Lake Garda: From Milan to Venice

When to go

May to June and September to early October. In August all of Italy is on holiday, the lakeside villages are packed and the shore roads crawl. Many lake hotels and the Monte Baldo cable car close for the winter, from about November to March. From June to September Verona stages opera in the Roman Arena, and hotels there fill on performance nights. In autumn and winter Venice has the acqua alta, the high water that floods the lowest squares.

The stops

Interactive map of the route on our site ›

1. Milanone night

   The Duomo, begun in 1386, took nearly six centuries to finish, and you can walk on its roof among the spires. Under the Central Station, the Shoah Memorial stands at Binario 21, the hidden track from which Jews of Milan were deported to Auschwitz in 1943 and 1944; Liliana Segre was sent from there at thirteen.

2. Bergamo Città Altastop on the way

   The upper town sits on a hill inside walls built by the Republic of Venice in the sixteenth century, a World Heritage site since 2017; a funicular climbs to it from the lower town. Its heart is the Piazza Vecchia, with the Colleoni Chapel beside the cathedral.

3. Desenzano del Gardastop on the way

   The largest town on the lake, with an old harbour full of boats. Near the centre are the remains of a late Roman villa whose floors are still covered with mosaics.

4. Sirmioneone night

   A narrow peninsula reaching into the lake, entered across the moat of the Scaliger Castle, built by the della Scala lords of Verona with its own walled harbour. At the tip lie the ruins of a great Roman villa, called the Grottoes of Catullus after the poet who had a house here.

5. Salòstop on the way

   A lakeside town with a long promenade. From 1943 to 1945 ministries of Mussolini’s puppet state under the Germans sat here, and that state is remembered as the Republic of Salò.

6. Il Vittorialestop on the way

   The estate of the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio at Gardone Riviera, where he lived from 1921 until his death in 1938, crammed with his collections. Set into the hillside of the garden is the bow of the warship Puglia, raised among the trees.

7. Limone sul Gardastop on the way

   The terraces above the village hold limonaie, lemon houses of stone pillars that were roofed over in winter to keep the frost off a fruit grown this far north. In 1980 doctors found that some villagers carry a rare protein, named A-I Milano, that protects the arteries.

8. Riva del Garda2 nights

   At the northern tip of the lake, between cliffs, and part of Austria-Hungary until 1918; Franz Kafka took a cure at a sanatorium here in 1913. Two winds blow on schedule, the Pelèr from the north in the morning and the Ora from the south after noon, and they bring windsurfers and sailors from all over Europe.

9. Malcesine and Monte Baldostop on the way

   A cable car climbs from Malcesine to the ridge of Monte Baldo, and the cabins of the upper section turn slowly round as they rise, so everyone sees the whole lake. In 1786 Goethe was nearly arrested here as a spy while he sketched the castle, as he tells in his Italian Journey.

10. Bardolinoone night

    A lakeside town that gave its name to a light red wine, and to the Chiaretto, a pale rosé made from the same grapes. Behind the main street stands San Zeno, a small church of the ninth century and one of the few Carolingian buildings left in Italy.

11. Lazisestop on the way

    A village still enclosed by its medieval walls and towers, with a small harbour. On the harbour stands the Dogana Veneta, the old customs house of the Republic of Venice, which ruled the lake for centuries.

12. Valpolicellastop on the way

    The wine valleys north of Verona. Amarone, their strongest wine, is made from grapes laid out to dry for months after the harvest before they are pressed, which concentrates the sugar.

13. Veronaone night

    The Arena, a Roman amphitheatre of the first century, still fills every summer for the opera festival, held there since 1913. The balcony of Juliet’s House was added in the twentieth century to a medieval house, and the courtyard is always full.

14. Venice2 nights

    The road ends at Piazzale Roma, and beyond it the city moves by boat and on foot. In 1516 the Republic confined the Jews to the Ghetto, named after the foundry, the geto, that had stood there, and the word passed into every language; its old synagogues still stand around the square.

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What it costs

Eighty dollars a night is the room. The car, the fuel and the tolls are yours: the A4 autostrada from Milan to Venice is tolled, paid at the exit by card or cash, while the roads around the lake are free. Central Milan is ringed by Area C, a paid congestion zone watched by cameras. In Venice the car stays at the end of the bridge, in the garages of Piazzale Roma or on the island of Tronchetto, which are dear, or in Mestre on the mainland, cheaper, with a train or bus across in minutes. On peak days Venice charges day visitors an access fee; guests who sleep in the city are exempt but must register on the city’s site. The extras worth budgeting are the Monte Baldo cable car, the Vittoriale and the vaporetto in Venice.

What to know

Three things. One, and above all: the ZTL. The historic centres on this route — Sirmione beyond its castle, Verona, Bergamo’s upper town, and Milan’s Area C — are limited-traffic zones, and a camera at each entrance photographs the plate of every car that drives in without a permit. If your hotel is inside, as most in Sirmione are, ask it before you arrive to register your plate; otherwise park outside and walk in. Each pass under a camera is a separate fine. Two: the tolls. Take a ticket at the entrance to the autostrada and pay at the exit; stay out of the lanes marked Telepass, which are for electronic tags only. Three: speed. Average-speed cameras, the Tutor, measure the time between two points on the autostrada, fixed cameras stand at the edges of the lake villages, and outside towns dipped headlights must be on by day.

Roads, tolls and rules

Italy drives on the right. On the west shore the Gardesana road is cut into the cliffs above the water, through a long run of tunnels, toward Limone and Riva; it is narrow, and buses and cyclists share it. The east shore road runs through one village after another and is slow in summer. The distances are short, so the lake days are for stopping: the east shore is split over two easy days, with a night in Bardolino, so there is time for the Monte Baldo cable car. The last day, to Venice, is on the autostrada.

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