A NEWSLETTER FROM MJ ELITE TRAVEL

 

Let's talk about the lake everyone overlooks.

 

You know Lake Como. George Clooney has a villa there. It's stunning, it's glamorous, and approximately every travel influencer on the internet has already photographed it from the same three angles.

 

But if what you actually want is Italy... like, real Italy... let me tell you about Lake Garda.

 

I went in the year 2000, in October. Staying in a tiny hillside village called Tignale on the western shore with a friend whose boyfriend's family lived there. 

 

No hotel. No itinerary. No tourist trail. 

 

Just an upstairs apartment above an Italian family's home, homemade wine poured every single day, and a first lunch that lasted three hours.

 

That's the version I want to help you find.

 

 

Lake Como is beautiful and there's no taking that away. It's also where you go to be seen. Grand hotels, polished waterfront, and a lot of people there for the exact same postcard.

 

Lake Garda is Italy's largest lake and somehow still feels like a secret. 🤫 It's wider, wilder, and depending on where you land, it can feel completely removed from the tourist circuit. The western shore especially, where villages like Tignale sit high up in the hills above the water, runs at a pace closer to everyday Italian life than anything you'd find on Como.

 

It's also surrounded by some of the most interesting wine country in northern Italy.

The family we stayed with had their own wine cellar. You'd walk into the tasting room and then through a door in the back, and suddenly you were underground, built right into the hillside! Big traditional demijohn bottles lined up on the floor. Shelves stacked everywhere. The smell of wood and earth and old wine.

 

They made their own red table wine. Nothing fancy, nothing aged for years. Just honest, everyday drinking wine that they poured at every meal without a second thought. Homemade grappa as the chaser.

 

I have genuinely never felt more Italian in my life.

Down at the southern end of the lake, between Sirmione and Desenzano del Garda, is the Lugana wine region. The Turbiana grape thrives here in the flat, fertile land right along the water. The wines are fresh, mineral-driven whites that are absolutely made for sitting by a lake with a plate of fresh pasta in front of you.

 

If you haven't had a good Lugana, add it to your list. It's one of those wines that makes you wonder why you don't hear about it more.

Just a short drive from the lake is Valpolicella, home of Amarone della Valpolicella. Big, rich, complex, made from grapes that are partially dried before fermentation. It's the kind of wine you sit with.

 

The region also produces Valpolicella Ripasso, which gives you some of that Amarone richness at a friendlier price point. Family-run wineries, rolling hills, and cellar visits that feel nothing like a tasting room you booked online.

One afternoon we had lunch at Elio's grandparents' house. We ate outside, under a pergola covered in grapevines, clusters of dark grapes hanging right above our heads. They made wine from those grapes. Behind the house, olive trees ran down the hillside.

 

Homemade wine, homemade grappa, lunch that just kept going. This is what the Lake Garda region actually looks like when you get off the tourist path.

 

Another evening, Elio's mom taught us how to make gnocchi from scratch. Flour everywhere, little pillows of dough lined up across a wooden table, homemade wine in our glasses.

 

The next day we took a day trip to Venice. It was pouring rain, Piazza San Marco was completely flooded, and we were walking on the plank bridges they set up when the water comes in. 

 

Still magical. But lunch there was forgettable compared to everything we'd eaten at that kitchen table in Tignale.

 

That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the difference between a tourist trip and a real one.

 

Not the George Clooney version. Not the influencer version. 

 

The version where lunch takes three hours and someone's grandmother teaches you to make gnocchi and the wine comes from a cellar built into the side of a hill.

 

That's what I help people plan👇

YOUR EUROPE EXPERIENCE DESIGNER

🍷 P.S. The best time to visit Lake Garda is late spring through early fall. October can be moody and gray and honestly still worth it, but if you want that sparkling lake view, aim for May, June, or September. Either way, I'll make sure you get the real experience. 

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