In late August I departed Dublin airport early on a bright morning and landed in Milan to rain and gloom. Apparently, I had just missed the hailstones.

However, two hours later as we took the turnoff for Lake Garda, the sun burst through and remained. Rain fell on a few other mornings, usually an early downpour. Having cleaned and greened, it switched off and turned on the warm sun for the rest of the day.

The Garda area and the lake itself was created millions of years ago by continental drift, forming a cleft between the Veneto and Lombardy areas of what is now northern Italy. Today, the lake is about 50 km long and 17km at its widest point, mainly narrow but widening out towards the south.

The lake and its environs is fed and heated by subterranean thermal fonts and is protected from cold northern winds by the high mountains which surround it, producing a temperate microclimate which averages 14ºC in winter and about 26ºC in summer.

Historically, it has been settled since the Bronze Age, later coming under the successive influences of Rome, Verona, Milan and Venice. Napoleon briefly dominated the area before it passed to Austrian rule. Many of the battles for Italian independence in the 1860s were fought in this area, but it was only after World War I that the area finally passed under Italian control.

This area has been a tourist haven since Roman times, when opulent villas were built along the shore. Taking the road up the western side to Limone, you will see the terraces which were used to grow lemons on the hillsides, thus the town’s name. Limone itself is a steep warren of houses and narrow streets, carefully restored and updated, which lead down to a little harbour off the main lake shore.

Fishing and agriculture has been supplanted by tourism in most of these small towns which line the lake. Each of the towns retains a unique character, some grand, others unpretentious, but all worth seeing.

I was based in Desenzano at the southern, wider end of the lake. This town originally grew up around a vast Romanesque villa, of which little remains.

The very plain exterior of the Mary Magdalene Church, completed in 1611, belies the internal grandeur of its three naves and columns of Botticino marble, with religious paintings by Andrea Celesti.

This is the largest town on the lake with a harbour area fronting the old town and narrow winding streets leading up (past the Irish Pub!) to a castle which provides a great vantage point of the lake in the evening sun. Further up, beyond the pristine town, expensive modern villas are the leisure retreats of the wealthy who escape cramped apartments and traffic in Milan or Rome.

Taking an excursion by road around the lake gives some idea of its variety and beauty. Towards the northern end, long tunnels were blasted through cliffs to complete the road in the 1930s.

I took several trips on the century-old paddle steamers to places glimpsed from the bus and explored them at leisure. These marine dinosaurs have the unhurried gentility of their era and sitting on deck in the warm sun and gentle breeze is a sublime pleasure.

Salò on the southwestern side is in a deep, natural bay with an old town square and fine church, broad promenade and restaurants overlooking a marina. Behind and above runs the sleepy main street of the town, culminating in a long uphill square. It was not always so serene. This area was a favoured retreat of Fascists and Benito Mussolini’s tragic mistress Clara Petacci was ensconsed in a villa here– until his wife found out! Towards the end of the War, after the fall of Mussolini, die-hard Fascists set up the ‘Republic of Salò’.

Riva is at the extreme northern tip of the lake. An orderly town leads through to a palazzo skirting the water with an oddly-placed clock tower in an angle of the square. The lake here is at its narrowest, a popular area for cycling, windsurfing and small boating, but no ferries as the water level fell a metre below normal this summer.

Heading back down the eastern side is a vast entertainment complex– Gardaland! I had not time to explore it but this may be an ideal area for families to base themselves.

Near the lower eastern end, Lazise has a very attractive harbour area, entered through the original town walls and moat of 1077, with a castle from 1381 at its southern end. Sirimione is at the end of a long finger of land extending from the southern end of the lake. An ideal ferry stopoff, there was a (very good) brass band concert when I was there.

The train from Desenzano to Verona takes about a half-hour and it is well worth seeing this fine city which dates back thousands of years. The Coliseum (more intact than its Roman cousin) is used every Summer for an opera festival. Every era of history since then can be seen in the architecture and layers of history can literally be viewed through a hole cut in the pavement.

Wherever you travel in this area, there is no shortage of restaurants serving good food at very reasonable prices. A visit to the Garda area is an ideal prescription for anyone wishing to recharge their sun-deprived and work-stressed batteries.