Nago–Torbole

Nago-Torbole
Comune
Comune di Nago-Torbole
Location of Nago-Torbole
Nago-Torbole Location of Nago-Torbole in Italy Nago-Torbole Nago-Torbole (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol)
Coordinates: 45°52′N 10°53′E
Country	Italy
Region	Trentino-South Tyrol
Province	Province of Trento (TN)
Frazioni	Torbole, Nago, Tempesta
Area
• Total	28.39 km2 (10.96 sq mi)
Population  (Dec. 2004)
• Total	2,817
Demonym(s)	torbolani, naghesi
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	38060, 38069
Dialing code	0464
Website	www.gardatrentino.com

Nago-Torbole is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Trento in the Italian region Trentino-South Tyrol, located about 30 km southwest of Trento. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,434 and an area of 28.4 km².

The municipality of Nago-Torbole contains the frazioni (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Torbole, Nago, and Tempesta.

Nago-Torbole borders the following municipalities: Arco, Riva del Garda, Mori, Molina di Ledro, Brentonico, and Malcesine.

The village

The village clings to the calcareous rocks on the extreme north-west slope of Mount Baldo, which is well-known in Europe thanks to the richness of its flora; it lies close to the mouth of the River Sarca and its houses are set as an anphitheatre around the small gulf, in front of Mount Rocchetta and the Ledro Alps. This area was populated in prehistoric times and colonized during the Roman Imperial times; it formed a community with Nago, castle residence of the Counts d'Arco. In 1439 Torbole witnessed an extraordinary event during the Third Lombarda War (1438), which saw Milano in opposition to the Serenissima Republic of Venice. Venice dominated the eastern side of the lake (the Riviera) and carried out a legendary military undertaking in order to conquer the naval control and the supremacy on Lake Garda and to support the Venetian army leader Erasmo da Narni, called Gattamelata, in freeing Brescia from the Milanese siege. The Venetians transported twenty-five boats and six galleys from the Adriatic Sea up the River Adige until the fluvial harbour of Mori. Here the craft were hauled on carts by strength of arm and with oxen, launched then into Lake Loppio and finally lowered from the slopes of Monte Baldo into Lake Garda at Torbole. For this exploit 240 oxen and 15,000 ducats were employed. In April 1440 the small Venetian fleet destroyed the Visconti's one and conquered Riva. The tourist vocation of Torbole dates back to the 15th century when Torbole became a pleasant place to stop for European travellers passing through on the Atesina road from Germany to Italy. Montaigne visited Torbole in 1580. But it was Goethe who launched it touristically in the romantic German world. The poet arrived here from Rovereto in the afternoon of 12th September 1786, four days after having crossed Brenner Pass. Goethe was 37 years old and getting in touch with the blue expanse of Lake Garda and the silver olive-groves, he experienced for the first time the mild climate of the places extolled by the Classics, and he believed to have achieved happiness. Even the Brescian Cesare Arici, idyllic rural poet, exalted the "fishy Torbole". The extraordinary picturesque look of the village enticed several painters from the German romantic and late romantic world. The painter Lietzmann, for example, bought a large olive-grove on the lake's shore (behind Hotel Paradiso) and opened a school of nude art; many talented painters were trained at this school. The actual tourist centre evolved in the second half of the last century from an old village of fishermen, farmers and mountaineers, into a seasonal health-resort for European travellers, like the neighbouring Riva and Arco.

TORBOLE His resort is the capital of the Nago-Torbole district and appears on a fascinating bay, on lake eastern bank. People coming from Nago, along the road descending to the lake by steep hairpin bend, can admire an incredibly fine sight.

The house's roofs, gathered near to the shore, stand out the green of the fields and create a chromatic contrast with Garda water which reflects the deep blue sky tonalities. Torbole has written an indelible page of the naval history of the fifteenth cent. In may 1440 Venetian people, to help Riva which was then under Visconti control, and to lighten Milan people pressure over Brescian's, devised brilliant diverging ropes which caught the enemies and cost them a bad defeat on the water' lake. Once gone up the Adige course, by a fleet which was then dismantled and brought to Torbole, with the help of hundred of oxen, they reassembled again the wooden pieces which, once put in the lake, won shortly the Visconti forces.

Goethe-travel

In the end of the 1786 summer Goethe, starting his travel in Italy, stopped in Torbole, leaving in his writings a longing and passionate image of this place which is still now the best way to promote the resort to the large number of German guests. Between the most famous Torbole's tourist attraction we have to mention the memorial tablet and the Goethe image which are on the arcade of the building where Goethe was, there is also a Goethe's bust along the lake. The parish S. Andrea church is divided into three naves and keeps a fine wooden chorus. The most artistically significant element is, with no doubt, the wonderful eighteenth canvas made by G.B. Cignaroli representing the S. Andrea Martyr.

GOETHE ON LAKE GARDA ( Originally Published 1907 )

IN the autumn of the year 1786 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe made his first trip to Italy. He drove over the Brenner Pass, bound for Verona, but instead of continuing all the way down the valley of the Adige, he branched off at Rovereto and drove over to Lake Garda by way of the Loppio Pass. Thus he set the fashion for subsequent tourists, who nowadays make this crossing by thousands every season, generally using the convenient narrow-gauge railroad from Mori to Arco and Riva for this purpose.

Goethe apparently did not visit Riva, but lodged at the inn in Torbole. In 1899 a delegate from the Goethe Society of Vienna, accompanied by an official of the district of Riva, visited Torbole for the purpose of determining the house in which the great poet must actually have lodged. Following the indications furnished by a pencil sketch made by Goethe himself, the investigators decided that the house in question could have been none other than that of the brothers Alberti, standing on the small harbour-square of Tor-bole, for in Goethe's day this house was the only inn of the place and was called the " Inn to the Rose." The Goethe Society has since affixed a tablet to the house in commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the poet's birth. It bears the following inscription: "In questa casa dimoro Goethe il 12 Settembre, 1786. H'eute hab ich an der Iphigenie gearbeitet, es ist im Angesichte des Sees gut von statten gegangen." (" In this house lodged Goethe on the 12th of September, 1786. To-day I have worked on the Iphigenie, it has progressed finely in sight of the lake.") The latter sentence is taken from Goethe's diary (Tagebücher). In a letter from Rome dated the 6th of January, 1787, he likewise states : " I drew the first lines of the new work on Lake Garda, as the powerful midday wind was driving the waves to the shore, where I was at least as solitary as my heroine on the coast of Tauris." In his " Italian Journey " there are some interesting letters descriptive of his impressions and experiences on Lake Garda. It must be remembered in this connection that on this trip he was making his first personal acquaintance with Italian life and scenery.

In a letter, dated "Torbole, the 12th of September, after dinner," we read :

" How much I wished to have my friends for a moment near me in order that they might rejoice over the view which lies before me.

" Tonight I might have been in Verona, but there was still a glorious work of nature at my side, a precious spectacle, the Lake of Garda; I did not wish to miss it, and am gloriously rewarded for my détour. It was after five when I drove away from Roveredo [Rovereto], up a side valley which sends its waters into the Etsch [Adige]. When one reaches the top an enormous rock formation lies in front, over which it is necessary to go down to the lake. Here the most beautiful of limestone rocks exhibited them-selves for artistic studies. When one reaches the bottom, there lies a little place at the northern end of the lake, with a small harbour, or, rather, a landing-place; it is called Torbole. Fig-trees had already frequently' accompanied me on the way up, and as I descended into the amphitheatre of rock, I found the first olive-trees full of olives. Here also for the first time I found the small pale figs as a common fruit which the Countess Lanthieri had promised.

" Out of the room in which I am sitting, a door leads into the court below; I have moved my table in front of it and sketched the view in a few lines. One overlooks the lake almost for its entire extent; only at the end on the left does it escape the eye. The shore, enclosed on both sides by hills and mountains, shines with countless villages. After midnight the wind blows from north to south; whoever wishes to go down the lake must start at this time; for already a few hours before sunrise the wind changes and blows toward the north. Now in the afternoon it is blowing strongly against me and cooling the warm sun very pleasantly. At the same time Volkmann teaches me that this lake was formerly called Benacus, and invites attention to a verse of Virgil in which it is mentioned: Fluctibus et fremitu resonans Benace marino. The first Latin verse of which the subject actually stands before me! At this moment, when the wind is constantly growing stronger and the lake is dashing ever higher waves against the landing-place, this verse is to-day still as true as it was many centuries ago. Much has changed, but the wind still storms over the lake, and its sight is still ennobled by a line of Virgil." Goethe spent the night of the 12th of September at Torbole, and next morning early started down the lake by boat. The description of this trip is contained in a letter dated "Malcesine, the 13th of September, in the evening: "

" This morning early, at three o'clock, I left Torbole with the rowers. At first the wind was favourable, so that they could use the sails. The morning was glorious, though cloudy, and quiet at sunrise. We rowed past Limone, whose hill gardens, laid out in ter-races and planted with lemon-trees, presented a rich and neat appearance. The whole gar-den consists of rows of square white pillars, which stand at regular distances from each other and rise up the mountain slope in steps. Over these pillars strong beams are laid in order during the winter to cover the trees which are planted between. The observation and examination of these pleasant objects was favoured by a slow trip, and so we had already passed Malcesine when the wind turned completely around, took its ordinary direction by day and blew toward the north. Rowing was of little use against the overwhelming power, and so we had to make a landing in the harbour of Malcesine. It is the first Venetian place on the eastern side of the lake. When one has to do with water, one cannot say: ` To-day I shall be here or there.' This sojourn I shall employ as best I may, especially in making a drawing of the castle which lies near the water and is a beautiful object. To-day in passing by I made a sketch of it."

The desire to sketch the castle of Malcesine led Goethe into an amusing adventure, which he relates at some length in a letter dated from Verona on the 14th of September.

It appears that he was quietly sketching the ruined castle the next morning when the people of the place began to crowd around him suspiciously, and a man among them suddenly seized the sketch and tore it in two. It must be remembered that at this time the Republic of Venice was still in existence, and that Malcesine was a frontier post against Austria on the north. The Podesta, the chief magistrate of the place, with his secretary, were both summoned by the people. An amusing interrogatory forthwith took place, Goethe explaining that he was sketching the tower because it was a ruin. But, objected the Podesta, if it was a ruin, what was remarkable about it. Goethe set forth with much good humour the value which foreigners set upon ruins as objects of artistic interest. There was further discussion to and fro. Goethe was suspected of being a spy in the service of the Austrian emperor, sent to make drawings of the frontier defences of the Republic of Venice. Finally Goethe was led to declare himself a citizen of Frankfurt am Main. At the mention of this name a young woman ex-claimed that the Podesta should call a certain Gregorio, who, it appeared, had been in employment in Frankfurt. Goethe soon satisfied the authorities of Malcesine that he spoke the truth, both by his first-hand knowledge of Frankfurt itself and also by describing to Gregorio certain people in Frankfurt, notably some mutual acquaintances among the Italian families settled there. As a result Goethe was given permission to go about at will over the whole place and visit its surroundings under Gregorio's guidance.

Goethe left Malcesine that night by boat, taking with him a basket of fine fruit from Gregorio's garden. He landed at Bardolino, a place on the eastern shore near the southern end of the lake, at 5 A. M., crossed over the mountains to Verona, and reached that city about one o'clock of the same day. Thus Goethe's acquaintance with Lake Garda, though brief and hardly worthy of the name of sojourn, was yet full of zest, and is of special interest because it gave him his first introduction into the ways and means of Italy.

Penede castle

An element which excite naturalists and geologists, can be admired at the hairpin bend of the road that brings to Nago: the so called Marmitte of the Giants representing the tangible glacial era evidence of erosive phenomenon, which occurred when a wide glacier covered the territories. A pleasant walk brings to the ruins of Penede castle, which was destroyed in the eigteenth cent. and that was already owned by the Arco earls, by the Castelbanco's and by Serenissima Republic.

Marmitte

Those so called Marmitte are nothing else then sunken glacial era wells, set out by the stones and glacial, quick whirling, detritus coming down from the superior layers. We have to mention, at last, Torbole for its importance for sailing sports: it is because of the good and constant blowing of the winds on this portion of the lake.

== WALKS== 

- PROMENADE All along the promenade of Torbole there is a pavement, 2 Km long: At its ends there are the well-equipped public beaches: Conca d’oro, Parco Pavese and Villa Cian. -S. LUCIA ROMAN ROAD This ancient roman road is a line of communication between the lake and Adige Valley. You can reach Nago from the centre of Torbole skirting the spur of Penede Castle through a very charming environment of olive trees and overhanging rocks. -BUSATTE ZONE It’s a marvellous rocky landscape that lies over Torbole ; now covered by evergreens but once bare ruin of sliding rocks. From here you can easily reach Nago by the Tenin road. -PENEDE CASTLE Starting from Nago lot’s of signals follow one another, which will lead you to the ruins of the Castle. A fixed course through the charming ruins of the manor will take you back to Nago. - GIANTS’ POT-HOLES They are characteristic well-preserved erosions and also one of the most interesting and rare testimonies of the Ice Age in the Alpine region. - TORBOLE BELVEDERE AND NAGO FORTRESS Place with an exraordinary view where the tradition says that a tower of the ancient Castle of Torbole rose. From there you can carry on towards Nago following the old road at present very little used. - TORBOLE-ARCO CYCLE TRACK It starts from the Bridge on Sarca River and goes to Arco skirting the principal affluent that lets in the lake Garda.

local cuisine

This to introduce the delicious opportunity Garda Trentino visitors have of discovering the characteristics of the local cuisine linked to the typical products, to which are added the influences of the various surrounding regions and the historical tradition. Even the name of the area, "Garda Trentino", indicates how the local gastronomy is capable of alternating lacustrine flavors with the traditional dishes of the mountain communities. Next to the influence of recipes coming from the Lake Garda area and the Po valley, there is also the strong presence of Tyrolean traditions coming from the link with the Danubian monarchy that ruled in this area until 1918, in addition of a few traces of Bohemian and Moravian tastes due to the exodus of so many Trentino citizens to those regions during the First World War. All of these components, blended with the passionate will of the chefs, have given rise to a type of cuisine with its own precise features, coherent with its origins but at the same time modern and varied, fully capable of satisfying even the most demanding palates. It is both healthy, thanks to the ingredients used, and dietetic, thanks to the light and highly digestible delicacies it employs. In short, a refined art, capable of proposing ancient as well as ne

Demographic evolution

External links

• www.gardatrentino.com