Lake Garda is the largest Italian lake, with an area of about 370 km². Link between three regions: Lombardy (province of Brescia), Veneto (province of Verona) Trentino-Alto Adige (province of Trento).
In the lake there are five islands: the largest is the island of Garda, on which in 1220 Saint Francis of Assisi founded a monastery, suppressed only in the eighteenth century, and on which stands a nineteenth-century palace in Venetian neo-Gothic style. A short distance away is the second largest island, the island of San Biagio, also known as “dei Conigli” because in the sixteenth century there were many hares and rabbits. The island, located at the southeastern end of the Gulf of Manerba del Garda, is a short distance from the coast and can be reached on foot during dry periods.
Along the eastern shore there are three other islands, all of modest size, located near Malcesine: the northernmost is the island of Olives, so there is the island of Dream, also in dry periods reachable on foot from the coast, and finally the southernmost, the island of Trimelone (or Tremellone).
In the fifteenth century Marin Sanudo made a review of the major towns of the lake: Peschiera, Lazise, Cisano, Bardolino, Garda, San Vigilio, Torri, Pai, Brenzone, Malcesine, Torbole, Riva, Limone, Gargnano, Bogliaco, Toscolano, Maderno, Salò, Manerba, Desenzano, Rivoltella and Sirmione. This list of centers, which then had to have an important military, commercial or residential role, can still be considered today quite valid, sign that the anthropic geography of the lake was well established.
One of the first tourist resorts was Gardone Riviera, where Luigi Wimmer, in love with the place, decided to build a small hotel, which was completed after his death by his wife: Enlarged over time, it became one of the buildings that made up the luxurious Grand Hotel Gardone Riviera. In its vicinity, other small hotels and villas slowly rose up and, after the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio had the Vittoriale degli Italiani built here, the fame of the place increased further.
