Lake Garda: history, castles and landscapes half an hour from Verona

There are places in the world that seem built on purpose to disarm you. Lake Garda is one of them. Fifty kilometres long, waters that change colour with the sky, medieval villages set among olive groves and lemon houses, and a light that in summer takes on a Mediterranean tone despite being a few steps from the Alps. The Romans called it Benacus and built their most luxurious villas here. They were not wrong.

What few people know is that the lake also has another story, less famous than the postcard but just as fascinating: a story of Scaligeri castles, Venetian customs houses, medieval fleets, Latin poets and lucky mistakes that gave wrong names to extraordinary sites. It is a story that starts from Verona — from the same Scaligeri who built Castelvecchio — and extends to the Lombard and Trentino shores of the lake.

Sirmione: the peninsula the Romans did not let slip away

Sirmione is a tongue of land about four kilometres long that juts into the lake from the southern shore. Narrow, surrounded by water on three sides, defensible by nature: it is the kind of position the Romans could recognise at a glance. And indeed, at the tip of the peninsula, they built one of the largest private villas in northern Italy.

The remains of that villa occupy about two hectares on the point of the rocky spur. From the Renaissance onwards, the travellers who visited the ruins — partly buried and covered with vegetation — mistook them for natural caves, and called them the Grotte di Catullo, after the Veronese Latin poet who had sung of Sirmione in some of his most famous verses. The name has stuck, but the attribution is wrong: the villa was built between the end of the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, after the death of Catullus (54 BC). It is thought to have belonged to the Gens Valeria, an aristocratic family of Verona. A lucky mistake, all the same: the name made the site famous worldwide, and the villa truly is extraordinary.

At the entrance to the village, at the narrowest point of the peninsula, rises the Rocca Scaligera: a medieval castle entirely surrounded by the water of the lake, with the swallowtail crenellated towers typical of every Scaligeri construction. It was commissioned by Mastino I della Scala in the second half of the 13th century as a military garrison and base for the Scaligeri fleet on the lake. The dock — the inner harbour protected by the walls — is still visible and is one of the rarest features in Italian medieval military architecture: an almost unique example of a true lake fortress.

Peschiera del Garda: where the Mincio is born and history layers up

Peschiera del Garda is the point where the lake ends and the river Mincio begins. It is also the only point where a river flows out of Lake Garda, and this geographical singularity has determined its strategic importance for two thousand years.

The position attracted every power that has controlled northern Italy. The Romans built a settlement here. In the Middle Ages it was already a stronghold. But it is the 19th-century defensive system that makes it unique: the bastioned walls that still surround the old town — built by the Venetians in the 16th century and then enlarged and completed by the Austrians in the 19th — make Peschiera one of the four vertices of the Quadrilateral, the fortress system that Austria built to defend its control over northern Italy together with Verona, Mantua and Legnago. In 1866, during the Third Italian War of Independence, these walls were at the centre of some of the battles decisive for the country’s unity.

Today the old town of Peschiera, surrounded by its moats, is a compact and lively village, pleasant to explore on foot along the walls and overlooking the harbour where the Mincio sets off towards Mantua.

Lazise: Venetian walls, customs houses and alleys that look like calli

Lazise is one of the best-preserved medieval villages on the lake, and also one of the least understood by tourists who rush through it. The ring of walls that surrounds it — six towers, three gates, a Scaligeri castle inside — is almost completely intact. To walk along the walls is to walk on the exact perimeter that the Middle Ages drew to protect this small harbour on the Veronese shore of the lake.

Overlooking the old harbour stands the Dogana Veneta: a 14th-century building, originally commissioned by the Scaligeri and then turned into a customs house by the Republic of Venice when it took control of the lake in the 15th century. Boats laden with goods had to enter beneath the great arches of the façade before being inspected and allowed to proceed. It was the obligatory point of passage for all trade between Lombardy and the Venetian territories. It is no coincidence that some of Lazise’s alleys still bear the name ‘calle’: during the rule of the Serenissima, the town was regarded as a little Venice on the lake.

A light that does not resemble northern Italy

There is an aspect of Lake Garda that figures cannot quite explain: the climate. The lake is large enough to work as an enormous thermal reservoir, which softens the winter cold and tempers the summer heat. The result is a microclimate that allows the cultivation of olives, lemons, capers and palms along the shores — typically Mediterranean crops, at a latitude where one would expect something quite different.

The Romans had understood it. Their villas on the lake — the Grotte di Catullo at Sirmione being the most grandiose example — were built seeking exactly this: the pleasantness of the place, the peace of the water, the light. That same light which today makes you want to linger longer than planned.

When to go and how to find your way

The lake can be visited all year round, but spring and early autumn are the most balanced seasons: fewer crowds than in summer, pleasant temperatures, and a light that shifts tone in a captivating way. Summer is beautiful but intense, especially along the southern shore where the great amusement parks and bathing facilities are concentrated. Anyone wishing to visit Sirmione in July or August should reckon with queues and overcrowding at the most famous spots.

The eastern shore — the Veronese one, from Peschiera to Malcesine — can be driven in about an hour and a half without stops. Lazise, Bardolino, Garda, Torri del Benaco, Malcesine: each of these villages deserves at least a stop. Bardolino in particular is the heart of the production of the eponymous DOC wine: the cellars of the area welcome visitors all year round for tastings.