Lago di Garda Shopping

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Near the entrance to Tavagnu snack bar, ristorante is a small house which holds hundreds of locally made items. See the photos...
Once you have made your choice, take it into the restaurant and always... get a receipt.
If your wife likes this sort of crafty type items, good luck!

What to buy: There are items that are sewed, dolls, ceramics, and more....

What to pay: Not expensive....

Walking the main street in Gargnano we found a "Gastronomia" (delicatessen shop). They had a sign about local produced cheese, we could not help to go check it out. Along with the usual selection of delicatessen (that all look really yummy) they had a selection of maybe ten cheese, all local produced, some made with cow milk some with goat milk. We tried them all and finally decided for a goat's one, the more tanghy tasty one that was our favourite. The price wasnt cheap but reasonable for the excellent product they sell!!

What to buy: Gargnano special cheese and whatever you can find there!! everything look SOOOO good.

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Most Gardaland attractions offer themed shopping opportunities as well - it's all part of the park experience. You can buy practically anything - toys, clothes, accessories, stationery, craft, gadgets, etc.

What to pay: It's absolutely up to you - prices are about the same as in the tourist centres of Italy

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As we made our way down the old street of malcesiner towards the harbour we came across this cake shop and simply couldn't resist. The idea for them goes back to 1882 from a baker born in Malcesine, Lake Garda. He formed "balls of snow" with an egg dough, baked it and rolled it in iced sugar and cinnamon. Later on he rolled them in fine chocolates and infuse with luxury ingredients - delicious! They were huge and hence difficult to eat without making a mess!
Lots of flavours to choose from - mine was champagne and trufffle, Dave's a capuchino..but others included amaretto and cointreau....mmm making my mouth watering again!

What to buy: Balle di Neve (= Balls of Snow) - choose your favourite:
Lots of flavours to choose from - mine was champagne and trufffle, Dave's a capuchino..but others included amaretto and cointreau....mmm making my mouth watering again!

What to pay: 3-4 euros each

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Limone was a good place for desighner clothes - at designer prices - and of course the lemeon liquer limoncello can be purchased but it was this dried fruit stall which caught my eye. a colourful variety of all sorts of dried fruits - kiwi, banana, pineapple, orange, apple etc....

What to pay: a medium sized bag of mixed dried fruits was about 4-5 euros.

Stands throughout the whole of the village, main street packed with it.
Lots of folks, both local and tourists.
Stuff offered varies from food to clothing, to varied things like temp tattoo, portrait painting, etc.

What to buy: Buy what ya want .. and if you are Dutch, you might be easily recognized by the Italian salesmen.
Kijken kijken niet kopen .... Look look and no buying, something I heard several times.

What to pay: Oh and try to pay less than asked ... often works ;-)

The newopen shopping centre nearby Desenzano is one of the biggest in the area of Lago di Garda. Besides, it is, architectualy, and not only, very attractive. There are two identical buildings in the shape of circle, covered with blue coloured mirroring glasses.

What to buy: Food, clothes, gifts, etc.

In Lazise there are a couple of shops selling wine, liquor, oil and vinegar.

We have found some fantastic oils there and our favourite is a lemonscented oil. It tastes wonderful over some fresh tomatos or in a salad and we have not found it here in Germany yet. So this makes a wonderful souvenir.

Other delicious oils are walnut oil, truffle oil and well, that lemon oil...

Just outside the Campground La Quercia you will find a vinyard - and a stall with the local wines.

It is very enjoyable to talk to the old man who runs it - and as you can see in the picture, he was very proud to get his picture taken!

What to buy: We have bought a Bardolino (red wine) there, but kept with our custom to only drink this kind of local wine during our vacation there. The whole atmosphere adds to the great taste - but we were usually disappointed, when we took that wine home with us.

On Wednesdays there is the open air market in Lazise. While "my ladies" rather enjoy the clothes and the jewellery, my favourite stall is the cheese stall.

I love to get a good selection of Parmesano, Peccorino and Padano - and whatever else the padrone recommends....