Relais Du Lac

Piazza Malvezzi

by croisbeauty

Piazza Malvezzi is the biggest open space and the real heart of the town of Desenzano. There are plenty of cute cafes and restaurants all over the squre, which is also the usual meeting point for locals. Right next to it there is the old port of the town, probably the most pitoresque spot of Desenzano.

Desenzano

by JiminYork

"Desenzano, Lake Garda"

Desenzano sits at the southern end of Lake Garda in Italy and we chose it for two principle reasons – one, it seemed to be just off the Milan-Venice motorway and two, it’s one of the bigger towns on the lake. Finding people who’d been there was difficult, if not impossible, hence this review. Other Garda resorts seem to be better served – Riva del Garda, Limone, or Bordelino – and we were wondering before we got there if we had picked the slum town that everyone else ignores.
We were pleasantly surprised. Desenzano is a moderate sized town that sits on the lakeside and seems to be popular with Italians. It was mobbed on the Sunday in June we arrived, but was much quieter during the week. A small (but big for Lake Garda) harbour is where you can catch various ferry services that service all the other beauty spots that border the lake. Riva del Garda is the furthest point from Desenzano at the opposite end of the lake and the hydrofoil takes you there in two hours for about twenty euros a head. Watch out if you plan to sightsee and pop off at some of the other resorts though – the tickets tend not to allow for it. And, if you choose one of the slower services, a trip to Riva will take four hours out your day to get there and another four back!
The town itself has a tiny marina bordered by restaurants and a busy little square dotted with shops, ice cream parlours and more pizzerias. The restaurants we tried were all pretty decent, if pretty similar, and even the fast food places tend to serve better pizza and pasta than any you’d find in the UK. Ditto for coffee.
If shopping’s your bag, then you’ll visit most of them in an hour. (This will be twice as long as you’ll spend anywhere else on Lake Garda. Best head to Verona - half an hour away by car - or plan a day in Milan for the trendy boutiques who’ll gladly part you from your cash.) A market visits the town on Tuesdays, which has loads of stalls but becomes a bit repetitive with the goods on offer. Some of the leather goods seemed to be of a decent quality and price.
The proximity of Desenzano to both Verona and Milan is a definite bonus, largely because when you’ve seen one lakeside resort……one exception to this is Sirmione, right next door to Desenzano and ten minutes by car or twenty on the ferry. This was our favourite place on the lake, and we returned quite a few times to walk the traffic-free, winding streets and to keep our kid amused on an excellent crazy golf course that lies adjacent to the main car park for the town.
The weather was temperate, but not always sunny, and the mountains were often obscured by cloud, especially at the northern end in Riva del Garda. It’s still a beautiful area though, and we thought Desenzano was as good a base as any we could have chosen from which to tour the area.