Drone images from Lake Garda show: Popular beaches for Bavarian vacationers are without water

Created: 08/10/2022 04:54

By: Patrick Mayer

The water level of Lake Garda is falling because of the historic drought in northern Italy.

Drone recordings show the extent of the popular holiday hotspot Sirmione.

Many tourists from Bavaria come here.

Munich/Sirmione - Sirmione on Lake Garda has around 1.4 million overnight stays every year.

Day trippers are likely to exceed this number many times over.

The headland in the south of the northern Italian lake is particularly popular with holidaymakers from Bavaria and especially Munich.

The car license plates M, A for Augsburg, DAH for Dachau, FFB for Fürstenfeldbruck, EBE for Ebersberg, ED for Erding and (of course) STA for Starnberg line the large parking lots in front of the Scaligerburg gates.

Sirmione on Lake Garda: Hundreds of thousands of tourists from Bavaria and Munich every year

In addition to the fortress from the time of the Scaliger family (14th century), the municipality with its slightly more than 8000 inhabitants has a historical and romantic town center to offer.

But there is also one beach on the almost five-kilometer-long peninsula that has attracted tourists from Bavaria and all over the world: the "Spiaggia Jamaica" at the north-west end, commonly known as "Jamaica Beach".

The beach is known for its extensive and rocky promontories, which allow bathers to walk up to 100 meters into the lake and sunbathe on the downright comfortable (because the water has polished it) stony ground, while minimal waves provide a decent cooling .

What's more, in the early evening the sun breaks in from the south-west and offers a breathtaking view of the motor boats lying at anchor while guests enjoy a cocktail or a spritz in the legendary and natural Jamaica bar.

But this year something is different - because of the drought like in many places in northern Italy between Piedmont, Lake Garda and the Adriatic coast in Veneto.

Because: Whole sections of the beach are without water, downright dried up.

Drone footage from the news channel Local Team TV shows on Twitter that the rocks are much more exposed than usual.

But that's not all: the entire northern part of Sirmione is surrounded by an exposed rocky landscape, which cannot otherwise be admired in the south of the lake.

Sirmione: Beaches on Lake Garda are exposed because of the drought in northern Italy

A similar picture can be seen on the opposite side of the peninsula at the Spiaggia "Lido dello Bionde", a public beach with restaurants.

From here you have a view of Bardolino on the eastern shore of Lake Garda, which is also popular with Bavarian holidaymakers.

“We are in very bad shape because we are at least a meter below normal.

Of course we always have a little less water in summer.

But now the water level has reached historic proportions," explained Mauro Lavora, the owner of the lido dello Bionde, in an interview with Local Team TV.

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We're in very bad shape because we're at least a meter below normal.

Mauro Lavora, owner of the Lido dello Bionde in Sirmione

Here, too, video recordings from the regional news channel show how the pebbly beach has now completely dried up and the boulder fields that normally form the lake floor protrude far out.

Bathers have to walk a long way to even get into the water at the end of the well-known pier.

Lake Garda: Water reservoir in northern Italy to supply the Po river

The effects of the drought and dryness that has been prevailing in northern Italy for months have long been noticeable here as well.

With a capacity of 50 cubic kilometers, Lake Garda is also the largest water reservoir in Northern Italy.

And a water reservoir for local farmers and wine growers.

But because the only outlet, the Mincio near Peschiera del Garda, drains water into Italy's largest river, the Po, the water level at the holiday hotspot continues to drop.

According to consistent media reports, Lake Garda still has about 60 percent of its original water volume.

Baden is harmless, local authorities have been affirming for weeks.

At least if you check the water depth before jumping on the bank.

According to the

, about 100 billion bathtub loads evaporated or were drained to water the fields.

Lake Garda: Because of the drought in Italy, there is a dispute about the water

The community association of Garda vehemently opposes the northern Italian lifeline Po being kept alive with water from Lake Garda.

"We have to protect our shipping and fish while ensuring that farmers around the lake can still irrigate their crops in August," CEO Pierlucio Ceresa said recently.

Then, after the Po, Lake Garda will also get sick.

Pierlucio Ceresa, General Manager of the Municipal Association of Garda

The approximately 650 km long Po has also dried up in many places between its source in the Cottian Alps and the Adriatic coast.

Not only northern Italian agriculture suffers enormously.

In his opinion, however, an increase in discharge from Lake Garda by 30 cubic meters per second would do nothing for the Po River, said Ceresa: "The river would need at least 500 additional cubic meters per second at the moment.

The only thing we can achieve with this measure is that after the Po, Lake Garda also gets sick.” The first signs of this fear are visible on the beaches of Sirmione.