The Grand Hotel Terme by Daniel Scott

You’d be hard pressed to find a classier, more comfortable hotel than this anywhere on the shores of Lake Garda. The Grand Hotel Terme certainly has one of Garda’s most enviable locations, planted right at the gates of the lake’s cutest old village, Sirmione, and sidling up to the battlements of its 13th-century castle. Standing at the end of a spur jutting out from the southern shore of Garda, and embracing its very own thermal springs, Sirmione was much loved by the Romans and celebrated in verse by one of their foremost bards, Catullus. Sirmione has returned the compliment to the poet with several prominently placed busts of the great man and is now just as popular with Northern European coach tours – at least between April and October – as it once was with the Romans.

But no matter how busy the town gets, the Grand Hotel Terme retains a remarkable sense of quiet and space. Even when the hotel itself is full, it doesn’t feel crowded, thanks partly to its good-sized guest rooms and partly to the large public areas in the 105 year-old building. It is lively and bright too with the colourful fabrics (in curtains and sofa-covers) used throughout its interior echoing the lemony yellow exterior of the hotel.

The back of the hotel has the best views of Lake Garda and its eastern shore and the hotel restaurant – L’Orangerie – and its small outdoor pool are at the lakeside here. The 58 guest rooms come in various categories, from the cheapest “Quality” through “Executive” to “Suite”. All in the upper price ranges are spacious and feature balconies, but it is worth requesting a room on one of the upper (2nd or 3rd) floors at the back of the hotel to make the most of the view and the property’s waterside location.

As its name suggests the Grand Hotel Terme is well-equipped to take advantage of the special properties of Sirmione’s thermal springs. The in-house Aquaria “thermal and aesthetic club”, administered by the delightfully-named Doctore Lolli (who speaks perfect English with a wonderful Nu Yawk yawl) caters both for those with physical ailments and those who are suffering the effects of stress and overwork. The spa’s thermal waters, which bubble out of the ground at 38 degrees centigrade, have a high incidence of sulphate sodium, bromine and iodine and are particularly beneficial for those with respiratory conditions. But happily that doesn’t mean that it or the hotel is full of spluttering Keatsian consumptives nor that the spa is especially clinical in feel. It just means that you won’t feel too conspicuous padding down the corridor in robe and slippers between treatments.

If you are looking for some pampering in a superb Northern Italian location then the Grand Hotel Terme will not disappoint. The hotel is homey enough not to leave for an entire weekend and the Acquaria spa has a fair range of treatments available. I tried out an all-too-necessary “Men’s Beauty Programme”, which consisted of two mud wraps, two thermal hydro-massages, two short relaxing massages and one facial and facial massage, over two days. Being coated in thermal mud for the wrap was pleasurable enough but a tad uncomfortable (both itchy and tingly) when I was left for twenty minutes wrapped in cling-film and an outer blanket to absorb the healthy minerals. The next stage – sitting in a warm bath while being pummelled by jets of thermal water - was more soothing but the third part of each day’s treatment, a 25 minute relaxing massage was a little short to ease any aches and pains. But the spa staff are sweet and reassuring, which is just as well as you’ll spend most of your time in their company wearing little more than a fig-leaf like thong.

In the spa there is also a small thermal pool in which to wallow (for no more than twenty minutes at a time in case you overcook) rather than to swim and a limited gym if you simply cannot go a day without a work out. For gentler and more intriguing exercise you can peddle one of the hotel bicycles up to the ruins of the Roman baths (the “Grotto di Catullo”) and the adjacent museum, at the tip of the Sirmione promontory. There are also plenty of inviting cafes and restaurants within the walls of the town as well as a number of dangerous boutiques which reflect Sirmione’s relative proximity to the fashion-houses of Milan.

Even if you have spent a fair amount of time at the hotel’s health club, it is worth dropping in on the much larger and sparklingly-new Catulla Aquaria spa at the centre of the old town. The large outdoor pool here, at the edge of the lake, is especially atmospheric on dark winter evenings, when steam billows up - from the hot waters enveloping you - into the cold night air. Taking a hot bath and being pummelled by high-pressure underwater jets, surrounded by large numbers of other shower-capped individuals, has rarely felt so enticing as it does here.

Back at the Grand Hotel Terme – with summer in mind - there is also a small outdoor pool at the lakeside and an ample terrace on which to recline in a deckchair. Alternatively you can plunge into the clear but considerably more chilly waters of Lake Garda straight from the hotel’s own jetty. The Grand hotel’s restaurant “L’Orangerie” is also at the lakeside and in warm weather tables spill onto the outside terrace for what is one of the Garda area’s most pleasant al fresco dining possibilities. But even at colder times of year, the restaurant’s picture windows leave you in no doubt that the lake is just steps away.

The pan-European cuisine of “l’Orangerie” is excellent in its simplicity and lack of fuss. Home-made pasta primi piatti are beautifully delicate and not overfilling. Fish, whether it be from the lake itself or from the sea, is particularly well done, benefiting from not being over-sauced or over-elaborately presented. Deserts, such as a melt-on-the tongue white chocolate mouse in orange sauce, are hard to turn away too. For a hotel restaurant of this standard the prices (of the set menus at least) will also go down well. As well, probably, as a bottle of local Lugana wine, produced from the hotel owners’ own vineyards, or any other wine from the 350-strong list.

Service in the restaurant and throughout the Grand Hotel is a good reflection of a hands-on General Manager who learnt his trade in some of Asia’s top hotels, including the Peninsula Hotel in Manila. The staff, who number roughly one per room in season, are friendly and efficient without any obsequiousness.

The Grand Hotel Terme is the five-star big sister to two more modest but equally well-appointed properties in Sirmione, the four star Hotel Sirmione and the three star Hotel Fonte Biola. The Grand Hotel Terme is also the only five star property on the shores of Lake Garda that remains open into the winter season, including over Christmas and New Year. This is without doubt the best time of year to visit Garda, when the surrounding snow-capped mountains provide the backdrop to the glassy lake, when Christmas lights and decorations add to the appeal of the already beguiling towns and crisp blue days alternate with others that are suffused with an atmospheric mist.