What's on in Sirmione (Lake Garda), Italy through the year

Busy — Christmas holidays in Italy, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Hotels shut for winter (15 Nov – 15 Mar)

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Hotels shut for winter (15 Nov – 15 Mar)

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Opening

  Lake season opens

  20 Mar – 1 May · usuallySummer season opens

  Hotels reopen around Easter, the lake boats to Desenzano and Garda restart and the Grotte di Catullo goes back to summer hours. Before that the peninsula is a spa town and little else. Source ↗

• Holiday

  Easter and Pasquetta

  4–6 AprEaster & Holy WeekCrowdedClosures

  Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (Pasquetta) are public holidays, and Italians use the long weekend for short breaks and day trips: trains and hotels fill, old towns and sights are busier than the weeks around, and many shops and some restaurants close on Easter Sunday. Source ↗

Still on: Hotels shut for winter (15 Nov – 15 Mar)

Peak crowds — Easter and Pasquetta, Bank-holiday crush

• Season

  Peler and ora

  1 Apr – 30 Sep · usuallyWind season

  Garda runs on two daily winds: the peler down the lake from the north in the early morning, the ora back up it from around midday. Every sailing and windsurf school here plans the day around them.

• Season

  Bank-holiday crush

  20 Apr – 5 Jun · usuallyNational holidayCrowded

  On the Italian long weekends at the end of April and start of June a town of eight thousand takes tens of thousands of day visitors, and the queue for the castle drawbridge has run to forty minutes.

Still on: Lake season opens (20 Mar – 1 May (usually)), Easter and Pasquetta (4–6 Apr)

Busy — Bank-holiday crush, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in May.

Still on: Lake season opens (20 Mar – 1 May (usually)), Peler and ora (1 Apr – 30 Sep (usually)), Bank-holiday crush (20 Apr – 5 Jun (usually))

Peak crowds — Bank-holiday crush, Summer holidays in Italy

• Season

  Lake warm enough to swim

  20 Jun – 15 Sep · usuallySea warm enough

  A deep alpine lake warms slowly, so swimming off the rocks below the Grotte di Catullo is a late-June to mid-September proposition. There is no sand anywhere on the peninsula.

Still on: Peler and ora (1 Apr – 30 Sep (usually)), Bank-holiday crush (20 Apr – 5 Jun (usually))

Busy — Summer holidays in Italy, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in July.

Still on: Peler and ora (1 Apr – 30 Sep (usually)), Lake warm enough to swim (20 Jun – 15 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Ferragosto, Summer holidays in Italy

• Holiday

  Ferragosto

  8–22 AugSchool holidaysCrowdedBook early

  German and Italian holidays land in the same fortnight on a peninsula you can walk across in ten minutes. Parking at the neck of it fills before nine. Source ↗

Still on: Peler and ora (1 Apr – 30 Sep (usually)), Lake warm enough to swim (20 Jun – 15 Sep (usually))

Busy — Summer holidays in Italy, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in September.

Still on: Peler and ora (1 Apr – 30 Sep (usually)), Lake warm enough to swim (20 Jun – 15 Sep (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Nature

  Garda olive harvest

  15 Oct – 30 Nov · usually

  This is about the northern limit for olives, and the lake's mild, delicate oil is pressed through late autumn. The frantoi on the Brescia shore take visitors while they are running.

Quiet — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

• Closure

  Hotels shut for winter

  15 Nov – 15 Mar

  Most hotels and the lake boats stop from mid-November until spring. The thermal baths, the castle and a handful of restaurants stay open, and the old town is finally empty. Source ↗

Still on: Garda olive harvest (15 Oct – 30 Nov (usually))

Busy — Christmas holidays in Italy, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Hotels shut for winter (15 Nov – 15 Mar)