Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake on Friday for the start of Italy’s major summer weekend found a very different landscape to previous years. An extensive stretch of bleached rock stretched away from the normal coastline, ringing the southern Sirmione peninsula with a yellow halo amid the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore. “We came last year, we liked it and we came back this year,” said tourist Beatrice Masi as she sat on the rocks. “We found that the landscape had changed a lot. We were a bit shocked when we arrived because we did our usual walk and the water wasn’t there.” Northern Italy has not seen significant rainfall for months and snowfall this year has fallen by 70%, drying up important rivers such as the Po, which runs through Italy’s agricultural and industrial heartland. Many European countries, including Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and Britain, are experiencing droughts this summer that have hit farmers and shippers and prompted authorities to limit water use. The parched condition of the Po, Italy’s longest river, has already caused billions of euros in damage to farmers who normally rely on it to irrigate fields and rice paddies. To compensate, authorities allowed more water to flow from Lake Garda into local rivers — 70 cubic meters (2,472 cubic feet) of water per second. But in late July, they reduced the amount to protect the lake and the economically important tourism associated with it. With 45 cubic meters (1,589 cubic feet) of water per second being diverted into rivers, the lake on Friday was 32 centimeters (12.6 inches) above the water table, close to record lows in 2003 and 2007. Garda Mayor Davide Bedinelli said he had to protect both farmers and the tourism industry. He insisted the summer tourist season was going better than expected, despite cancellations, mainly by German tourists, during Italy’s last heatwave in late July. “Drought is an event we have to deal with this year, but the tourist season is not in any danger,” Bendinelli wrote in a Facebook post on July 20. He confirmed that the lake was losing two centimeters (0.78 inches) of water per day. The lake temperature, meanwhile, was above average for August, according to seatemperature.org. On Friday, Garda water was nearly 26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit), several degrees warmer than August’s average temperature of 22 C (71.6 F) and close to the Caribbean Sea average of about 27 C (80 F ). For Mario Treccani, who owns a sunbed and umbrella concession by the lake, the lake’s widened shoreline means fewer people rent his chairs, as there are now plenty of rocks to sunbathe on. “The lake is usually a meter or more higher,” he said of the rocks. Pointing to a small wall that usually blocks the water from the sunbeds, he recalled that on windy days, waves from the lake sometimes crashed into the tourists. Not anymore. “It’s a bit sad. Before, you could hear the sound of waves breaking here. Now, you don’t hear anything,” he said.
Nicole Winfield contributed from Rome.
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