Discover 4 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Gardone Riviera (Italy). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, Giardino Botanico Fondazione André Heller, and Museo Il Divino Infante. Also, be sure to include MAS 96 in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Gardone Riviera (Lombardy).
Table of Contents
Il Vittoriale degli Italiani
Also known as: Vittoriale degli italiani
Former writer's home and an amphitheater. The Vittoriale degli italiani is a hillside estate in the town of Gardone Riviera overlooking Lake Garda in province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It is where the Italian poet and novelist Gabriele d'Annunzio lived after his defenestration in 1922 until his death in 1938. The estate consists of the residence of d'Annunzio called the Prioria, an amphitheatre, the protected cruiser Puglia set into a hillside, a boathouse containing the MAS vessel used by D'Annunzio in 1918 and a circular mausoleum. Its grounds are now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.
References to the Vittoriale range from a “monumental citadel” to a “fascist lunapark”, the site inevitably inheriting the controversy surrounding its creator.[1]
Address: Via Al Vittoriale 12, 25083 Gardone Riviera
Giardino Botanico Fondazione André Heller
Whimsical botanic garden featuring art. The Giardino Botanico Fondazione André Heller, also known as the Giardino Botanico A. Hruska, is a botanical garden located on the grounds of the André Heller Foundation above Lake Garda, in via Roma, Gardone Riviera, Province of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. It is open daily in the warmer months.
The garden was established circa 1901 by Arturo Hruska (1889 - 1971), an Austrian dentist and botanist, who from 1910 to 1971 collected many species on the grounds of his villa, organized as a dense forest of bamboo, Japanese ponds, streams, and waterfalls, as well as alpine plants in ravines. Since 1988 it has been owned by artist André Heller, and now contains interesting sculptures by Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, and so forth, set among more than 500 species including cactus, edelweiss, ferns including Osmunda regalis, magnolias, orchids, water lilies, and trees.[2]
Address: Via Roma 2, 25083 Gardone Riviera
Museo Il Divino Infante
Museum, Specialty museum
Address: Via dei Colli, 34, 25083 Gardone Riviera
MAS 96
MAS 96 is currently a museum ship at the Vittoriale degli italiani in Gardone Riviera.
Basically, it is a 12-ton displacement Orlando-type wooden motorboat, a series that included MAS 91 to 102 and 218 to 232, wooden with an angled hull and about 27 knots of top speed; they had 8 crewmen and armament generally consisting of 2 torpedoes and some depth charges, as well as a machine gun or small cannon.
This unit participated, with then frigate captain Costanzo Ciano, commander Luigi Rizzo and poet Gabriele D'Annunzio on board, in the Beffa di Buccari (the night of February 11, 1918) along with MAS 94 and 95.
In addition to this there is another MAS dating back to World War I: MAS 15 displayed at the Flag Shrine at the Vittoriano in Rome.
In addition to these two other MAS are preserved: the MAS 472 at Marina di Ravenna and the MAS 473 at the Naval Historical Museum in Venice along with the motor raft MZ 737 and the submarine Enrico Dandolo.