Day 11, 27th April 2024.
Lake Maggiore to Lake Garda, Italy
Funnily enough, it was still raining this morning when we woke up, it was also very misty. Not a good start and encouraged us to move on.
Lake Garda was our next destination.
We have heard good things about Sirmione and the old town of Peschiera. The drive was about 3 hours, mostly on the motorway. About halfway along we started to see evidence of old Italian villages, what you would expect to see in Italy. Then we saw vineyards as the landscape changed into countryside.
This year Gareth and Andrew had Fulli Tags, meaning we could go through the tolls without needing to stop and pay. It was quite funny as we tentatively approached the barriers until we heard the ‘ping’ of the tag being recognised 
, phew, they work .
This is a bank holiday weekend in Italy and Germany so we had booked spaces on the campsite to guarantee a spot. The ACSI campsite is called Camping Sirmione
To reach the campsite you have to drive through the centre of the village, it’s very pedestrianised and cobbled in places, which made us wonder if we were going in the right direction, then just before the edge of the lake, the campsite entrance appears. It was very busy but the staff at check-in were super efficient and before we knew it we were shown the available spaces and were in and parked up.
Lunch was eaten before we all set off to explore Sermione and Lake Garda. We started out by going up to the main road and walking down towards the old town. As it turns out the old town is just a couple of buildings but we managed to find a watering hole in front of the lake for refreshments.
One thing we like about Italy is that when you order alcohol, you get a huge portion of snacks to go with it. On this occasion it was bread sticks and crisps. We tried the Rosé which was very nice indeed 
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Walking along the lakeside we realised that we were practically back at the campsite . So we popped in the little supermarket for milk, dropped that off to the vans and then headed back out for dinner.
This time we turned left at the top of the road and, after a few fails to be seated inside with dogs we found the best restaurant called Ristorante La Foresta.
Not only did it entice us in with it’s sparkly lights, they also were happy to take the dogs inside.
At first we thought they had sat us in the back of the restaurant because of the dogs, but as the evening drew on, we realised that we must have had one of the last available tables. Not long after we had sat down and ordered, all the other tables in the restaurant, which was quite big, were occupied 
, blimey, what a popular place.
Andrew and Jane tried the seabream with veg and potatoes, Gareth had fish of the lake, comprising of sardines, trout and a white fish. I had paella .
All of our food was delicious and we shared a flipping lovely bottle of Rosé which had a slight effervescence to it. I took a picture of the label for Jane as she would like to take some home , if it lasts that long.
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Jane and I shared a pudding of puff pastry, marscapone and strawberries, while Gareth had a pistachio gelato on the way home.
Just to say, on the way out of the restaurant we had to navigate through a huge queue of people waiting for tables .
What a lovely day , the sun was out, we all scrambled around looking for our sunnies and for just a while, some of us were in t-shirts.
Looking forward to exploring more tomorrow.
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