The Italy We Remembered Started At Lake Garda

Southern Italy wasn't what we expected.

Not because it was disappointing.

Because it wasn't the Italy Kia and I remembered.

Fifteen years ago, we travelled through northern Italy. We drove from Switzerland through the mountains, explored Venice, wandered the vineyards of Tuscany, stood inside the Colosseum in Rome and spent weeks falling in love with a country that felt effortlessly alive. Every town had a story. Every day seemed to lead somewhere new. It's a trip we've talked about countless times over the years.

So when we returned with the kids, we expected to feel that same connection all over again.

Instead, we started in Sicily before making our way across to Puglia.

It was beautiful in its own way, but it felt completely different to what we'd remembered. The beaches were quiet, many towns were only just waking up after winter and there were days where it almost felt abandoned. Eventually, we found our rhythm. We settled into an apartment, built routines, cooked most of our meals and slowed life down after the whirlwind of the first few months of our trip.

But it still didn't feel like the Italy we'd carried with us for the last fifteen years.

For a while, I genuinely wondered whether we'd remembered it wrong.

Then we drove north.

Within a day, everything changed.

The towns around Lake Garda immediately felt familiar. The streets were alive with people. Cyclists filled the paths. Ferries crisscrossed the lake. Families wandered the waterfronts with gelato in hand while church bells echoed across the towns. Around every corner was another medieval village, another mountain view or another reason to pull over and simply take it all in.

It was the Italy we remembered.

Not because we'd returned to the places we'd visited years earlier.

Because the feeling was back.

As the days passed, I realised it wasn't just the scenery that made northern Italy special.

Life became incredibly easy.

We based ourselves at Piani di Clodia, as part of a worldschooling hub, and looking back, I don't think we could have chosen a better place for our family. It wasn't just somewhere to stay. It became part of our everyday life. The kids disappeared between the pools, waterslides, playgrounds, bike paths and sports courts while Kia and I finally had the space to work on the things that mattered to us. She started leaning back into online kinesiology and rebuilding her website. I found time to write, create and exercise.

That balance was something we'd been searching for without even realising it.

When we wanted to explore, there was no shortage of places to go. We rode bikes through lakeside towns, caught ferries across the lake, wandered historic streets in places like Garda, Bardolino, Lazise and Peschiera del Garda, explored Verona, swam in the lake and ate gelato nearly every day.

If the kids wanted something bigger, it was all right there. Gardaland, Caneva Aquapark, Movieland, SEA LIFE Aquarium and countless adventure parks meant there was always another option without spending hours in the car. It felt like the entire region had been designed with families in mind.

Yet despite having so much to do, we never felt the need to do everything.

Some of our favourite days were the simplest ones.

A morning bike ride.

A coffee overlooking the lake.

The kids swimming while we worked for a couple of hours.

An afternoon wandering another beautiful town we'd never heard of before planning this trip.

Nothing felt rushed.

Nothing felt forced.

It was the first place on our journey where life felt bigger than the travel itself.

That's what surprised us most.

We stopped thinking about what we should tick off next and simply enjoyed where we already were.

Looking back now, I don't think southern Italy was the problem.

In fact, I think we needed it.

After months of constantly moving, Puglia gave us the chance to recover from the travel slump we'd been carrying and rebuild our routines as a family. Without that slower chapter, I'm not sure we would have appreciated Lake Garda nearly as much.

It arrived at exactly the right time.

As we packed up to leave, I realised something I hadn't felt anywhere else on our journey.

I wasn't wondering where we were going next.

I was wondering how we could stay.

That feeling is incredibly rare.

There are plenty of places we'd happily visit again.

Very few have made us wonder what life would actually look like if we lived there.

Lake Garda did.

If you're planning an Italian family holiday, you'll find bigger cities and more famous landmarks elsewhere.

But if you're looking for somewhere your kids can thrive, where every day feels easy, and where you can settle into a rhythm that feels less like a holiday and more like real life, I don't think we've found anywhere in Italy that does it better.

The Italy we remembered started at Lake Garda.

And we'd go back in a heartbeat.