Malcesine Streets II
Lake Garda, Italy
Lake Garda and the little towns that are dotted around it's shoreline are truly beautiful but I must confess that I was expecting something a little more, shall we say... "olde worlde" of Malcesine. It's as good a place to stay in the Italian Lakes as anywhere, but it hides it true personality well. The picture postcard images you see are taken from the lake with its harbour fronted buildings basking in the last rays of a setting sun.
Take a stroll through the town during tourist hours and you will find a very different world - more geared to satisfying the needs of the modern tourist. Every street, doorway, window, public space is given up to cater for their every desire - bars, restaurants, pizzerias, gelaterias abound. Fashion, jewellery, sports equipment, souvenirs shops; tours, car hire, bike hire, boat hire - they're all here. Apart from the castle, nothing remains of a by-gone age and even that has succumbed to the commercial world, now catering for concerts and weddings as we witnessed while there.
However, signs of a former life can still be found if you are prepared to get up early and walk the streets, even before the locals surface. Apart from the stacked tables and chairs and wall mounted menu boards the old town can still be seen. These are just a few shots of the old town streets in Malcesine in the hour before the rest of the town wakes up, and is more of what I was expecting or hoped for. Maybe it was a naive wish in this day and age of global tourism but a sight few visitors will see.
Malcesine Streets II
Lake Garda, Italy
Lake Garda and the little towns that are dotted around it's shoreline are truly beautiful but I must confess that I was expecting something a little more, shall we say... "olde worlde" of Malcesine. It's as good a place to stay in the Italian Lakes as anywhere, but it hides it true personality well. The picture postcard images you see are taken from the lake with its harbour fronted buildings basking in the last rays of a setting sun.
Take a stroll through the town during tourist hours and you will find a very different world - more geared to satisfying the needs of the modern tourist. Every street, doorway, window, public space is given up to cater for their every desire - bars, restaurants, pizzerias, gelaterias abound. Fashion, jewellery, sports equipment, souvenirs shops; tours, car hire, bike hire, boat hire - they're all here. Apart from the castle, nothing remains of a by-gone age and even that has succumbed to the commercial world, now catering for concerts and weddings as we witnessed while there.
However, signs of a former life can still be found if you are prepared to get up early and walk the streets, even before the locals surface. Apart from the stacked tables and chairs and wall mounted menu boards the old town can still be seen. These are just a few shots of the old town streets in Malcesine in the hour before the rest of the town wakes up, and is more of what I was expecting or hoped for. Maybe it was a naive wish in this day and age of global tourism but a sight few visitors will see.