Lake Garda itself makes a perfect spot for a family holiday. Surrounded by the Alps, Garda is the largest lake in Italy; its waters are beautifully clear and clean, it has a gentle, temperate climate and boasts some of Europe's best watersports, being a haven for windsurfers. Winters are mild and Maderno lies along the sheltered western shore. Known as 'the Riviera Bresciana', these shores are rich with olive groves, vineyards and citrus trees. This is good wine country, and you'll doubtless sample local delights such as Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino.
There's a huge amount to see. Check out the old Venetian town of Salo - dating from the days when Venice was a world power with an empire to match. Near here stands Il Vittoriale, a remarkably unspoiled lake village, and the home of notorious Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. Here the coastline is known as the Riviera del Limone, because of the huge cultivation of citrus trees on the steep hillsides fronting the lake.
Travel to Salo, with its fifteenth century houses, and then inland to Puegnano del Garda, where you can sample the excellent rosé wines produced here since the sixteenth century. There are marvellous restaurants and trattorias, trips up into the hills to see unspoiled villages, or expeditions onto the lake. And with its position at the foot of the Alps, Lombardy is marvellously accessible to visitors from northern Europe. For families, groups or couples, Hotel Rock offers a superb - and very friendly - Italian holiday.
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