Padenghe sul Garda

The Rio Vasorì is credited with being the shortest river in Italy, and before electricity the whole industry of the village fitted into those few metres. It rose from the Cold Springs and in the Monte quarter turned the wheel of the Gabana mill; further down it fed the Beretta oil press; then it crossed the village passing beneath the houses, drove the wheel of the silk mill and the trip hammer in a house on via Prais; it still turned the Viola mill, reached the glass works and at last threw itself into the lake. A watercourse that within the span of a stroll went to work six times.

Four thousand two hundred and seventy-six inhabitants in the province of Brescia, on the Brescian shore of the lower Garda, among the olive groves and the vineyards of the Valtenesi where the Groppello is grown, a red grape that thrives only here. In Roman times there were a farming villa and a harbour at San Cassiano; on the site of the villa the parish church was later raised, subject to the bishop of Verona. Around the eleventh century the village gave itself a refuge castle, linked with those of Lonato, Moniga, Manerba, Polpenazze and Puegnago. Under Venice the harbour served the trade in salt that came down from the Austrian mines by way of the Brenner.