Hotel Giardinetto

The lakes becomes a sea, Sirmione reaches out into the water with its fascinating history and poetry, and the water close up and head away towards the last morainic hills which mark the upper course of the river Mincio. Past Desenzano the ancient capital of the merchant traffic, the surrounding hills, towards Lonato, Castiglione delle Stiviere and Solferino pages of recent history are told. Among the thousands and thousands of rows of wines, buildings and monuments recall the echo of furious skirmishes and battles, fought in the name of a dream, an ideal called "Risorgimento Italiano". Here the historical vines have seen the bold the advances and silent, slow whithdrawals of companies and battalions led to victory or defeat by emperors or kings. Recent history has muted the more ancient history which is however still in evidence especially along the course of the Mincio. The three great white wines of Lake Garda come from this Area. "San Martino" and "Lugana" compete for the area centred around the historic hill which touches the municipal territory of Desenzano, Lonato, Sirmione, Pozzolengo and Peschiera. The hills on the other side of the Mincio, beetween Valeggio and Sommacampagna, belong to "Bianco di Custoza". At the beginning of the Mincio Park, along the west bank of the outlet from Lake Garda, the "Rubino" red, the Rosato and Bianco from the morainic hills, in Mantova territory, encourage us to sample the local couisine with its rich, fullbodied flavours. Meat, salami and first courses too, such as pasta, handmade according to traditional methods, pumpkin tortelli, "Caponsei" (bread dumplings) and around Valeggio, delicious meat tortellini are produced. Legendary tales have grown up around them which anyone interested not only in sampling these pleasure but also understanding the pages of Lake Garda's food culture and civilisation may hear.