How to get to Lake Garda

Within easy reach of Bergamo and the airport at Orio al Serio is the beautiful and popular Lago di Garda (Lake Garda.)
Italy’s largest lake has been praised by writers and poets over the centuries for its clean water, mild and sunny climate and for the beauty of many of the towns that lie along its shores.
Visitors landing at Bergamo’s Orio al Serio airport have approximately an hour’s drive (78 km) to reach Desenzano del Garda, the nearest of the towns at the foot of the lake.
To get there by train you can travel from the railway station in Bergamo to Brescia where you can link up with a Milan to Venice express train which calls at Desenzano del Garda. Again it will take about an hour.
Also within easy reach, if you are travelling from Bergamo,is the medieval town of Sirmione (above), which is on the end of a peninsula jutting out into the lake. The poet Catullus and opera legend Maria Callas both appreciated Sirmione’s beauty and made their homes there.

You can easily take a boat from Desenzano to Sirmione or travel further on to Bardolino, which is on Lake Garda’s east shore. Bardolino is a lovely old town, famous for the delicious red wine of the same name, which you can buy by the glass in the bars there and, of course, it is offered on the menu at the restaurants in the town.