From olive groves to chestnut trees, on the lake-facing slopes of Mount Baldo with trips and excursions to the highest peaks. From the Mediterranean landscape of the Garda Riviera, dominated by olive trees and marked by dark green cypresses, clumps of holm oak and intense green laurel right up to the grassy uplands of Prada Alta. At an altitude of 1,000 metres this is the starting point of the Costabella ski-lifts and a network of paths leading up to the 2,200 metres of Telegrafo peak.
The western side of Mt. Baldo is inextricably linked with Lake Garda, whose unique climate nurtures the Mediterranean vegetation and forms one of its most typical features. The geological make-up has created steep slopes with massive layers that plunge into the lake Garda, where the inhabitable part of the coast is reduced to a mere strip and villages crowd the narrow spaces at the foot of the mountains.
There are two main routes for discovering this side of the mountain; numerous tracks fan out from the inlet of Garda to the south, or from the lakeside towns, all leading up to the peaks. Some are not for the faint-hearted due as they climb steeply and are rough underfoot, but there are undoubtedly the most fascinating ones. From Garda or Torri del Benaco you can drive up to Albisano and thence on to San Zeno di Montagna at an altitude of 700 metres. A magnificent balcony-with-a-view and then the road drops down to Castelletto di Brenzone right by the lake. A short way uphill is Prada Alta, where a summer chairlift takes you up to the Fiori refuge at 1,800 metres. The main road from Prada Alta leads to the Trovai spring, then down round hairpin bends to Porto on the lake.
The town of Brenzone, wedged between Torri del Benaco to the south and Malcesine to the north, encompasses a whole series of hamlets, some by the lake (Assenza, Porto, Magugnano, Marniga and Castelletto), some on the lower slopes (Castello and Sommavilla) and others on the rough slopes of Mount Baldo, such as Prada. A multitude of little villages and hamlets with tourist accommodation - 50 or so hotels, a dozen campsites and several residences - half-concealed by the age-old olive trees. The economy was once based on farming and grazing, plus fishing and olive growing, but now tourism is much more important and there are sports and sailing facilities. There is also a sailing school and one for windsurfers, in an area rightly considered a sailors' paradise. Assenza, with its Romanesque church of San Nicolò adorned with medieval frescoes, is the first town as you descend from the north. It has its own little harbour and the island of Trimelone, where on 20th March 1945, forty days before being killed on Lake Como, Mussolini gave vent to his bitterness with the journalist and painter Ivaneo Fossati.
The coastal road leads to Porto, and Magugnano with the town hall and a church with a Romanesque bell-tower dedicated to St John the Baptist. To the south is Marniga, a picturesque medieval village from where a mule-track leads to Campo, a place from the past with castle ruins, a Romanesque church and poetry-inspiring silence. Near Castelletto stands the church of San Zeno, which boasts a 15th century cycle of frescoes depicting St John the Baptist. Of particular interest for naturalists is the area at the foot of the mountain, which features paths through magnificent olive-groves, Mediterranean maquis and a series of hamlets clinging to the sheer mountainside: Biaza with its ancient castle; Zignago, outstretched like a lookout; Borago with its arches; Sommavilla with its rustic dwellings. Other spectacular features are the pothole dubbed Bus delle Tacole, the glacial circles of Buse and on Mt Telegrafo, and the exciting Val Torrente with the "Baloc tacà via".
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