SIRMIONE, LAKE GARDA: Top tips for taking autistic kids to Italy's most popular town
- sunshinelayla
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Lake Garda is arguably Italy's most famous destination, and the beautiful medieval Sirmione its most visited town.
But how would our autistic children cope with hordes of August tourists: could we find a way to make it accessible?
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Why Visit Sirmione on Lake Garda
I have always wanted to visit one of the big Italian Lakes - think Lake Como, Lake Maggiore or of course, Lake Garda. My research suggested that Lake Garda was the most family friendly of the big three, with a relaxed vibe around its shores that sounded appealing.
What I failed to appreciate while sitting at home in England was just how popular and busy Northern Italy is during August. I think I knew in an abstract sense, but having never visited mainland Europe in the summer before, it wasn't until we got to Bergamo and saw the crowds that were queuing to take the funicular to the old town each morning that we realised the physical and sensory impact of so many people in one place, all trying to do the same thing. And if I had though Bergamo was bad, well that was nothing compared with the scrum that was Sirmione!
Thankfully we weren't staying in any of the bustling hotels that crowd the roads down to Sirmione and around Lake Garda's southern shoreline. I had actually fallen in love with the rooms in a restored monastery about 20minutes inland from Sirmione. It was a stunningly beautiful complex with views of the lake, a pool and its own vineyard that provided small self-catering apartments alongside hotel amenities such as pool towels, wine tastings and continental breakfast.
And it was there, as I sat relaxing by the pool (while J supervised the boys), that I started looking up trip advisor articles on where to park in Sirmione. The more I read, the more the reality of our forthcoming visit dawned on me. This could be no casual make it up as we go kind of excursion, no - this day trip was going to require military level planning!
In the end we did visit Sirmione, had a enjoyable time and made some incredible memories with the boys - read on to discover how we did it.
Top Tips for visiting Sirmione in the summer with autistic kids
IF YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR CAR - ARRIVE EARLY
If you only follow one of these tips, make it this one ..... arrive early. In fact it's so important I'll say it again. Arrive early! And by early I mean early.
We left at 9am to drive the 30 minutes from our apartment to the Sirmione peninsula - this was later than I would have liked, and I got increasingly concerned as we approached the only road giving access to Sirmione.
I had found an extremely useful website called SIRMIOPARK which provides live data on what car parks are available and in which car park along the approach road to the historical centre. In the last 15 minutes of our journey I had watched as over 200 spaces disappeared!
By the time we got there around 9:30am there were only THREE parking spaces left in the Europa Carpark (the nearest to the historical centre), and only 20 on the peninsula. 10 minutes later every car park was full.
There are two options for parking - the pay machine which had a predictably long queue of useless tourists (ourselves included) tyring to work out how to use it or an Italian app called EasyPark. As we were having problems with our internet connection J ended up queuing for the machine while I kept the boys quiet in the car with snacks and screens!
ENJOY AN AUTISM FRIENDLY BOAT CRUISE ON LAKE GARDA - but make sure to PRE-BOOK
A boat cruise of Lake Garda should definitely be on your list, and there are trips of all durations to suit different budgets and family needs. Having noticed that the boat tours on previous days had sold out on websites like Viatour and Get Your Guide I decided to pre-book us a short boat tour around Sirmione at 10:30am. Lasting 25 minutes it seemed like an ideal way for the boys to see the castellated walls and sites like the fort and Jamaica Beach.
By the time we has sorted parking and walked up to the harbour it was 9:50am and our idea of going to see the castle first faded when we saw the queue already snaking from its ticket booth.
We did a quick check-in with the tour boat rep by the harbour and he said there were spaces on the 10am tour which we could swap onto. He was happy for us to leave our buggy by his stand.
This turned out to be a great decision - 10 minutes later we were motoring across the lake, a light wind ruffling our hair and the sun on our face. Life was good, everyone was happy!
IF YOU WANT TO VISIT CASTELLO SCALIGERO DI SIRMIONE take some form of Disability ID Card
From Tuesday to Sunday Sirmione's impressive 14th Century castle opens at 8:30am (correct at time of writing). It is closed on Mondays. As I mentioned above, by 9:45am there was already a considerable queue extending from its ticket office situated just inside the moat, by 10:30am it now trailed way off into the distance. There was no way our autistic boys were going to cope standing in the line, and it isn't possible for one of us to stand in it while the other looked after the boys somewhere else. By now (10.30am) it was very, very busy with people everywhere and the heat was getting up, dysregulation was hovering on the horizon and it was a one parent to one child supervision environment.
Taking a punt on the basis that if you don't ask you don't get, I walked to the front of this very long queue using the exit side and politely asked the queue attendant if they had a policy on allowing disabled children to avoid queuing. When I showed her the UK National Disability Card that we carry for our eldest card she immediately smiled and said of course, the children should be brought to the front. She then took us over to the ticket desk, where we surprised to find that not only were the children free, we didn't have to pay the adult entry fee of 6 euros per person.
After that we all had a fun time exploring the castle, with its amazing views across Lake Garda.
BEWARE OF THE SIRMIONE GELATO SCAM!
By the time we had finished exploring the castle it was most definitely snack time, and the boys were keen to have a pre-lunch ice-cream (which only happens on holiday!).
Unfortunately we fell prey to the infamous Sirmione gelato scam.
Situated very near the entrance to the cobbles streets on the town are a number of ice cream shops handing out free gelato samples - having hooked the boys in they refused to move on. Giving in to them I ordered four tubs of a single scoop of ice-cream (different flavours) only to watch in horrified astonishment as the girl started filling a large tub with more ice-cream than any child could eat in a day. It was with extreme reluctance that she looked over at me as I called out and waved frantically to get her to stop - saying I only wanted one scoop! When I then INSISTED that she change the tub size for the other portions to a smaller one she was rude and unfriendly.
I realise now we should have called a halt and just walked off with the first pot, but in the heat of the moment the high pressure tactics and two stressed out autistic children made it hard to think straight. In the end we were charged nearly 9 euros a pot!
It was probably the worst ice-cream we had on our trip and none of us could finish our tub, I've never before had to throw away gelato, but if I'd eaten any more I think I'd have been sick!
So, basically do not stop for ice-cream anywhere near the castle, be wary of free sample or places without clear signage of prices per scoop and absolutely steer clear of Romeo and Juliet Gelateria!
PLAN FOR A HALF DAY VISIT
Unless you have a particular love of crowds then plan to get in and get out within half a day. By the time we'd done the boat trip, walked around the castle, eaten our ice-cream and walked to one of the harbour edges to admire the water, the sheer volume of people and the surrounding noise meant the boys were absolutely done.
It was nearly 12 noon and the heat was picking up while the tourists continued to pour across the medieval bridge. We abandoned our plans to walk to the end of the town to visit the Roman ruins - we'd seen the Grottos of Cattalus and Jamaica Beach from the boat, and they'd looked busy at 10:15am!
FINAL THOUGHTS ON VISITING SIRMIONE WITH AUTISTIC CHILDREN
With hindsight, visiting Sirmione in the middle of August with two autistic children and hoping to enjoy the experience was always going to be a big ask. However we did get through it, and we did have a good time. If you are organised and plan your day carefully then yes
The boat trip was a huge success, we all loved it and it was a great start to the day. In fact our youngest wanted to go a second time, which we might have done but the remaining cruises that morning had already sold out, so it was simply not possible, which was difficult for him to understand.
Skipping the queue made a visit possible to the castle, and although we were in and out quite quickly (less than half an hour and we didnt go to the museum on site) it was a great way to see Sirmione and offered some stunning views across the lake.
Perhaps if we'd had more energy (mental and physical) to have through the crowds and go further into the cobbled streets of Sirmione we may have found pockets of quiet, but judging by the hoards of people that were still pouring in when we left at midday, we decided to beat a tactical retreat.
On which note, there is so much competition for parking that we saw two women almost come to blows over ownership of the space we were leaving. We had given our ticket (which still had some time on it) to the car waiting behind us to pull in, when another woman on a phone went and stood in the middle of the space and refused to move! The passenger of the other car trying to park got out to confront her - it was pretty intense and we were glad to go. As we drove away the inbound cars waiting to get into a car park stretched back all the way to the main roundabout - a distance of nearly 2.5miles.
Turning onto the main road, I released a big sigh of relief. The road was clear, the boys were quiet and we were headed to a Valpolicella vineyard called Villa Calicantus - we hoped for a little walk, a picnic lunch and perhaps a cheeky wine tasting. The afternoon was looking up!
