The eastern banks from the Garda Lake

From Historic Streets to Theme Parks

When dividing the lake into four parts, the eastern shore begins in Torri del Benaco, where the car ferry lands, and includes the villages of Garda, Bardolino und Lazise until reaching the south-eastern shore at Peschiera. This part of the lake is called the “Riviera degli Olivi” (Olive Riviera), which is very appropriate since the typical silvery leaves of olive trees glimmer in the sun as far as the eye can see. Admittedly, “Wine Riviera” would also have been a good name for this shore: Grape-vines grow in all those places where no terraced grove of olive trees was planted. Actually, the olive trees are gradually disappearing since the olive harvest is such a labour-intensive and time-consuming process that only few young people are willing to keep up this tradition. For the harvest, the growers first have to climb the treetops on wooden ladders that are up to 8 metres long and made from a single log. Then they have to “comb” through the foliage to loosen the olives and finally collect them from large nets spread out on the ground. No need to mention that serving sundaes is a hell of a lot easier.

Hotel building and tourismus

Up to the 1950s, there were virtually no hotels on this side of the lake, except for a few old coaching inns turned into accommodation establishments. It was only in the 1960s that tourists (chiefly Germans) began to explore these shores. Lake Garda, yet unspoilt by tourism, was then still deeply Italian.

If you stay in one of the more basic hotels, you may still be able to imagine what a holiday in the Italy of the 1960s must have been like: A hotel block (fortunately not very big at that time) was built in a top position, directly on the shore. The rooms were equipped with hot and cold water, and there were shared shower facilities on each floor. It goes without saying that nowadays you will also find more exclusive hotels along the Olive Riviera. Unlike on the opposite shore with its quaint old Grand Hotels, the eastern shore offers its visitors more modern hotel complexes with an abundance of amenities such as swimming pools, beauty farms, tennis courts and enormous en-suite bathrooms. However, to enjoy such a standard you will have to look for accommodation outside the town centres since the lakeside localities are too small to house such generous hotels.

The houses of Torri del Benaco, for instance, are all nestling around the old port; Garda is a little larger, but still its building area is restricted; Bardolino is the biggest resort along this shore, and the small village of Lazise is the last stop on the “Gardesana Orientale”, the eastern lakeside road.

The flat beaches on this side of Lake Garda have always been a popular place with families, but apparently, children suddenly demanded more than just long beaches and pedal-boats: Huge amusement parks were constructed at the southern end of the lake. The most famous is certainly Gardaland, but there are others as well.