Lake Garda: Magnet for sports enthusiasts in mountain setting

By Bernhard Krieger Aug 2, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Riva del Garda, Italy - Like quick silver, Lake Garda is glittering in the summer sunshine.

Wind-surfers are gliding, seemingly weightless, over the water between the shoreline points of Riva and Torbole. Vacationers are lapping up the sweet life, la dolce Vita, in the restaurants and bars on the shoreline promenade, while sailboats are making their turns in the summer breezes.

On the steep towering cliffs of Arco, climbers are dangling above the sheer abyss, while mountain bikers are slowly winding their way up to the Ledor Lake.

The northern end of Lake Garda in the Trentino region is one gigantic playground for outdoor sports enthusiasts - and a kind of open-air theatre for people watching in amazement.

For decades now, Lago di Garda has attracted northern Europeans almost as if by magic like no other lake in the world. In the background, the snow-capped peaks of the Alps are glistening, and yet the lake, surrounded by steep mountains, has an Italian flair.

One group which particularly enjoys this setting of nature and sports is the German football club Bayern Munich which set up its summer training camp here, a location actually only a few hours' drive, over the Brenner Pass, from Munich. 'This enables us to do our training while our fans watch, just as if we were in Munich,' FC Bayern sports director Christian Nerlinger said.

The footballers are training on a field in Arco, but for conditioning they also take to the jogging and mountain-biking trails surrounding the town. Arco was already a favourite destination of the Habsburg royals back in the days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, to which this region of northern Italy then belonged.

Even though Lake Garda has become a destination for the masses, it has still managed to preserve its special flair. The northern part of the lake is especially the playground for the wind-surfers.

'Surfing makes you happy, it's like a drug,' says a Bavarian vacationer, Tom. For years he has spent every free minute at the 'Lago,' as the southern Germans like to refer to the lake. In the summer, at precisely noontime every day, the steady 'ora' breeze sets in, a force-4 or force-5 wind created when hot air surges in from the Po River valley towards to cooler Alps. The steep mountains flanking the sides of the northern part of the lake serve like a funnel for the wind.

From the terraces of the newly-reopened grand hotel Lido Palace in Riva, even the least sports-minded vacationers like to watch the colourful action out on the water. And later, along the shoreline promenade of Torbole, when the breezes die down and suntanned wind-surfers head to a bar for their first beer, and some of the female surfers peal off their neoprene suits to reveal their bikinis, there's a touch of southern California beach life.

In bygone times, surfers would sit around in frustration on those days when there was no suitable wind. But nowadays they have other activities to choose from. Above all, mountain-biking is booming. The guides of the Garda Association lead thousands of bicyclists on the scenic routes around the lake.

Beginners will ride the Strada del Ponale alongside the lake and then up to the turquoise-coloured Ledro Lake. 'Those who want a real challenge of climbing 1,800 metres will ride from Ledro Valley to the top of Tremalzo mountain,' says mountain bike guide Andrea Dekoven.

Those who want something even steeper will take to the walls of the Arco cliffs, where just recently professional climbers held their world championships. Nowhere else in the world can climbers find more routes in such a condensed area. 'And we have enough cliffs for beginners as well,' says mountain guide Simone Banale of the outdoor association, Freealp.

'All the sports enthusiasts will meet in the evening in the cafe 'Winds Bar' in Torbole,' one of the surfing instructors from the Segnana sports centre says. The normal tourists will be seen strolling through the narrow alleys of the old town centre of Riva.

But an excursion to another destination an hour away is worthwhile. Trento, with its large piazza and patrician-style houses is the first city with genuine Italian flair south of the Brenner pass.