The name states a function: it comes from the Lombard «warda», the guard post, and points to the fortress on the Rocca that towers over the town. Up there, in the tenth century, Adelaide of Burgundy was held prisoner: she had married Lothair of Provence, king of Italy, in 947, and he died poisoned; she then refused to marry the son of Berengar, who had her shut away for it. She managed to escape and became the wife of Otto I, who came down into Italy in 953; under Otto the Rocca was dismantled for reasons nobody wrote down.
One thing from the old rural comune is still working. In 1452, under the Republic of Venice, the Corporation of the Ancient Originari was founded, and Venice recognised its rights to fish in the waters of the lake; those rights were respected by Napoleon and then by the Kingdom of Italy, and to this day its members are the descendants of the local Originari, who every year share out the proceeds of the fishing lease. At the mid-August feast eight Venetian-style rowing boats race the Palio dell'Assunta, one for each of the historic quarters.
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📅 Every year, on 15 August, with the night-time Palio dell'Assunta
Garda celebrates the Assumption of Mary on 15 August, the patronal feast marked by the Palio dell'Assunta, a night race among eight boats representing the town's eight historic districts.
Eight points, powdered sugar like snow on a mountain: pandoro was born in Verona in 1894, patented by Domenico Melegatti.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Garda, but an easy day trip away.
