To know lake Garda means to enter deeply into its hinterland, to contemplate the lake from the mountains, to visit towns and to enter into woods immersed in an alpine landscape. Because of this, the Visitors' Centre of the Brescian Upper Garda Park is to be found in Tignale, a town which unites the Mediterranean landscape of the lake with that of the mountains of the hinterland on its territory, and which offers a rare wide point of view over the waters and at the same time it offers itself as a departure point for excursions into the green of the Western Gardesana Forest, the largest state owned forest in Lombardy.
To visit the park not only means to plunge oneself into the variety of the Gardesano environment, but to get to know the traditional activities - from fishing to the cultivation of lemons and olives, from the mountain agriculture to the products of the craftsmen - which preceded tourism but which today can enrich tourism with new experiences. The Visitors' Centre of the Brescian Upper Garda Park tells the story of this territory, its history and its people. To get to know them better, to experience everything that lake Garda can offer.
The heart of the Visitors' Centre is represented by a journey which unwinds through images and sounds, evoking people and the reconstruction of the environment, natural collections and collections of old tools, short documentaries and interactive points. The glacier which occupies the 'Valley of Garda', the formation of the lake, the rocks and the vegetation of its coasts are the protagonists of the documentary which greets us at the beginning of the journey and proposes the theme of the first room in a suggestive form, dedicated to the shapes and colours of the land.
It is here that we also meet the first inhabitants of the Benaco region. The work of the fishermen and the 'gardeners' who looked after the lemon groves, the products of the forges in Campione and the paper factories in Toscolano, the activities of the olive growers and millers take us back to the era in which the lake was dominated by the Republic of Venice. The 'great transformation' of 19th century Garda is relived through the images of the Grand Hotel in Gardone Riviera, while it is the journey on a modern coach which evokes the tourism of today. And here we climb from the lake to the mountain, to the thatched roofs of the barns in the Piani di Rest, to the traditional festivals and to the tastes of the hinterland, to the hard work to which the mountain people dedicated their lives using tools like those on show in the collections.
It is the wood, not only an economical but also environmental resource, filling the space in which the state owned forest presents itself, with the modern forestry which is practised, the care of the animals, the conservation of the ancient paths. At last, the deep meaning of the wood, essential and irreplaceable reference for men and women who live their lives mainly in urban areas, a reservoir of silence and meaning, a place in which to slow down and think in the era of speed and global interconnections.
The Visitors' Centre of the Brescian Upper Garda Park can be found in Prabione, locality in the municipality of Tignale. Phone: (+39) 0365.761642
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