Lazise sul Garda and Borghetto sul Mincio are two of the most beautiful Italian villages we have visited so far. One of the two, the delightful Borghetto fraction of Valeggio sul Mincio, is one of the Most beautiful villages in Italy, but in our opinion they would have what it takes to be included both.
Romantic stops on Garda lake and Mincio river
We were in Lazise on a warm and slightly breezy Sunday morning in October. Lots of people walking along the lake shore, many with four legs in tow. After all, apart from the favorable climate, Lazise ranks first among the most popular destinations as an Italian lake destination. It is located on the Veronese shore of Lake Garda and looks like a small village protected by high walls reminiscent of other Scaligeri towns such as Sirmione.
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Entering the historic center from the main door leads to the large square with the particular checkered pavement. We wandered around the village and along the lakefront together with our Otto who had a not too friendly close encounter with a swan, before reaching Il Porticciolo, a renowned lakeside restaurant where we had booked lunch.
The town is gathered under the Bell Tower overlooking the marina, but the real protagonist remains the Scaligero castle, built around the year 1000 as a bulwark against the Hungarians. Around it develops a delightful garden built by Count Buri in the second half of the 19th century.
One of the most picturesque corners is that of Portovecchio animated by small colored boats and lively ducks. In this stretch of water you can moor arriving in Lazise by boat and nearby the boats of the scheduled service on Lake Garda dock.
The main buildings of the town overlook the small port: the Palazzo del Comune, the Romanesque church of San Nicolò dedicated to San Nicola di Bari and the Venetian Customs, an ancient arsenal of the Republic of Venice which later became a shelter for sheep, a factory for the production of saltpetre, factory for the spinning of cotton, Casa del Fascio under the fascist regime, while now it’s municipal property and prestigious events are held there.
The curiosity? In 983 Lazise became the first free municipality in Italy, obtaining full civic autonomy from Emperor Otto II.
But if at this point you are hungry, you just have to follow us. Il Porticciolo is one of the historic places on Lake Garda where we had lunch in the shady terrace, appreciating the quality cuisine centered on the territory, starting with the freshwater fish appetizer. Try the fragrant risotto with vialone nano rise with tench and chub and grilled char, cooked on sight in the large fireplace.
In the afternoon we continued our tour on the lake reaching Bardolino which boasts the title of the happiest village in Italy obtained following a research carried out in 2011 by the Centro Studio Sintesi which compiled the ranking of the happiest villages.
The fishing village is located in a very beautiful inlet of Lake Garda on which stand out ancient villas and important churches such as the one dedicated to San Severo.
After passing Garda, going up along the coast, we reached the peninsula of Punta San Vigilio, considered the most romantic place on the lake. The avenue flanked by cypresses descends to the small port but it is from above that you can enjoy a magnificent glance looking out from the balustrade of the belvedere where a plaque recalls the lyric from the Odes Barbare that inspired Carducci from this view: “Garda back there lifts its dark fortress above the liquid mirror singing a saga of ancient buried cities and barbarian queens”.
Our tour of this segment of Italy with a thousand treasures continued towards Borghetto sul Mincio, a small village of mills built near an ancient ford in a crossroads between the waterway and the land, as well as a bridge between two regions and two cultures, the Lombard and the Venetian.
Strolling through this timeless landscape in the golden light of sunset is like being shipwrecked in another dimension that takes you back to the Middle Ages, between the three ancient mills that seem to emerge like large water lilies from the water and Ponte Visconteo, the fortified dam built in 1393 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti connected to the overhanging Scaligero Castle which continues to dominate the entire Mincio valley with its towers.
With this extraordinary landscape we filled our eyes and hearts and the only gripe is that we could not do it even with our stomach by eating a nice plate of “love knots” as tortellini are called here to remember the knot of a silk handkerchief woven by two lovers before throwing themselves into the Mincio.
Our promise is therefore to come back to taste these delicacies and to experience the atmosphere of the village more deeply, perhaps by staying in one of the romantic rooms of the six 1600 mills that overlook the waterfall and the bridges of the river and that are part of the complex hotel of “Il Borghetto Vacanze in the Mills”. And to stroll in the nearby Sigurtà Park, a large green lung that extends for about 50 hectares at the back of Villa Maffei among meadows, woods and ponds. But without Otto because access to domestic animals is forbidden, the presence of which could interfere with the ecosystem of the other species of the Park.
