The Quiet Corner of Lake Garda

Where it all started: In 1880, the German engineer Louis Wimmer spent a holiday in Gardone on the western shore of Lake Garda. He enjoyed it a lot and thought that his fellow countrymen would love it as well. So he started building the Grand Hotel Gardone, thus laying the foundations for tourism at the lake. Around the beginning of the 20th century, more first-class hotels were gradually erected, and the lemon gardens, vineyards and olive groves had to give way to superb parks. The majestic trees planted at that time have become an integral part of the region’s charm and with a bit of luck, you might even come across a simple family-run guesthouse that is actually a villa situated in a park with age-old trees.

More than a hundred years after the discovery of Lake Garda as a tourist resort, you can still breathe the whiff of decadence that is blowing through the villages along the Lombard shore. This holds especially true for Gardone as this is the place the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio – an eccentric and dandy – chose as his home in 1921. His villa, the “Vittoriale degli Italiani”, was turned into a museum and is imbued with the spirit of those times. However beautiful the area may be today, it also has a historical background of a different type: In 1943 the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaimed the neighbouring village of Salò as the fascist “Repubblica Sociale Italiana” (Italian Socialist Republic). With his family he took residence in the Villa Feltrinelli in Gargnano, while his mistress, Claretta Petacci, stayed in the Villa Fiordaliso in Gardone, now a noble restaurant.

Further down on the western shore, where the mountains recede, the lakeside road no longer has to pass through tunnels but meanders elegantly along the waterline. On some stretches, the road even runs further inland so that the old fishing villages constituting the municipal area of Gargnano can centre around their little harbours undisturbed by traffic. The visitors of these shores are neither looking for extreme sport adventures as offered in the north nor for large family beaches as in the east. Whoever chooses this area here probably just likes to sit peacefully in a café on the lakeside, sipping a nice cappuccino and enjoying the view on the lake. In fact, this is the where Lake Garda has its greatest width, and on a hazy day you will almost think you are at the seaside! In the evenings, the typical visitor of the western shores will probably indulge in the excellent cuisine that is yet another jewel in the crown of the Lombard shore.

On these shores, everything moves at a gentle pace, tourism just as well as the strolling holidaymakers on the Lungolago promenade. Even in the summer season you will always find a free table in the cafés without difficulty. If you come to Gardone, don’t miss its beautiful gardens and parks – they are well worth a visit. Climb one of the steep lanes leading uphill from the shore and marvel at the age-old cypresses and magnolia trees. In early summer you can even discern the perfume of jasmine and oleander in the air. The gardens, the grand villas and quaint hotels are witnesses of the great holiday tradition that Gardone had in the past. Today, however, the dignity of those days is largely gone by and instead, many visitors you meet here are eager to practice the handful of Italian words that they learned back home to be able to order their cappuccino correctly. The Lungolago D’Annunzio is a pleasant place to stay longer; while you are there the fact that the village of Gardone itself does not lie directly on the lake, but further uphill, is easily overlooked: Gardone Sopra has in fact fallen behind at a time when every table of every café had to offer a view of the lake. Yet it is here that the roots of the village with its 2500 inhabitants lie. The old-fashioned houses are grouped around the parish church of San Nicola which is surrounded by a narrow street with a stunning lake panorama. The most important tourist attraction is doubtlessly the “Vittoriale degli Italiani”, the villa that the poet and dandy Gabriele D’Annunzio chose as home in which to spend the last years of his life.

Just when you are tired of driving through tunnels along the western shore and just when you sigh with relief after passing the last, then you have arrived to Gargnano (population 3000). The town is actually made up of three harbour villages, situated one after the other like beads on a necklace, each one lovelier than the one before: First, Gargnano, which is the biggest village and has a cosy little lakeside promenade; then Villa and Bogliaco which are surrounded by the Gardesana road and can each only be accessed by a one-way street. Before the Gardesana road was built in the 1930s, the most common way to get from one village to the next was by boat. However, on the Brescia Riviera, i.e. between Salò and Gargnano, tourism was already developing and a road was built - stopping in Gargnano. Today, there is hardly anything going on in this area and that’s what makes this stretch of shore so popular with its regular guests. They come here for walking, strolling, bathing and indulging in the delicious local cuisine, as well as for enjoying the quiet and peaceful evenings. Only once was Gargnano shortly put off its stride: At the time of the fascist “Republic of Salò”, Mussolini resided here, in the Villa Feltrinelli, which was turned into a luxury hotel in the summer of 2001. In the nearby Palazzo Feltrinelli you can plunge deeply into the Italian culture by taking language classes for advanced learners offered by the University for Foreigners of Milan.