Tim Hughes savours prime Italian cooking beside Lake Garda at the Fish & Chef festival

BELOVED by artists, honeymooners and holidaymakers, the Italian Lakes shimmer on the southern slopes of the Alps like jewelled teardrops.

Calm waters backed by steadily rising heights, rising to snow-capped summits beyond, and studded with picturesque villages, palaces and castles, they are among Europe's scenic treasures.

They are also an extraordinary destination for lovers of good food - and none more so than the biggest lake of all, Garda.

Lago di Garda may be fed by glacial melt water but has a divine microclimate which makes it home to some of the Alpine region's finest producers. The banks support olive groves, providing some of Italy's best extra virgin olive oil (the light and fruity Cà Rainene is a favourite) orchards of citrus fruits (this is the home of Limoncino liqueur and Riviera dei Limoni lemon cream, outrageously expensive and powerfully flavoured truffles, pastures supporting cattle producing deliciously lean Salada meat and soft Formaggella di Tremosine, and vineyards – with Nosiola, Merlot, Cabernet and Vino Santo Trentino (made by withering Nosiola grapes until pressing during Holy Week) in the north, and Classico Groppello della Valtenesi in Bardolino and Lugana down south.

An oenological treasure is the white Custoza wine – a delicately (slightly salty even) scented cuvèe from Sommacampagna.

For something even punchier, there is the famous EVO grappa – a velvet-smooth 42% distillation of Cabernet Sauvignon, Glera and Incrocio Manzoni grapes aged over four years in walnut, cherry and beech barrels).

And then there is fish – and it was this, which drew us to Italy's biggest and, in my opinion, loveliest, lake.

Fish production is big news in Garda, and renewed love for this rich local inhabitant has fostered regional pride and an increasing gastronomic culture in the towns and villages along the shore.

Environmentally-friendly methods have allowed the lake's population of rainbow trout, pike, carp, perch, bleak, tench, char and freshwater sardine to flourish – and all make for excellent eating.

While a year-round treat, piscatorial pride is given full voice in an annual festival of cooking, culture and fun dedicated to Garda's fish and other lakeside products, named, quite reasonably, Fish & Chef.

The annual event, celebrated its seventh instalment in April, with a series of special dinners hosted by the area's top chefs, featuring cooking demonstrations and related culinary attractions, with plenty of music, banter and laughter (hey, this is Italy after all!) with the intention of promoting the once humble freshwater fish as a prized local produce.

And despite being presided over by Michelin-starred chefs, the festival is democratic and anti-elitist, with exceptional food served at fantastically reasonable prices – and always with the bonus of joining the superstar chefs themselves and local producers (we made friends with cheery olive oil producers, winemakers and cigar makers – and even a particularly sprightly chap in a bar who makes the whole thing possible, actually pulling the fish from the lake in the first place).

Based around six dinners in stunning hotels and restaurants, the scenery was off the scale – with pastel-coloured houses clustered around the calm blue waters of the lake outside, and a typically modern Italian mix of traditional homely interiors and stark, minimalist design inside.

As a base we took a room at the Hotel Regina Adelaide – a pleasant salmon pink and pale yellow-walled villa, perched right on the lakeside in the old town of Garda.

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The place has a palpable sense of history and exudes a film star chic, but is no time warp, with wifi, modern rooms and an excellent spa, pool (inside and out) and gym – perfect for burning off all those calories. The hotel itself has a pair of fine restaurants and probably the best breakfast buffet in Italy. Forget any notions of light continental breakfasts – this is a riot of cold meat and fish (of course), sausages, cheeses, an array of breads, preserves and good Italian coffee. And, if you're lucky, you may even be serenaded from the piano.

The first rule on an eating holiday, however, is to pace oneself – there is always something tastier round the corner.

We started our fish odyssey at the hands of chef Luca Marchini, of Modena's Erba del Re, who cooked an exquisite banquet at the Bellevue Hotel in San Lorenzo Malcesine.

the highlight here was the firm home made conchiglie pasta served with a punchy fish soup. If, like I, you imagine lake fish to be mild and even muddy, this comes as a revelation.

The flavour is rich and powerful, akin to the best sea fish bouillabaisse.

Other celebrity chefs holding court at gala dinners during the week were Peter Brunel of the Restaurant Borgo San Jacopo in Florence, who starred at the Grand Hotel Fasano in Gardone Riviera; Andrea Berton from the Berton in Milan, at the Aqualux Hotel in Bardolino; Andrea Aprea of Milan Park Hyatt's Vun at Villa Fiordaliso, also in Gardone Riviera.

Other familiar names included Valentino Palmisano and Kido Toshimizu from Kyoto's Ritz-Carlton Hotel who gave an international spin on local produce at the Hotel Regina Adelaide. An all-star 'dream team' of local chefs then united for the grandest possible Grand Finale at La casa degli spiriti in Costermano.

In between eating, pull on your hiking boots and take to the hills, for some exceptional views, or take to the water on one of the regular trip boats, perhaps exploring castles and islands, of which there are five big ones and many more smaller outcrops, all perfect for an amble and deserving of a couple of hours of soaking up the views – perhaps in the company of a glass of something cool.

Of all the islands, the best known, and easily reached from San Felice del Benaco, is Isola del Garda, where, in the 13th century, St Francis of Assisi had a monastery built. The famously animal-loving friar would no doubt have felt at home on the neighbouring Isola San Biagio - nicknamed Island of Rabbits.

Further afield, and of particular interest in this the 500th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, is fair Verona – home to the fictional Gentlemen of Verona and Romeo & Juliet - Romantic souls all. The Bard, of course, never visited the region. If he did, he too would have fallen in love. Not with a star-crossed lover, but with a delicious, plump fish - hauled from the crystalline waters of lake Garda.

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Where to eat:

  • HOTEL BELLEVUE SAN LORENZO - Hotel Bellevue San Lorenzo - Via Gardesana 164 - 37018 Malcesine (VR) - www.bellevue-sanlorenzo.it - Guest Chef: Luca Marchini (One Michelin star) Restaurant L’Erba del Re di Modena – 21 April 2016 – Malcesine
  • GRAND HOTEL FASANO - Grand Hotel Fasano - Corso Zanardelli, 190 25083 Gardone Riviera (BS) –www.ghf.it - Guest Chef : Peter Brunel (1 Michelin star) of the restaurant Borgo San Jacopo in Florence – 22 April 2016 – Gardone Riviera
  • HOTEL AQUALUX - Hotel Aqualux - via Europa Unita, 24/b37011 Bardolino (VR) – www.aqualuxhotel.com - Guest Chef: Andrea Berton (One Michelin star) of the restaurant Berton in Milan – 24 April 2016 –Bardolino
  • HOTEL VILLA FIORDALISO - Villa Fiordaliso - Corso Zanardelli, 15025083 Gardone Riviera (BS) – www.villafiordaliso.it - Guest Chef: Andrea Aprea (1 Michelin star) of the restaurant Vun in Milan – 25 April 2016 – Gardone Riviera
  • HOTEL REGINA ADELAIDE - Hotel Regina Adelaide - Via San Francesco D'Assisi 23, 37016 Garda (VR) – hotel@regina-adelaide.it – Tel. 045 7255977- www. regina-adelaide.it - Guest Chef: Valentino Palmisano and Kido Toshimizu of the restaurant La Locanda del Ritz-Carlton in Kyoto, Japan – 26 April 2016 – Garda
  • RISTORANTE LA CASA DEGLI SPIRITI Ristorante La Casa Degli Spiriti, Via Monte Baldo 28, 37010 Costermano (VR) - www.casadeglispiriti.it - Guest Chef: Dream Team Lake Garda – 27 Aprile 2016 – Costermano
  • For details of Fish & Chef go to fishandchef.it/

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