A tribute to the stimuli of this small sea that tempers when the foreigners leave
Traveling against the current is very Traveler, very authentic and very satisfying. And more when it is done in a destination like the Lake Garda , always so marked for being the Benidorm of thousands of Austrians and Bavarians who cross the Alps in search of a false sea.
The residents of these little towns who ended up becoming campsite tycoons have it clear: beyond proximity, What vacationers like is that false maritime horizon that the southern shores have.
But the best starts when foreign license plates disappear and what was a border territory of the Venetian republic remains. And all this in the shadow of mountains that tear up the landscape without warning and that make up postcards that never tire.
The best begins when foreign license plates disappear
THE LAST ARIA IN SIRMIONE
There is no logical guideline to explain why the best is Start with Sirmione. If anything, the desire to check if what the nineties tourist brochures were selling is real.
And yes, it is, especially when the isthmus full of restaurants and hotels is suddenly interrupted by the moat of a fortress. And wow! There is the beginning of the peninsula, the unexpected rock on which walls, mansions and Roman ruins are built.
The conquest of the high battlements is Sirmione's first commandment. From the top of the Scaliger castle you can see what you are going to explore. And it amazes by its extension, much greater than she suspected when crossing the defenses.
Afterwards, the eye is fixed on other details, such as the slender bell tower of the Abbey of San Salvatore and the contrast of the stones with the very blue water in the fortified docks.
At street level, the flow of tourists is much lower and the gastronomic offer of places such as the Ristorante Nando, one of those places that is determined to put an end to the bad reputation of high season cuisines. And also of the flowers that cover the facades of the small square that forms at the beginning of San Salvatore street.
From the top you can see what you are going to explore
But the starburst reaches the end, when they appear references to María Callas on terraces, parks and streets who remember that in the mansion that she owned next to hers by then her husband, Giovanni Meneghini, the famous soprano spent long periods relaxing.
An easy, adventurous and luxurious life that can be sensed in the nearby ** Palace Hotel Villa Cortine **, where its doors open and close like blinks of luxury, ostentation and long gardens for worldly visitors.
But Callas was not the only one. Right at the northern vertex, the columns of ** la Grotte di Catullo ,** an immense Roman villa of which not much remains, emerge from the undergrowth. Just long enough for it to be attributed to the always flattering poet Catullus and so that Palladio I will visit her again and again looking to improve his famous building technique.
THE MEGALOMANIA OF THE POET
if it goes back the west coast Another example appears the grandiloquence that is given by these coordinates. In this case, born not so much from the opulence of the Empire but from the desire of a man of letters who became an Italian nationalist as he was Gabriele d'Annunzio.
Il Vittoriale Degli Italiani
While his literary production remains one of the most interesting in the Italian language, in his most belligerent life he laid the foundations, with the taking of Rijeka, of what would later become fascism adulterated by Mussolini. Gabriele cannot be said to have been more than a nervous patriot, but his example encouraged other, more greedy initiatives.
All that preamble explains why he turned his precious Cargnacco estate into a monument to Italy's artistic and military glory.
From the hand of the architect Giancarlo Maroni, he built a complex of classical-looking houses and infinite gardens that are crowned with his mausoleum. An unclassifiable and pharaonic complex with a name to match: Il Vittoriale Degli Italiani. Nothing less.
Leaving ideology aside, a walk through its facilities is a constant stream of magical corners which, on occasions, are reminiscent of Tuscan gardens and, on others, the metaphysical landscapes of Giorgio de Chirico.
And in the end it doesn't matter if you're on a frigate embedded in the mountain or framing sculptures of Paladino, the magnetism of the vertiginous views over the lake can conquer everything.
Here you live like a Roman senator
HARVEST TIME
The growing fame of Valpolicella wines It has come to him when his landscape was not quite ready. The one that until not long ago was a D.O. of easy supermarket wines has its payments between highways and veronese suburbs , making it difficult to find a Chianti-style sunset among cypresses and green hills.
However, there is still hope. And even more so when it happens, crossing the Adige river, with properties such as Villa del Quar , an old mansion converted in recent decades into a luxury hotel which, thanks to a change in management and an adjustment of its services, is now part of the demanding network of ** Preferred Hotels **.
Here you live like a Roman senator, on antique divans overlooking the vineyards that surround the estate. The reference is not accidental. Not in vain, right through the door of the establishment passes a Roman road that now attracts cyclists. In addition, its owner, the architect and restorer Leopold Montrésor , has decided to turn the rooms into a museum where display the most valuable busts of him, statues and furniture of him.
The tasting takes place and is required either in its cellar or in its large hall, two adjoining spaces where the whites are more complex and the reds bring out all their energy. Or could it be that the spectacular setting somatizes?
Lonato del Garda and its castle
UNEXPECTED CITTÀ
What happens to the southern part of the Garda is that, on many occasions, the lake dwarfs everything else. For this reason, when its localities recover the work rhythm and everything stops being sun and beach secret wonders are discovered.
One of them is saló . If references to Pasolini's murky film are left aside, what remains is a textbook city, **with its three well-represented powers in the form of Duomo and palazzi and with a museum, the MuSa**, with a interesting collection of Italian art from the Middle Ages to design icons.
Another example of this is Lonato del Garda, a monumental complex dominated by a castle that, despite being in the bones, offers fascinating views of the roofs and the surroundings. The other king of its skyline is the civic tower which, together with the baroque cathedral, refers to views more typical of the Toscana .
WILLKOMMEN IM NORDEN
Lago di Garda belongs to three regions, being Trentino-Alto Adige the smallest and least known. The influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to which it belonged for decades, is visible today in the form of pastel-colored cities and signs in German (it is a co-official language).
Malcesine looms like a majestic apparition
On the way to this remote corner, still without leaving the Veneto, Malcesine like a majestic apparition. It is a city that has been perpetuated behind the road, huddled on a rock presided over by its castle around which alleys and squares orbit.
Here the pleasure is in browsing and wandering, although it is not too much conquer the homage tower to verify the geostrategic importance of this point as well as how narrow the lake is in its northernmost part.
If the view turns to the mountains, Malcesine becomes an alpine resort for amateur hikers thanks to the cable car that goes up Mount Baldo , a summit that preludes the Dolomites and serves as a lively viewpoint at any time of the year.
On the northern border of the same queen Riva del Garda, an aesthetically Central European town with a boardwalk of those that deserve an ice cream or a waffle, according to preferences.
And closing the lake to the west, Limone sul Garda once again welcomes Italy with its iconic citrus fruits, which it boasts in a botanical garden and with its little ports of boats that rock lazily dreaming of being gondolas.
Limone sul Garda