The lakeside of the Gardone Riviera allows for quiet walks along the shore between oleanders, orange trees and roses: an oasis of peace.

It is the meeting point for tourists and residents who sit in the numerous bars to admire the beautiful landscape and the island of Garda that is reflected on the water.

In the evening it becomes an elegant lounge where you can attend cultural and musical events, visit exhibitions, have an ice-cream or an aperitif or dine in a refined restaurant.

Wonderful parks with plants and Mediterranean essences surround the villas and hotels in Art Nouveau, coppedè or déco of the village. Above all, the Hruska Garden, named after the doctor and botanist who collected over 2000 different specimens of plants; since 1989 it has become the Botanical Garden of the André Heller Foundation, owned by the Austrian artist who has transformed it into a place where art dialogues with ecology: in addition to many specimens of plants, irises of every colour and a Japanese garden, there are installations and sculptures by famous artists such as Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Auguste Rodin and Joan Miro.

But the Gardone Riviera is best known for the Vittoriale degli Italiani, the last masterpiece of Gabriele D'Annunzio, donated to the Italian State in 1930. Each room of this monumental house-museum, on which the architect G.C. Maroni and renowned artists collaborated, takes on a symbolic value accentuated by the numerous objects that crowd the rooms.

Decorated with enigmatic phrases and literary quotations the rooms are the result of the creativity of D'Annunzio "incomparable upholsterer" who wanted to strongly characterize the places where he lived. The Vittoriale is also a show: every summer its open-air theatre hosts a prestigious artistic event.

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BORGHI PIÙ BELLI D’ITALIA #INLOMBARDIA