Malcesine

Moving up the shore of the lake, remaining in the province of Verona, visitors will reach MALCESINE, a little mediaeval village that almost appears to dive into the lake. It borders to the north with the Trentino area, to the east, after the Baldo ridge, with the Adige Valley, and to the west with the Brescia shoreline.

The setting of the village is breath-taking: “the northern arm of the lake thrusts its way between the sheer mountainsides, offering a palette of splendid blue at which Goethe marvelled when he travelled through this area”.
Malcesine, indeed, owes much of its fame to the great German poet and writer and his superlative descriptions of the feelings the landscape awakened in him; those same feelings are aroused to this day in visitors exploring the Lake Garda area, especially in the autumn.

Malcesine is a particularly renowned tourist destination, thanks to its splendid geographical position and mild climate.
The mediaeval origins of the village have been preserved intact, and the buildings are gathered around the lofty Della Scala Castle and the historic Captains’ Palace.
The Castle, which today belongs to the municipality, was built on the bare rock, possibly by the Longobards, and was later turned into a military fortress by the Della Scala family. The building houses the Museum of Natural History and of Mount Baldo, and also hosts a permanent exhibition section dedicated to Goethe.

Well worth a visit is the church of the Madonna della Fontana, built in 1600 over a sixteenth-century oratory.

The particularly mild, healthy climate is ideal – especially in the low season – for magnificent walks both in the hills and high up in the mountains, with the landscape shifting from the Mediterranean vegetation of the lakeshore, characterised by oleander and olive groves, to the typically alpine scenery further up.

The area offers the opportunity to practise a wide variety of sports, such as sailing, water-skiing, windsurfing, tennis, paragliding and mountain biking.

Malcesine is also the departure point for the cableway that in about 10 minutes takes visitors up to the 1800 m peak of Mount Baldo, "the botanic garden of Italy”, where skiing fans will find a total of 12 km of runs, served by a chairlift and six ski lifts suitable for all levels.