Trentino: Italy's charming and lesser-known northern region

"That?" my waitress said, looking over my shoulder to see what dish I was pointing at. "That's fried Tyrolean cheese with polenta, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy. It goes excellently with a Paulaner."

Half a day prior to this interaction at Chalet Rifugio al Faggio at the northern end of Val Concei, I had been on the shore of Lake Ledro, sipping a local Pinot Grigio and watching extended Italian families congregate to gesticulate wildly and chow down on pizza and pasta. Life at Ledro, one of Trentino's most picturesque bodies of water, had felt quintessentially Italian, and yet within a 10-minute drive I was in some sort of Italo-Bavarian hybrid dimension, eating spätzle with a bottle of German lager as the sun poked through the canopy of a dense alpine forest.

Trentino is a peculiar corner of northern Italy. When lumped together with its northern, even-more-Germanic neighbour South Tyrol to form the region known as Trentino-Alto Adige, the pair collectively boasts the second-highest tourist numbers of any region in the country, after the Veneto. But these numbers are skewed by the world-class ski resorts in the north and the attraction of the northern tip of Lake Garda in the south, whereas in reality this region remains largely undiscovered beyond these two tourist mainstays.

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Why visit Trentino  

In between its spectacular Swiss-style mountain peaks are postcard-pretty villages that made me feel I'd stepped onto the set of "The Sound of Music". In fact, the region's Germanic flavour is historic – Trentino joined Italy only at the end of the First World War, having belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire until the post-war treaty redrew borders. To complicate Trentino's identity crisis, during that war, thousands of Trentino women and children were forcibly displaced to Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic) and this influence can still be seen in the presence of goulash on local restaurant menus.

We were on a multi-generational holiday, an idea that sounded bonding in the planning but carried with it some anxiety. With our cohort of five adults and three grandkids under five, we approached the holiday with excitement mixed with trepidation: would there be enough to do to keep everyone entertained? Would the accommodation suit a group ranging in age from one to 71? The answer was a resounding "yes."

Where to stay 

After a drive from Verona airport that skirted the top of Lake Garda and meandered across the stunning shore of Lake Ledro, we reached the village of Enguiso at Residenza al Castello, part of a collection of properties in the Ledro region collectively known as The Lake Project. 

Having intended to use our apartments merely as a jumping-off point from which to explore the Concei Valley in which it sits, we instead found ourselves making ample use of the on-site facilities, set within this captivating landscape. I'm so accustomed to cypress-studded Tuscan landscapes and the bustling seaside towns of Le Marche that Trentino's dramatic scenery and relative remoteness were a revelation.

The Castello boasted the most Instagrammable view in the vicinity, its lush alpine vistas in all directions dotted by bell towers whose insistent tolls punctuated our dreams. But while it was difficult to drag ourselves away from Castello's picturesque infinity pool and on-site sauna, there were only so many poolside games of 'Fetch Matchbox cars out of the pool filters' we wanted to play, so we packed the kids into our two cars and headed to Lake Ledro.

What to do 

Reputed to be one of Italy's cleanest lakes, Ledro is a gorgeous stretch of emerald water edged by forested slopes. We headed to the lakeside Hotel Ristorante Da Franco e Adriana in the village of Pieve di Ledro, offering the kind of Italian al fresco experience that Brits travel to Italy for. We shepherded the kids onto the terrace, with its fine views and, crucially, a large patch of greenery alongside where they could let off steam after a pizza lunch while the adults watched them over glasses of Pinot Grigio. We blew up rubber rings for a postprandial paddle and played ball games in the shade of mature trees. 

One afternoon we clambered aboard sailboats for a wind-powered jaunt across the lake with the Associazione Vela Lago di Ledro, located on the southern shore. My three-year-old grandson was amused by the adults' panicky efforts to evade the swinging boom every few minutes, and we all loved zigzagging across the lake's glassy waters. 

After a post-nautical ice cream to cool off on a scorching day, we all piled into the cars to hop across the Sarca Valley north of Lake Garda to Agrisalus, in the shadow of Monte Brione. Mainly a farmstay, this little plot of land is a slice of heaven for animal-loving children – they fed rabbits, chickens, pigs and cows and got to know the inner workings of a (predominantly) sustainable dairy farm with the help of owners Lorenzo and Nicole. Then we all headed indoors for a breakfast of delectable butter, cheese, meat and cakes.

On another day – when the toddlers got cranky in the afternoon heat – we headed into the northernmost reaches of the Concei Valley to Fata Gavardina, which online tour guides described as a "wild barefoot walk". This turned out to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of the holiday: a forested walkway composed of different surfaces, from gravel to mulch and back again, ending with a short walk upstream through a rocky brook of glacial water – an insult to my aching feet, though the under-40s found it invigorating. At the walk's conclusion the younger adults waded into the equally freezing Torrente Assat, a fast-flowing river just a few steps away, while I clung on to excited toddlers aiming water pistols at their parents from the bank.

Trentino offers much more than our group was able to cover in a week in which toddler-taming was the top priority. The region is crisscrossed by well-maintained hiking and biking paths, and I envied the other guests at the Castello heading off each morning with rucksacks and cycles. Our group appreciated an afternoon's trip to Riva del Garda, a handsome town on Lake Garda's northernmost tip, full of shady lakefront walkways and fountains and gelaterie. All generations enjoyed a trip up the glass-sided Bastione Scenic Lift that whisked us 200m above sea level for a glorious panorama and a wander around the Bastione, a limestone fortress ruin overlooking the town.

In one week, I barely scratched the surface of this hidden corner of Italy. Trentino's hybrid identity and history gives it a standalone culture that even an Italophile like me hadn't experienced before. Its cultural mash-up and soaring "Heidi"-like scenery give Trentino its own unique flavour, providing a beguiling alternative to Tuscany and Umbria.

Vicki was a guest of Lake Project Ledro and Visit Trentino. For more information and to book, visit LakeProject.it. For information on Trentino, see VisitTrentino.it.