Hotel Fornaci

They offered us a room with its own exit to the street, but it looked like a maintenance room, very dark, with an awful dirty carpet. We got no apology. The receptionist and her small dog started barking at us in Italian as soon as we arrived, and we were forced to leave. Apparently, the hotel had changed its policy on big dogs after we booked, and our calm, innocent Golden Retriever was the reason for that ferocious welcome. Outside, the receptionist kept shouting and blaming us for not reading the hotel rules. We had read them, as we always do when travelling with our dog.

We arrived in May 2023. You could hear everything from the next room at night, even when people were just talking loudly. The much worse surprise was finding out they lock the door at 1 am and give you no key to get back in. My husband had to sleep in the car one night because he couldn't get inside again.

Friendly and helpful, and nicely placed by the lake for a quiet break. It's a little way from the centre, which is part of its charm.

Luisella and Maria Grazia, the two sister owners, were kind, welcoming and went out of their way to help us. When our tandem had a near-disastrous mechanical problem, with 12 broken spokes, Luisella found a bicycle shop willing to collect and repair it. We came from California for a tandem ride through Italy and had planned just one day at the southern end of Lago di Garda. Instead, after finding this quiet, perfectly placed lakeside hotel at the end of a 4 KM walking and bicycle path west of Peschiera, we stayed at Hotel Fornaci for six nights. We rode around Lago di Garda and Verona each day. Our room was lovely, spacious and clean, and the deck was a great place to unwind with a glass of wine and take in the incredible lake views.