AUTUMN ON GARDA
Autumn is usually considered a melancholic time, but I, like Albert Camus, prefer to think of it as 'a second spring, when every leaf is a flower.
What I like most about autumn is its gentleness and slowness. After the mugginess of summer and the frenzy of holiday-rituals, there come days when you can enjoy the still-warm sun without sweltering and feel free to laze around a bit.
This is the time when the expression 'outdoor life' takes on its full meaning. My partner, a sports walking and wellness guide, always recommends choosing this season to go hiking, because in summer, the too much heat will take your breath away.
And then you want to put in the colours? The autumn rains, which decree the end of summer, sweep away the accumulated dust and the plants seem to be reborn, the leaves change colour and you pick the fruits of the season.
Autumn is the time for discovering new wine and new oil.
Many of my guests always return enthusiastic after spending a day helping the owners harvest the olives and/or witnessing the pressing in the oil mills: an experience that everyone should do at least once, because it is a magical ritual, which has been repeated the same (more or less) since man invented 'green gold'.
Even the grape harvest represents a moment of 'going back to the old', because its rhythms and phases are still linked to seasonal trends as they were in the times of our ancestors: technology helps, but nature still rules. Not to mention the vineyards that change colour almost from one day to the next. Beautiful.
You may be thinking: yes, but the days are shorter. Exactly! Isn't this then the perfect opportunity to experience new things within four walls after a fulfilling day outdoors? You could, for example, take part in a wine tasting, accompanied by bread, salami and cheese produced in the area.
For those who want to get closer to the culture of Lake Garda, the Vittoriale, the Museum of the Divine Infant, the Heller Botanical Garden, the Sorlini Museum, the MUSA, are all open.
The flats I manage are almost all available in the autumn and my network of partners and collaborators are also still active.
