“A wonderful fusion between North and South: the snow-covered peaks of Mount Baldo with the palm trees and blooming mimosas at its feet, the forest of firs […] the silver olive trees. We will always and eternally love Lake Garda because we love contrasts, in life as in art.”.

[Thea Reimann, in the magazine “Il Garda”, April 1928]

TOURISM ON LAKE GARDA

Already during Roman times, particularly from the first imperial age, there were magnificent villas all along the banks, built as holiday homes for leisure, a privilege reserved only to the rich, and relaxation due to the pleasant naturalness of the area. During that time Bardolinum was a quiet fishing village, laid out according to the Roman system, whereby all parallel streets went down towards the lake.

It was only during the Renaissance that noble homes were built along its banks, conceieved as urban buildings to contrast the countryside, turning the lake into an elite tourist destination.
Tourism, in the modern understanding of the term, developed in the late nineteenth century, on the lake’s western part “for good climate, abundance of water, variety of products, for the landscape’s grandeur and playfulness and friendly inhabitants” (Giuseppe Solitro, Lake Garda, Bergamo, Italian Institute of Graphic Arts, 1927).

On the Veronese side, however, tourism arrived later, around the 1950s, when the eastern road was built along the river banks. With the advent of tourism “lungo lago” were built, in other words pedestrian walkways along the banks near residential areas. To make them, however, numerous houses along the banks or directly facing the lake were partially torn down. Fortunately, Palazzo Guerrieri and amenities, the current Borgo Bardolino, were preserved.