Culture
On the other shore, going north from Gargnano, you can see clearly how the people earned their livelihoods before the tourists came along. Lemons were grown in orchards called “limonaie”. The meagre income that farming and fishing yielded was hardly enough to sustain a family. Consequently, many people left the region for America during the 19th century. Emigration continued as late as the 1950s, when many inhabitants of the villages around Lake Garda went to Germany in search of a job. In the pre-tourism era, the region was poor, its inhabitants led a hard, simple life. In the woods above Gargnano, men pursued the archaic craft of charcoal-burning. They would live alone in the woods like hermits for weeks on end, cutting down trees, chopping them up, carefully stacking the wood into kilns and lighting them so that the wood slowly carbonised. When the charcoal was ready, they would haul it down the steep slopes to the lake, either on their backs or using sledges, locally called “barisöla”. By means of ropes, these sledges were slowly lowered downhill. The old, rusty iron poles, strangely twisted, which you may come across on one of the old, cobbled paths above the lake are all that remains of these systems. They were used for fastening the ropes which slowed the sledges down. The women, meanwhile, worked from dawn till dusk on fields the breadth of a towel. In the woods, mulberry trees can be found to this day. They were needed to breed silkworms, which before the war also earned the farmers a little extra money.
To increase their meagre earnings, the farmers sold even the very earth. A mineral powder, called “spulvrina”, accumulates in holes on the ground. It was used for cleaning cutlery. As the farmers had little need for such a thing, they would carry the powder down to Gargnano and sell it.
Artists, and especially writers, have always been attracted by Lake Garda. At the turn of the century, several celebrities spent their holidays in the little town of Riva, then belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among them were Nietzsche and Thomas Mann. Kafka visited Riva in 1917.
Maybe these early guests were looking for works of art and outstanding architecture just as modern-day visitors do. The Romanesque churches of San Zeno and San Severo in Bardolino are rare architectural gems, as is Sant’Andrea in Maderno on the opposite shore. Short trips will reveal yet more treats for the art-lover, for example the charming Cathedral Square in Trento or the Roman Arena of Verona. However, Roman remains can also be found in abundance on Lake Garda itself. Most famous are the so-called “Grottoes of Catullus” in Sirmione.
But it’s not only the sights and artistic gems that make up the special atmosphere of Lake Garda. Most towns boast surprisingly well-preserved centres, free from modern eyesores. Luckily, there just isn’t enough space for huge, ugly hotels on the narrow shoreline. Take a stroll through the picturesque old streets and marvel at the buildings, discover a fresco here and there and watch the typical Italian reddish-brown walls glow warm in the evening sun. When seen from above, for example from the castle of Malcesine or Desenzano, the roofscape reveals its exquisite beauty. It seems as if the interlocking fired clay tiles of various hues had grown on the roofs rather than having been set there.
