travelswithalice

August 01, 2006

Gargnano- good hotel, bad hotel

There is something I have to say about this place. We have been coming here fairly often in the last twenty or so years. In the beginning we thought that the appeal of Gargnano was mostly the self-satisfied feeling it gave us that we were the only outsiders in this very insular little town of very few people, mostly very old. We felt like voyeurs sticking our noses in their private lives, barely registering on the local scene as a low-level irritant or a minor nuisance perhaps.

We soon recognized that this was a delusion, that this place indeed was on the tourist map of Lake Garda, no matter how unclearly marked.

At any rate, we first came here lured by an entry in our guide book for “the most romantic hotel on Lake Garda.” Baia D’oro sounded good and indeed basked in a privileged position on this beautiful lake.

We had dinner at the restaurant and stayed at the hotel. We didn’t care to stay another day though; we found nothing to make us want to stay.

That was then. We are now back at Baia D’oro partly because Hotel du Lac doesn’t have a lake view room available for us, and partly because we had come for dinner here last year and we enjoyed it and thought the place merited a second look. Unfortunately, last year's pleasant experience was not repeated this time around.

And once again, this hotel was a disappointment. There is a conspicuous absence of any kind of management- in the restaurant and in the hotel.

Today, the lake is at its glorious best. The water is several hues of blue and green, chartreuse and emerald. The sky is a picture postcard sky throwing shadows of blue and purple on a picture postcard mountain.

We wish we were at Valerio's Hotel du Lac.

Or at his parents' Hotel Gardenia al Lago. We had, in times past, brought our families to stay in their hotels, to meet their families, and to share with us this bit of heaven. We treasure those times.