know Europeans are big smokers, but yikes...we forget how many people in Italy smoke - even in places where they're obviously not allowed to - like in theme parks directly in front of no smoking signs.

Hanging out on the terrace.

Sunset views from our hotel.

This pumpkin and sage pasta was one of the best of the trip.

So many macaroni dishes this trip...

Grilled lake fish.

Saturday was our first full day in Italy. We started with breakfast at our hotel. European hotel breakfasts are so much better than American hotel breakfasts, and this one was pretty good. We ate in a sunroom overlooking the lake.

One of our main reasons for staying on the southern end of the lake for a night was Gardaland - probably the best theme park in Italy. It was only a five minute drive from our hotel, and we got there about 30 minutes before opening and joined the huge crowd waiting to get into the park. Since it was a Saturday with nice weather, and it was during the Halloween event, this was one of their busiest days of the year. Paul anticipated this and we had bought fast passes online, which were a huge time saver. The park opened with a little Halloween show where costumed characters danced on top of the entrance to the park. In total, it took about 2.5 hours to get the 7 coaster credits, see the highlights, ride the Jumanji dark ride, and do a little souvenir shopping.

Morning views of the lake from our hotel terrace, with a big exercise circle.

The song and dance before we entered.

Paul at Gardaland.

Wheeee! David did not like this one.

It was a very busy day in the park.

Lego Adventure area.

David ribbon dancing.

Happy Halloween from Gardaland!

Leaving the park in the early afternoon, we drove north along the eastern side of Lake Garda, stopping in the town of Cisano for lunch at Due Alfieri. We had a nice outdoor lunch by the water and enjoyed watching the people stroll and bike by. After lunch we kept driving north, stopping in Malcesine, which is a cute little tourist city. There's a cable car here that goes up to the top of a tall peak overlooking the water, but since the air was so hazy we decided it wouldn't be worth the time. So instead, we walked around exploring the pedestrian streets and having some gelato. Also, this would be the last t-shirt weather of the trip, as we would continue into the mountains and the unusually warm weather would pass.

Lakeside lunch.

More pasta!

Boats on the lake.

A parade of ducks, or "look at all those chickens!"

A pleasant day by the water.

The air quality was still bad but getting better by this point.

A cute little square in Malcesine.

Interestingly named gelato.

Walking around in Malcesine.

One of the few cats we saw in Italy. Of course David pet it.

The tower and a pomegranate.

From here we kept driving up to Riva del Garda, on the north end of the lake, where we rented an apartment right on the water-front square. It was a simple but really nice and spacious apartment with great views.

That evening, we eased into our time in Riva del Garda with a trip to the grocery store, then a drink at Cafe del Deseo, which specializes in spritzes. The drinks came with some sizeable snacks, which served as half of our dinner (the other half was grocery store food while relaxing in our room).