Food and wine of Lake Garda

The nicest way to know and fully discover Lake Garda is to do it through Lake Garda's typical products and its food and wine. The table and good cooking reflect the traditions, history and culture of a place, and this applies also to Lake Garda and its immediate hinterland. The typical products and wines of Lake Garda encapsulate Lake Garda' very essence - the only communion between the alpine and Mediterranean climate. Lake Garda stands out above all for its typical products: the wine of course, extra virgin olive oil, and freshwater fish. However, the products we have just mentioned are not the only ones. Lake Garda's food and wine are particularly rich, and can come up with many attractive experiences on the curious traveller and connoisseur.

About 40 species of freshwater fish live in Lake Garda. Many originate in Lake Garda itself, others arrived there from nearby waters, others still were introduced to Lake Garda by man to repopulate it.
The fish of Lake Garda are liked especially for their tasted, which makes them one of the most important dishes of Lake Garda's food and wine offer.
The main fish of Lake Garda are: large European hornbeam (now difficult to find, but surely the most loved of Lake Garda's fish), white fish, lake trout, eel, sardine or twait shad, pike, chub, tench, bleak, carp, and perch.

The worst 'enemies' of fish in Lake Garda are the fishermen's co-operative companies and corporations of the towns on the Lake Garda riviera, which is part of the Verona province, always particularly active as regards fishing. Travellers who stay on Lake Garda or near to it, and go in the early morning to Garda, Lazise, Torri del Benaco, Bardolino, Brenzone or Malcesine, can buy fresh fish of Lake Garda directly from the fishermen.

The food and wine of Lake Garda, especially in the zone which is part of the province of Verona, hugely contributes to the attractiveness of Lake Garda for Italian and foreign tourists. The Veronese shore of Lake Garda, together with the hills that encircle Lake Garda, with the Mincio Valley, with Monte Baldo and with the Caprino valley, all a few kilometres from Lake Garda, make up a zone rich in typical foods and wines, which are a splendid accompaniment to the wonderful natural panoramas of the Lake Garda zone.
The most typical traditional dishes of Lake Garda are: risotto with tench, fried bleaks (fresh bleaks), or in sisam (dry bleaks), bigoli with bleak, eels with sguasset, sardine fillets in oil, perch fillets with white wine, Sardines en saor, baked tench or tench with white fish or in greaseproof paper, large hornbeam either grilled or in greaseproof paper, fresh or boiled trout with grapes.
There are also other excellent typical dishes to be enjoyed in the Lake Garda hinterland: risotto with asparagus, risi e bisi, risotto with amarone wine, risotto with duck, pappardelle pasta with game, bigoli al torchio and potato gnocchi.
In common with the entire Verona zone, visitors will enjoy, on Lake Garda too, the typical dishes of the Verona and Veneto tradition: mixed boiled meats co' la pearà, Pastissada de caval (horse), grilled or barbecued meat, duck and stuffed guinea fowl.
The Mincio Valley, a few kilometres from Lake Garda, is characterised by the unusual union of popular cooking of farm hands and fishermen, and the finest traditional dishes of the Noblemen's villas, of which there are many in the Mincio Valley, a few kilometres from Lake Garda.
All lovers of good cuisine and the food and wine delights of Lake Garda cannot miss the following dishes: tortelli with pumpkin, tagliolini with salmon, risottos with red chicory, risottos with field chicory, risottos with strawberry, as well as pasta dishes with vegetables, pork or veal shins, barbecued meats and chicken, hare in salmì and stewed snails. To finish on a sweet note, we cannot overlook the Sanvigilini, the sbrisolona gateau, and Fogazza sulla gradela.

Every meal on Lake Garda should naturally be accompanied by the typical wines of Lake Garda, such as Bardolino (from Bardolino Novello to Bardolino Chiaretto), Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon of Valdadige.
To make the typical dishes of Lake Garda even tastier, we advise you to always add extra virgin olive oil from Lake Garda, produced in the Riviera of Olives in the province of Verona.

Verona Apartments, Farm Holidays, Bed and Breakfast, Country House Hotels, Residencies in Verona, Valpolicella, and Lake Garda,

advise all those wishing to taste the food and wine of Lake Garda to find accommodation in the following structures:

San Ciriaco Relais Country House Hotel and Bed and Breakfast for Farm Holidays in Verona Valpolicella (Italy): the ideal place for those wishing to stay in a completely relaxed and reserved manner, in a hilly zone immersed in greenery.

Residenza San Tomaso furnished apartments for rent B&B in central Verona for those looking to go to the opera or cinema, or to go shopping on the streets of central Verona, walking around in comfort.