traveldk.com

Carlo Sigurtà spent 40 years irrigating and planting this barren hillside in order to turn it into one of Italy’s great gardens, with manicured lawns and pathways amid vibrant flower beds and reflecting pools. Hidden along the far western edge are some large enclosures where deer and goats run free. The gardens are a 20-minute drive south of the lake-side.

Under the icon of a goofy green dragon named Prezzemolo (“Parsley”), the park boasts roller coasters and carnival rides, a water park, jungle safari, ice shows, dolphin tricks and medieval spectacles. Italy’s greatest theme park isn’t quite Disneyland, but it’s a hoot for the kids.

Though the ancient Roman poet Catullus did take his holidays at Sirmione, there’s no evidence to suggest that this vast, ancient house at the very tip of Sirmione’s peninsula was actually his villa – in fact, it was probably built after Catullus’s death, sometime in the 1st century BC. It is the best surviving example of a Roman private home in northern Italy, but this didn’t stop it being mis-named a “grotto”, the result of the romantically overgrown and cave-like state it had assumed by the Middle Ages.

The 13th-century keep is at the narrowest point of Sirmione’s long, thin peninsula. The striking, angular pale grey stone citadel, in use as a fortress until the 19th century, still dominates and protects the town – the only way to enter Sirmione is over the moat on one of the castle drawbridges, then under one of its squat gate towers. It’s worth climbing the 30-m (95-ft) tower for the grand panorama.

The most important late Imperial villa remaining in Northern Italy was built in the 1st century BC, but the excellent polychrome floor mosaics are mostly of the 4th and 5th centuries. By that time, the local Romans were Christianized, which explains the late 4th-century glass bowl engraved with an image of Christ.

Garda’s largest island once supported a monastery that attracted the great medieval saints: Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua and Bernardino of Siena. The monastery was destroyed by Napoleon and replaced in 1890– 1903 with a Neo-Gothic Venetian-style villa and luxuriant English and Italianate gardens. Two-hour tours take place twice a week and, though the admission price is high, it does include a boat ride and a snack.

This over-the-top villa was built by poet, solider and adventurer Gabriele d’Annunzio, one of Italy’s most flamboyant characters from the turn of the 20th century (see Il Vittoriale, Lake Garda).

This small but lovely set of botanical gardens features more than 2,000 species on a terraced hillside (see Giardino Botanico Hruska, Lake Garda).

This little town was once the capital of Lake Garda and important enough in the 14th century for Verona’s Scaligeri family (who controlled much of Lake Garda) to build one of their solid, stoic castles. This one contains a modest museum on local history including the prehistoric rock carvings found on the nearby mountainsides. To see some of these 8,000-year-old etchings, follow signs off the main road up to Crer then walk up the trail about 15 minutes to a spot where the mountain’s rock face shows through the undergrowth.

Perched above town, this 12th-century castle is in a state of near-total ruin. Only one wall remains of the imposing central keep, and the sole room in the complex to survive intact was filled with debris until 1986. When it was cleared, a surprise discovery found several excellent late 14th-century frescoes depicting nobles playing at board games and war.