Mountain Biking in Torbole

As time winds down here, we keep trying to find some things to do that are less what tourists would do, and more what only locals would know about. That is what brought three of us to go mountain biking in Torbole, a small town on the edge of Lago di Garda (Lake Garda). The area is in beautiful northern Italy. The lake is surrounded by mountains and towns that make the area look like paradise.
We left Rome for Torbole at about 10 o'clock Saturday night. We caught a night train that brought us directly into a small town called Rovereto. The ride wasn't bad at all, and we all managed to get some sleep on the way. We arrived at around 7:15 in the morning to Rovereto station, where we caught a cheap bus for 2.50 euro to Torbole. When we got to Torbole we had some time to kill before the bike shop opened, sow e started to walk around. The second we reached the edge of the lake we knew it was going to be an amazing day. The sun was rising over the tops of the mountain, and the sky was clear blue. The water was so peaceful, and the small town looked amazing. We made our way over to the bike shop where we each rented a bike for the day. The bikes were brand new 2008 Cannondale mountain bikes (one still with plastic on it!). The shop charged us a mere 20 euro to rent the bikes for the day, and helped us plot out a route to take based on our time schedule. We began by going through the small town, all the way over to the other side of the lake. I forgot to mention that this lake is 32.25 miles long, and 10 miles wide at the widest spot; not the smallest little pond in the world. We made it to the other side and found the trail we wanted to be on. After making sure we were ready to go we all took a deep breath and began our trek up the mountain. Along the way we saw the most beautiful views that I have ever seen in my life. The entire area was beautiful, with snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, and amazing trails. We arrived at our first destination in about 2 hours, which was a small town atop the mountain named Pregasina. We biked around the town for a bit, and then decided to try to find some other spots to go to. We went about halfway back down the mountain until we found the trail we wanted and started heading back up again. Although this trail was supposed to lead us to another lake, it was poorly scaled on the map, and 2 hours into the trail we had not made it halfway. We decided to turn around and explore the area around Lago di Garda some more.
After a while of biking, we rode all the way back down the mountain into town and grabbed something to eat. The town is just as beautiful, full of small shops and places to relax. The area is known to be a good place to go for extreme sports, and there were tons of people mountain biking, kayaking, windsurfing, rock climbing, hiking, and scuba diving. Had we had more time we would have made every effort to do more, but unfortunately we couldn't stay longer than one full day. We relaxed for a bit by the water, enjoying some of the most beautiful weather we have had so far in Italy. Around 6 o'clock we took the bus back to the train station, got some dinner, and hopped on a 9:45 train back to Rome. Unfortunately the train ride coming back was not as good at the one when we went there, since it ended up being packed about halfway through and seats were hard to come by. We finally did make it back to Rome, however, at around 6 AM, somewhat tired from an amazing experience.
This week marks my last week of classes here in Rome. This coming Saturday a few of us are going canyoning in Terni, Umbria just north of Rome. Next week is finals week, and then we have the weekend to get ready to come home. None of us can believe how fast it's flying by, and now all we're trying to do is see everything we can see before we have to leave. I hope all is well back in the states. I'll see everyone soon.

~Mike

Side Note - The pictures below give an idea of the trails. The first picture is the view from the top of the mountain. The red circle marks where we started from.













The second picture is the view from where we started, with the red circle marking the town Pregasina, the highest point we went on the first trail.