Torbole: panoramic trail to Tempesta

We had a stressful start to the day when I tried to book into a campsite in Malcesine, the next place we’re stopping for any length of time. The first few we’d chosen were fully booked and, finally, I was relieved when John spoke to Luciano at Camping Claudia who managed to find us two pitches.

That relieved my stress until we arrived at the ‘Camper Stop’ in Torbole, just down the road from Riva, still on Lake Garda. We were met with a sign saying ‘completely full’ and there was no way of turning large vehicles round in the narrow access lane. The gate wouldn’t even go up for us to turn round in the camper stop! When John checked in the office/shop, it turned out that Molly Moho was positioned at the wrong angle to activate the gate, and that there were now spaces because people had left… phew!

John and Dan manoeuvred into two of the tight spaces that were available, then when we were settled, we set off for a walk on the Sentiero Forestale Busatte-Tempesta. The path zigzagged up the mountainside through Mediterranean vegetation, which provided welcome shade. After a while the path was fairly level, meandering up and down with fantastic panoramic views over the lake and mountains of Alto Garda.

Another attraction of this hiking trail was the iron stairways on the steep walls of rock overlooking Lake Garda. There are 400 steps altogether and, luckily, leaving from Torbole, they were all downhill!

We took our time in the hot sunshine, stopping regularly to look at the view and reached the end of the trail in Tempesta in around two hours. Annoyingly, the bus back to Torbole wasn’t due for another 45 minutes, and there was no bar serving refreshing drinks in the village. We couldn’t even find a way through to the beach! Oh well… the time passed and we were soon back in Torbole, sitting in a lakeside bar.

The day ended with a lovely swim in the lake. We sat and watched the sun disappear behind the mountains before Jackie once again cooked dinner. I’m loving being able to sit and eat outdoors in the evenings.