Agatha Christie would have felt at home here. Or one of her characters. At any moment, Hercule Poirot might have stepped off a boat and into the rose-filled garden, taken tea in the sitting room and pronounced the waiter the unlikely murderer of Lady Clementine, who had visited Lake Garda for the sake of her health, but found the trip was to be the death of her. I have a vivid imagination, sorry.
Elegant is the word. Not stuffy or pretentious, and no hip hotel either, in fact the Gardenia al Lago is just ever so slightly faded, but all the more comfortable and welcoming for that. We arrived in late afternoon rain, which had brought down a mist onto the lake and shrouded the far shore. But the welcome from the Arosio brothers was bright and sunny and as we sipped tea in the living room, rain running down the windows and weighing down the roses, we felt immediately at home here.
Our rooms (we were travelling with my elderly mother-in-law) were directly opposite each other, as we'd requested, at the end of a corridor. Each was spotlessly clean and beautifully furnished – gleaming wood, colourful floor tiles, newly fitted bathrooms – and had French doors opening onto an enormous sun terrace which in turn directly overlooked the lake. Well it would have done if we could have seen the lake that evening. The mist had thickened.
For the three nights of our stay we'd decided to take dinner at the hotel. Panoramic windows in the huge dining room also overlook the lake, creating the feeling of being on a ship (on that evening a fog-bound one). To be fair, the food wasn't stunning, but it was perfectly adequate and served with a friendly professionalism that made up for any lack of gastronomic adventure. Like everything else about the hotel, eating here was comfortable and relaxing, not demanding. Sometimes that's all you want.
Next morning the mist cleared slowly as we ate breakfast, and we saw for the first time the lake's other shore. A few steps along the quiet road outside the hotel brings you to the sleepy hamlet of Villa (where DH Lawrence lived for a few months in 1912), and where orange trees surround the tiny harbour. Oranges occasionally fell from the trees and plopped into the water. A little further on is the only slightly more awake little town of Gargnano, where you can catch boats to other places around the lake.
On the morning we left it was sunny. Signora Arosio, the brothers' mother, was in the garden, secateurs in hand, tending the roses and geraniums and bourganvilea. We had a brief chat in which I told her how beautiful the garden was, and how lovely her hotel. She wore an incongruous combination of a smart dress and pink Marigold rubber gloves, yet was the epitome of elegance - there, that word again.
And not in the least faded.
Hotel Gardenia al Lago, Via Colleta, 53 25084 Villa di Gargnano (BS), Lago di Garda
Tel 0365 71195
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