Peschiera del Garda ; lovely town once occupied first by the Romans then Austrians in the 17th century

Restaurant : Raffilu at C House 

Peschiera del Garda town

Piazza Ferdinando di Savoia 5

37019 Pescheira del Garda

VR Italy 

                 Fabulous Dinner only the 2 of us at the waterside ; Surreal feeling 

5 * dining 

One of the serendipitous experiences of our Italian trip in Dec 2023 was visiting the small town of Peschiera del Garda which literally means Peschiera by Garda lake. It is a pretty 10,000 inhabitant Garda lakeside town which can be accessible off the main train lines between Como and Verona, about 1.5 hours from Venice.

15 minutes by train due West from Verona and about 1 hour due East from lake Como

It is along the same latitude as Lake Como and since it is not so well known, the prices of everything ranging from food, tour guide services and accomodation are easily 30% or more cheaper than what one would pay for a major tourist destination such as Milan or Venice.

We stayed at the service apartments called C Rooms Lake House along the pier.The scenery is picture postcard perfect. Antonella, our tour guide gave us a good overview over 2.5 hours walking tour of the town and the history goes a bit like this :

Peschiera is a small town which was originally run by prominent Italian family - like most towns and cities. Romans then occupied it followed by the Venetiens in the late 16th -17th century. There was a period when the Austrians ruled the town and created a moat around it to protect it from invaders.The French led by the indominatble Napoleon Bonaparte conquered it around mid 1840s. 

The French were overthrown when the Italian Repulblic was formed in 1861.  

We walked through the barracks, as well as the armoury and the small museum, and ended up at the tourist information in the centre of the town. There are cruise ships plying Lake Garda most times from late Spring till Autumn each year and they are moored at the big port at the top end of the town. 

    

By the waterside at night 

                                        View of the small pier from our room 

Raffilu at C House 

The dinner we had (see video at top) was splendid. For a fraction of the price we paid for the 2 star dinner (about EUR 550) at  Seta Milan, we had for EUR 90 the time of our lives.The dishes we had till our hearts content :

- Seafood platter for sharing (pastrami done with some fish)

- Al dente Bigoli (larger form of spaghetti) 

- Octopus and cream. 

- a glass of Sauvignon Blanc 

There was a portrait of President Obama, who apparently made a visit here way back in 2017.

A lovely gem of a town, so full of beauty and warm people.