Why go to Como when Italy’s Lake Garda is so grand? | Canada Voices

In the warm months at Lake Garda, in Italy’s northeastern corner, you can hear the showy staccato song of the Eurasian blackcap, a migratory species common here but unknown in Canada. In the early phase of Garda’s tourism history, however, no bird call could prevail against the din of gunfire aimed at bringing down huge numbers of pheasants.

European nobility in the 19th century was mad about hunting, preferably with a squadron of game workers to drive the quarry toward the rifles. In 1888, a hunting lodge went up on the lake’s western shore to cater to Hapsburg royals such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who tallied his lifetime kill of pheasant, partridge and ground game at a staggering 272,511.

That lodge is now a five-star hotel, which a few years ago decided to hunt for an even more up-market clientele than the well-heeled Germans who have flocked there for generations. The Grand Hotel Fasano upgraded all of its 86 rooms, spent US$2.5-million on an enlarged spa and earned a Michelin star for its premier restaurant, Il Fagiano.

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The hotel owners, two brothers who have led the family business for 20 years, believe that they and Lake Garda can overtake the attractions of the more popular Lake Como to the west.

Though it may look secluded on a map, Lake Garda has played host to the powerful since Roman times. Many of the Renaissance-era palazzos along the coast were built on Roman foundations, and were occupied by grandees from nearby Verona and Venice. Later, Germans and Austrians made the area their playground – and sometimes, their battleground.

The environs of the Gardone Riviera are dotted with historic buildings. They include an island villa on Isola del Garda that resembles the doge’s palace in Venice, but whose interior spaces still include tiny cells from the building’s original role as a Franciscan monastery.

The grounds include palm trees and cactuses, but the gardens are English, thanks to the personal attentions of a British earl’s daughter whose family opened portions of the villa to the public in 2002.

There is also Vittoriale degli Italiani, the gloomy, overstuffed former residence of poet Gabriele d’Annunzio, who kept one bed exclusively for the eventual display of his own corpse.

D’Annunzio, who led a short-lived coup in one corner of Italy after the First World War, is also known as the godfather of fascism. He invented many of the trappings, including the “Roman salute,” later adopted by Mussolini, whose final puppet government was quartered in nearby Salo. Mussolini’s former residence is now a hotel, and Salo is better known for its colourful, five-kilometre lakefront promenade.

The area south of Lake Garda is an olive oil- and wine-producing region, known particularly for its white wines and rosés. As in Canada, wineries here, which include the small, niche-oriented Conti Thun, open their doors for visits, meals and tastings.

The colour of Lake Garda’s deep waters, visible from many rooms at Grand Hotel Fasano, goes from silvery-grey to a warm blue-green as the light changes. The alpine spring runoff from snowy-peaked Mount Baldo keeps the water frigid through most of the summer, becoming comfortably swimmable only in the fall. There are more than 100 small beaches around the lake, most of them gravel and many of them sharp underfoot.

It’s no surprise that the region’s grander hotels have gone all-in on full-service spas and pools whose temperature can be regulated.

Grand Hotel Fasano’s AQVA Spa and Wellness Centre includes treatments increasing in scale and intensity to a 140-minute “top-to-toe pamper session comprising 11 distinct stages and 11 powerful formulas.” Four new suites directly above the spa allow their occupants to go from room to massage table without traipsing in bathrobes through more public areas – an important draw for the hotel’s increasing number of modesty-minded visitors from the Middle East.

The main quarry, however, is the North American clientele which over the past five years has overtaken the formerly dominant German clientele. Even with substantial, year-over-year increases in room rates, Grand Hotel Fasano remains a much cheaper option than equivalent hotels on Lake Como.

The 12,000-square-metre hotel grounds, which include 200-year-old magnolia trees, offer room for relaxing strolls, as well as tasty food and drink offerings from the outdoor bar and restaurant − one of four run by the hotel. Inside, the Michelin-starred Il Fagiano offers toothsome items such as roe deer, sprouts and truffle on soqquadro pasta, a square type of rigatoni.

It’s still possible to hunt in the area, though the usual weapon of choice is now a fishing rod. Fishermen on Lake Garda aim for trout and whitefish, as well as the carpione, a species of trout that lives in this lake and no other. An exclusive fish, for an increasingly exclusive travel destination.

If you go

Lake Garda is midway between Milan and Venice and their international airports. High-speed rail links the area directly to Florence and Rome via nearby Brescia. The best time to visit may be in the fall, when temperatures are still warm and the crowds have thinned.

Like a number of lodges around the lake, Grand Hotel Fasano traditionally closes for the winter in November, but plans to extend its 2026 season until New Year’s Day. Rates start at €600 for an executive room with lake view and balcony, including a huge breakfast buffet.

The writer was a guest of Grand Hotel Fasano. It did not review or approve the story before publication.