Milan & the Lake District - Italy - page 420

a quiet side street leading to the lake in the center of town. The Eden has been
modernized with taste and an eye to comfort, and the management is both
friendly and helpful. You can see the lake from most of the attractive, contempo-
rary rooms ( € 120- € 170 doubles; breakfast € 10), whose mirrored walls enhance
the light and lake views. The marble lobby opens to a delightful shaded terrace
and a swimming pier that juts into the lake.

€€€ - €€€€

If you're looking for more of a resort hotel (or just something
open through much of the off season), the modern Olivi

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(Via San Pietro, 5;
% 030-9905365; www.gardalake.it/hotel-olivi; closed Jan) offers a taste of the
high life at fairly reasonable rates: € 132 to € 200 for two. It's not directly on the
lake—which you can see from most rooms and the sunny terrace—but instead
commands a hilltop position near the Roman ruins amid pines and olive groves.
The rooms are decorated in varying schemes of bold pastels and earth tones, with
dressing areas off the bathrooms, and balconies. There's a large pool in the garden
and, to bring a lakeside feeling to the grounds, an artificial river that streams past
the terrace and glass windows of the lobby and breakfast room.

€€

11) with a view of the lake from the ter-
race at L'Archimboldo (Via Vittorio Emanuele, 71; % 030-916409; Wed-Mon).

You can get a quick pizza (

€

7-

€

For better pizza—but no view—head to La Roccia (Via Piana, 2; % 030-
916392; closed Thurs and Nov-Mar), serving excellent food in unusually pleasant
surroundings, especially if you sit in the large garden. The menu features more
than 20 wood-oven pizzas ( € 4.50- € 9), plus plenty of traditional pastas, includ-
ing lasagna and excellent cheese tortellini in a cream-and-prosciutto sauce (

€ - €€

€

8).

€€ You'd think that a location smack in the heart of the main drag's boutiques
and gelaterie would turn any restaurant into a pricey and awful tourist trap. That,
normally, is too true—but not in the case of Sirmione's Ristorante Al Progresso

5
(Via Vittorio Emanuele, 18-20; % 030-916108; closed Thurs off season and either
Nov-Dec or Dec-Jan, depending on flow of tourism), an appealingly plain spot
with a touch of style, low prices, and quite excellent home cooking. Fresh lake
trout ( € 9.50) is often on the menu—simply grilled or served al sirmionese (boiled
with a house sauce of garlic, oil, capers, and anchovies)—as is a tangy 9 scalop-

pine al limone, veal in a sauce made from fresh lemons grown on the lakeshore.

€

EXPLORING SIRMIONE In addition to its attractive though tourist-shop-
ridden old town, Sirmione has many lakeside promenades, pleasant beaches, and
even some open countryside where olive trees sway in the breeze. Anything you'll
want to see can be reached easily on foot, though an open-air tram makes the
short run out to the Roman ruins from the northern edge of the old town (except
12:30-2:30pm).
The moated and turreted Castello Scaligero

( % 030-916468; € 4;
Tues-Sun 8:30am-7pm) still guards the only land-side entrance to the old town.
Built in the 13th century by the Della Scala family, who ruled Verona and many
of the lands surrounding the lake, the castle warrants a visit mainly for the views
from its towers.

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