Words Tom Weber
For centuries, artists and aristocrats, divas and dictators, poets and politicos, even James Bond himself, have fallen under the spell of alpine breezes, the scent of lemon blossom and the mesmerising shades-of-blue of Italy’s largest lake, Lago di Garda. Straddling three distinct regions – Veneto, Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige – this ladle-shaped body of water beckons travellers from all over to experience the Italian dolce far niente (the sweetness of doing nothing).
Lacus Benacus, as it was known during the time of the Roman Empire, is 154 kilometres around, including 45 kilometres of scattered sandy and pebbled public beaches. This postcard-perfect setting was formed during the Quaternary Age, about 1.5 million years ago, when a massive glacier slid down from the mountains, settled into a depression, melted and transformed itself into the largest freshwater lake in the Bel Paese.
In the narrow, fjord-shaped northern reaches of the lake, the Pelér wind blows strong and the Prealpi Gardesane mountains tower high above. Up here, the topography is wild and untamed. Lakefront cities like Riva del Garda and Torbole look less manicured than their southern siblings. Souvenir shops take a back seat to outdoor-themed stores selling climbing, hiking and camping gear. Windsurfers outnumber sailboats as they zigzag across the lake like flocks of wild geese, while paragliders silently descend from Monte Baldo like well-choreographed aerial dancers in Swan Lake.
Head south and it’s quite a different story. Glance around and you’ll be amazed to see an undulating landscape of vineyards, olive groves and citrus orchards dotting the Morainic Hills. Pastel-coloured villages, like Bardolino, Garda and Lazise, are just a ferry hop away, while Sirmione, where opera diva Maria Callas once lived, soothes the body, mind and nasal passages at its world-class thermal baths. Theme parks like Gardaland, CanevaWorld Resort, Parco Natura Viva (a combo zoo safari and fauna park) and Sigurtà Botanical Gardens, with its one million tulips, are just the tonic for families on holiday and an easy drive from the lake.
All across the southern shores, there are scores of Roman ruins and castles to explore, like the remains of Grotte di Catullo, a massive villa reportedly built for the 1st-century BC Latin poet Catullus on an overlook at the very tip of the Sirmione peninsula. Younger by centuries are Rocca Scaligero, the historic entryway to Sirmione, and Castello Scaligero, the 13th-century medieval fortress that stands vigil in Malcesine and where Goethe, the German poet-statesman, was briefly detained in 1786 on suspicion of being a spy. Many of these historic locations can be visited on a guided boat tour across the sparkling waters of the lake.
There’s plenty of haute cuisine to satisfy the most discerning palates up and down the spotless lakeside promenades, along with award-winning estates eager for you to sample their fine wines, such as Bardolino, Lugano, Soave and Valpolicella. If that’s still not enough to fill up your itinerary, then head to Desenzano, the largest town on the lake, where you can board a train for a day-trip to Bergamo, Mantua, Verona or Venice.
Nestled in a bay on the lake’s south-west corner is the town of Salò, the gateway to the Riviera dei Limoni (Lemon Coast). A regional seat of power during the reign of the Venetian Republic, Salò later became the capital of the Social Republic of Italy, part of Mussolini’s last-ditch effort to reignite fascism in the face of the advancing Allied Forces.
Traces of the town’s past are evident in its graceful historic centre and its dense network of streets, cobbled alleyways, flower-filled squares, stately homes, elegant shops, lively bars and restaurants and its three kilometre-long lakeside promenade. Noteworthy is MuSa, the museum of Salò, filled with pieces relating to the town’s history (for example, Gaspare da Salò, one of the world’s earliest violin makers), and the Duomo of Salò, Palazzo della Magnifica Patria and Palazzo del Podestà.
The ferry ride from Salò to Gardone takes only fourteen minutes. Disembark and hail a taxi for a five-minute ride up a serpentine, cypress tree-lined hill to visit the quirky museum-house, Il Vittoriale degli Italiani (The Shrine of Italian Victories), where poet-playwright-ultranationalist Gabrielle D’Annunzio held court. After a short stroll back down the hill, you can meander through Hruska Botanical Gardens, where alpine flora merges with tropical exotics.
Worth every ducat you spend, a two-hour private tour on one of Salò’s sleek motorboats is not to be missed. The skipper-guides are knowledgeable on all things Lake Garda as you glide up to Toscolano-Maderno, over to Punta San Vigilio, and then back to Salò via a quiet float around Isola del Garda, which Dante Alighieri once visited (and mentioned in the Divine Comedy), to admire from afar the 19th-century Venetianneo-Gothic-style Villa Borghese Cavazza.
Although most points around Lake Garda are easily reachable by ferry, with a timetable so precise you could set a Swiss watch to it, I was disappointed when I was informed that the schedule had just changed that morning and the ferry I was ready to take to Limone sul Garda was no longer available. What to do?
Hire a car and driver, that’s what. Strapped into the back seat, I held on for dear life as my local pilot raced along the treacherous Strada della Forra, a winding, white-knuckle, tunnel-filled single-lane road on the western side of the Gardesano. Winston Churchill proclaimed it ‘the eighth wonder of the world’, and it’s the very same stretch that James Bond negotiated aboard his 007-issued Aston Martin DBS V12 in the opening car chase of Quantum of Solace. Thankfully, we eluded the imaginary bad guys and I arrived in the land of lemons a bit shaken but not stirred.
Limone sul Garda, a watercolour of a town built against the tall, rocky cliffs of Monte Sughera, shows its ancient roots as a quiet fishing village with motorised rowboats bobbing up and down in quaint little harbours. But once the novelty wears off, you realise that the narrow cobbled streets are heaving with tourists on a mission to purchase products made from its prized lemons. First introduced in the 13th century by Franciscan monks, the hesperidium trees took root and prospered, and Limone sul Garda soon became known as ‘Lemon Town’, the most northern point where citrus survives and thrives. So important was the lemon to the region that Bongianni Grattarolo, a 16th-century dramatic poet from Salò, wrote, ‘long before factories were built, there was a lemon tree: when sailors would make it ashore in spite of stormy winds, they would go and talk to the tree.’
To protect the lemon trees from frost, locals built limonaie, the first terraced greenhouses made of strong wooden pillars covered in glass. From Via Porto, you can take a heart-palpitating hike straight up the winding cobble to a restored castle-greenhouse, El Castèl, that now serves as a living museum where lemons, limes, grapefruits and tangerines sun themselves in the lake’s unique microclimate.
In his first-ever collection of travel notes, Twilight in Italy and Other Essays, celebrated novelist D.H. Lawrence described Lake Garda as ‘the lake as beautiful as the beginning of creation’. Now, having just spent a fortnight ferry-hopping around the lake from my base in Salò, I’d have to agree with his succinct take on this gorgeous body of water. Like a slow-food Sunday around La Tavola, it took my breath away, time and time again.
- ‘Lake Garda’ is published in Anthology Volume 17. Read more features from this volume or buy it now.
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