A Weekend in Garda Trentino (and Around)

In this little trip we wanted to see a few Christmas markets.

We stayed at Hotel Villa Maria in Riva del Garda, spending 130 euro for two nights; the hotel is very nice, the only flaw being that the rooms aren't well soundproofed.

Our first stop was Rovereto: it was raining and there were very few people, we even had trouble finding our way through the streets of the centre to locate the one with the stalls... all in all it didn't make a good impression on us. We had lunch with some grostl (potatoes, speck, pork) with sauerkraut at a cost of 6 euro per portion. Since it kept raining we headed straight to the hotel, hoping the weather would improve the next day.

And indeed Saturday was a lovely day. We went to Trento, Arco and the centre of Riva. In Trento there were many stalls and lots of tourists (lunch with a good sandwich with salamella and cheese at 3.80 euro); the market in Arco (which is a really lovely little town and worth a visit regardless!) seemed more picturesque to us though, with the camel, the donkeys and the little goats. In Riva del Garda there was a lovely Christmas atmosphere and Santa's house had been set up in the castle.

On Sunday we visited two natural beauties: the Varone waterfalls and Lake Tenno. We liked them both! Perhaps the ticket for the waterfalls was a bit too pricey (5.50 euro and you get around them in half an hour). Lunch stop in Malcesine: lovely, with a beautiful historic centre and a castle perched right on the lake. We'd like to go back sometime, also to reach Monte Baldo by cable car.