Sports Tour Manager, Michael Varley, and Senior Tour Consultant, Mike Rollason, have swapped the office walls for the stunning scenery of Lake Garda this week, all with the aim of bringing you new sports tours to this beautiful region of Italy. We caught up with Michael who gave us the Lake Garda low down, as well as giving us all travel envy! Here is Day two and three of their Lake Garda adventure…
Day two
Day two on our sport Italy trip leads us to various parts of the Lake Garda region to see the clubs that will host our teams.
First of all, we head to Valpolicella to see the rugby club that plays in Italy’s highest level, serie A. This is a youth focused club, already advertising their youth tournament at the end of the summer. They will be great hosts for any team.
From Valpolicella we head south to Garda, then Peschiera, San Martino, Desenzano and Padenghe, all of which have teams ready and willing to take on English youth football teams. Facilities are good with both grass and synthetic pitches.
On our route round the lake, we had passed Gardaland theme park, Italy’s largest amusement park, and also Caneva Movie World, Italy’s Universal Studies. We also see signs for Verona but visits to Juliet’s balcony will have to wait for our next visit.
We also visit the home of the Hellas Verona training pitches which your group can play on before continuing round the lake and heading back to Garda.
Football is clearly numero uno here in Italy and combining a training session with Hellas Verona and a visit to Milan and the San Siro would make for a spectacular tour.
Day three
We are looking for a different side of Lake life today and so head up above Garda to the town of San Zeno. The cooler air and training at altitude means that both Chievo and Hellas Verona visit this resort and when you see the incredible views over the lake and the superb hotels, you can understand why they come.
Hotels with swimming pools, training pitches, free WiFi, big screens and all you can eat buffets. This is the dream sport retreat.
Just round the corner is the Jungle adventure, a high ropes course offering thrills go-ape style. Whilst there are boat tours, city visits and theme parks aplenty on lake garda, this hilltop jungle adventure is a great alternative and superb for team building whilst staying near the lake.
The Adriatic now beckons so the rest of the day is spent driving along to a resort North of Venice. This is closer to true Italian rugby country but the prospect of organising rugby tours will have to wait till tomorrow!