Trekking Routes

Start at the “Rimbalzello”, at the western end of Gardone Sotto. It was Gabriele D’Annunzio who gave it this name after watching how stones bounced (rimbalzavano) on the water surface when thrown or skimmed. This is in fact a place rich in reminders of D’Annunzio.  In 1923, in the nearby villa, once called “Villa Norsa”, the poet, already in his sixties, owned a small flat which was the setting of his passionate love affair with the 22 year-old Angele Lager, his “Jouvence”.   With its imposing specimens of beech and Lebanese cedar, the park is part of the delta formed by the Barbarano stream. Cross over the bridge heading westwards, and you will reach Via della Seriola, named after the mill-race which once ran here underneath. The wall painting on the building behind the baker’s reminds us of the Mulino della via. This was one of the seven mills that, thanks to the driving force of the stream, worked for seven hundred years until the last century. The sawmill you will meet further on has kept this tradition alive until the present day.   Further on, after a last group of houses, the path rounds a white building with the remains of a fish-farm and goes into the ravine. This is walled by multi-coloured and red stone covered by maidenhair ferns in its most humid parts. The track, which crosses the stream twice, passes by the ruins of an old forge, which gives the name to the walk, and stops at a lovely waterfall. Here, to the left, you can see a fantastic rock formation.   The ruins of the old forge reminds us of the times when the “Magnifica Patria” supplied nails to the Serenissima (Venice) and when making ironware was the most important job for local people. In 1587, Grattarolo reported that “the anvils made such a noise that, especially at night, it seemed like passing by Mongibello” (the volcano Etna).   Back to the bridge, the path twists up steeply to the top of the ravine. Once here, you will be struck by the spectacular view that overlooks the entire southern part of the lake. Reward yourself with a rest under the cypresses on top of the hill to the right and enjoy the panorama that goes from the peninsula of Maderno to the north-east as far as the gulf of Salò to the west.

As the path drops down, follow it towards the centre of Morgnaga. Just before that, hanging out from a bordering wall (nos.10/12), do not miss the sight of a luxuriant cascade of capers, a peculiarity of the Riviera. At the crossroads with via del Gurlo, there is a fresco on the wall representing the Annunciation that dates back to the first quarter of the 17th century.   At the beginning of via Trieste, in sight of the “Castello di Morgnaga”, walk down a few steps to the right and then along a stream flowing merrily to the lake. The path ends up in via Val Fiorita and leads you back to the start.

 

This walk will lead you through the Gardone of pre-D’Annunzio times, before the First World War, when the town used to be an internationally renowned winter resort. The first evidence dating back to those times is the Savoy Palace, one of the three historic “Grand Hotels”. Built in 1906 in the Viennese Secession style, it was at its best between the two wars, when it had among its guests Prince Carol from Rumania (1926) and the hereditary Prince Umberto di Savoia (1932). 

Further on, along the Lungolago you will see the Grand Hotel, which opened in 1883 and for decades was the first hotel on Lake Garda enjoying a world-wide fame.

The nearby square is called after its founder’s name Luigi Wimmer, who was of Austrian origins and is considered the “creator” of Gardone as a tourist resort.

The most important buildings are scattered along the lake edge and the “upper promenade”, which was built before the Lungolago (“lakeside walk”) was planned in 1909, as a Kurpromenade. Among them, on the right, there are Villa Acquarone, annexed to the Hotel Monte Baldo, Villa Turati-Ruhland, and Villa Alba on the left. This last one is the most spectacular of all with its monumental stairs and Ionic columns. It was built from 1904 to 1910 by the German industrialist Richard Langensiepen from Magdeburg. Opposite, you will see the Tower of San Marco, once Torre Ruhland. It too belonged to Langensiepen and was built in 1900 as a tower-belvedere, later transformed by D’Annunzio in 1925 to a Venetian-military style.
On the right, there is the elegant Villa Fiordaliso, today a smart restaurant. It was restored in 1930 in a neo-renaissance style. Claretta Petacci, Mussolini’s lover lived here during the years of the Republic of Salò. In the nearby Villa Itolanda, the German writer Paul Heyse, Nobel laureate for literature, spent the winters from 1899 to 1909. His short stories “Novellen vom Gardasee” helped to make Gardone known on the other side of the Alps.
A little further on lies the Casinò, which is today a cinema. Since 1909 it had been the Kurhaus, that is the fashionable centre of the resort. The open gallery facing the lake, now a restaurant, was modelled on the Wandelhallen, a covered promenade typical of northern European spa resorts. Until 1911 and for a few years after the two world wars, it was used as a gambling casino.

Just opposite, you can see the neo-gothic Evangelical Church (1897). This was, and still is, one of the few in Italy, the others being those in Arco, Nervi, Bordighera and Capri. Walking along to Fasano, to the right, there is the Grand Hotel Fasano, the third big historic hotel in Gardone, and on the left the Hotel Villa del Sogno, set in a big park and with a beautiful lake view from its terrace.
Finally, you will reach the small port of Fasano. Take the boat back to Gardone and enjoy the view from the lake of the wonderful gardens and façades of the Belle Epoque villas.

 

The start of the walk is at the Botanic Gardens of André Heller’s Foundation (once Hruska’s Garden). Arthur Hruska (1888-1971) was a well-known dentist with surgeries in Bad Reichenhall, Saint Petersburg, Milan and Gardone Riviera, as well as an acclaimed botanist and naturalist. He created the garden, collecting over two thousand specimens of flora during his many travels. Since 1989 the garden has been owned by André Heller, a multimedia Austrian artist, who is turning it into a “centre which combines Art and Ecology”, featuring works by Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein and Mimmo Paladino.
Follow the signpost to “Vittoriale” until you reach Piazza dei Caduti (War Memorial Square). On the right is an arcade with a café and a shop where, until the mid-twenties, there used to be the Town Hall, the Elementary School and the Post Office. The “old” centre of Gardone Sopra is dominated by the baroque façade of Saint Nicholas’ Parish Church. Four frescoes are dedicated to the Saint-Bishop. They are to be found hidden behind a door, to the left of the presbytery. Among them there is one with “Nicholas and the three Maidens” dating back to the end of the 16th century. A painting on the ceiling of the main church represents “Saint Nicholas protecting the Christians from the Muslims” by Francesco Monti (1750).
Leaving the entrance to Vittoriale on your right, walk along its external walls, following Via delle Arche, so-called after the marble sarcophagi of the Mausoleum inside the Vittoriale, which you will see from the road in a few minutes. This monument, built after the Roman mound, is made up of three circles reminiscent of those of the Divine Comedy. At its top, eleven tombs containing the remains of Gabriele d’Annunzio’s fellow soldiers, Gian Carlo Maroni, the architect of Vittoriale and the “Commander” himself.

 

The road leading up to San Michele can be shortened by taking two shortcuts (signpost “San Michele”). Next to a group of houses (nos. 30/32), climb the small track to the right. Just past the last house and next by a bend to the left, go straight on along a path through the woods where there is a view out to the picturesque hamlet of Supiane. Once you rejoin the road (Via della Calma), follow it until San Michele. A signpost indicating “punto panoramico” will lead you to the tinny but pretty Saint Michael’s church, previously built on this site in honour of the Archangel, Patron-Saint of the Longobards and mentioned for the first time in 1279. From this point you can enjoy a superb view of the southern morainal hills of Lake Garda and eastwards as far as Mount Pastello, beyond the Adige Valley.

 

The walk begins at via Val Fiorita, which later turns into a footpath. Walk along the small stream flowing through an olive grove until reaching via Trieste, dominated by the “Castle of Morgnaga”, with its terraced garden with fountains and statues.

Instead of going straight to Morgnaga on the main street, take via della Fontanella to the right. There you will find an old washtub which dates back to the time when the women of the village came down to do the washing. Further up along Via Filippini, you can stop at a picnic site next to an unusual, pagoda-shaped gazebo, which gives our walk its name.

Continue as far as the main road to San Michele. Once there (356 m) the view that opens up before you recalls the industriousness of previous generations, who created this extensive network of terraces for the cultivation of olive trees, which still today shapes the look of Gardone Riviera. From here, proceed downwards taking the cobbled via Ceriolo to the right, which until 1953 was the only road connecting San Michele to the town.

The last part of the walk offers lovers of botany some items of special interest: first of all, at Montecucco, two ancient cypresses in front of a small chapel dedicated to St. Valentine. The theme of the Madonna holding a little bird is taken from a late 14th century marble relief in St. Nicolas’s Parish Church.
Leaving the chapel to your right, take via Montecucco. This typical narrow lane, which crosses the hamlet, was once lined with the stables belonging to the farmers working in the olive groves. Go down along Via Dosso and in sight of the Piazza dei Caduti, at a fork, you will find a large mulberry tree, which stands witness to the sericulture which represented an important economic sector for the country until a hundred years ago. After another 100 m, you will find an old almond tree, whose flowering in mid-March is seen by local people as a sure sign of the coming of spring.

Last but not least, opposite the Town Hall, there stands what is claimed to be the largest holm-oak in Northern Italy. It so huge that the enormous Lebanese Cedar and the Aleppo Pine, growing by its side, almost go unnoticed. Finally, right at the end of the lakeside promenade, where our walk finishes, the last wonder: a huge Cinnamomum Camphora.

 

Until a few years ago the old and tiny village of Morgnaga was, according to the historian Paolo Guerrini, “like a big garden of olive trees”. It is not by chance that the painter Gregorio Sciltian (1900-1985) worked and lived here at the far end of the typical Via di Premignaga.

 

The little church with its characteristic tiny portico originally dates back to the end of the 14th century. It was rebuilt in 1740 and declared a national monument. The remains of a fresco at no.7 next to the church dates back to the 15th century. It represents a Madonna and Child with two saints.

Halfway up the hill, dominating Gardone, lies the Castello of Morgnaga (1925). You will be certainly struck by the rich decoration ranging from the medieval to Moresque style both on the façade, with its central motif of a round colonnade, and in the garden.

Further on to the right, past the school buildings, you will see a fine statue of a Madonna surrounded by small arches. It stands on the site of a former German Great War cemetery.

Keeping to the right, go by the Town Hall, with its remarkable wooden painted ceiling (1925).

Walk up Largo Landi and reach Piazza dei Caduti with the dominating St Nicholas’ Parish Church. From the balcony, right at the back of it apse, enjoy a superb view of the lake and, just below, look at the remains of one of the 30 lemon conservatories that characterized the landscape of Gardone until the beginning of 1900.

Inside the church, on the first altar to the left, in a large precious wrought silver frame, you will see the venerated image of the Madonna di Fraole. According to tradition, it was painted in 1540 by a clergyman on a big rock in a field called Fraole (fra gli olivi =among the olive trees) after he saw an apparition of the Virgin. To get there, walk down Via del Vittoriale and turn left into Via dei Colli. Go past the arched Portale Rivano, given to D’Annunzio as a present by the town of Riva, and climb up to the Chapel, which dates from 1789 (rebuilt in 1940 by Gian Carlo Maroni, architect of the Vittoriale), nearby is the entrance of the “Museo del Divino Infante”.

The rest of the walk is characterized by nature and landscape. Walk along via Enzo Tolu. At a fork where two imposing cedars stand, take the left and walk up a path flanked by a row of cypresses. Go past an overgrown olive grove and cross a small bridge over the stream Derino. Walk a little along via Magrìa and then carry on to Via Belvedere, which will quickly take you to Fasano Sopra.