The governor of the Veneto region conjures up some of his life’s significant moments spent on Lake Garda and underlines the lake’s powerful identity bonds.
Lago Lake Garda’s identity associations are powerful. It is one of Italy’s most popular tourist destinations, including internationally, as growing visitor numbers right through the year testify, a source of pride and strong feelings for those who love the area. Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region, confidently brings up these strong values when he talks about the lake area.
Elected governor in 2010, he has won all the region’s elections since with a large margin and is now its longest serving president. Prior to this he was president of Treviso province and Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy in the fourth Berlusconi government. He has always spoken proudly of his strong bond with the Garda area.
What role do you see lakes playing in the area’s collective symbolic heritage? What is it that makes them such an integral part of the area’s identity and such a magnet for visitors? Do you have any personal memories linked to lakes or a special place which best describes your strong relationship with this area?
For anyone who’s grown up in the Veneto region, Lake Garda is much more than a tourist destination. It’s suffused with feelings and memories which come up to the surface every time we go there. It’s that Sunday day out with our parents, that ice cream scoffed down in Bardolino, those first romantic strolls in Lazise. It’s the Malcesine cable car to Monte Baldo, the site of those stag and hen nights, the parks visited as children and then as parents, those cycle trips out through breathtaking views, boat trips at sunset and windsurf or kitesurf challenges. Garda is an integral part of Veneto identity because it melds the everyday and the extraordinary. It’s that view through the window, which never changes but manages, all the same, to amaze us.
As the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics come closer, what actions and strategies is the region adopting to promote the lakes in integrated transport, economic development and tourism promotion terms?
Significant Lake Garda promotion investments are currently under way, with a view to leaving a lasting legacy of modern infrastructure, greater appeal and an increasingly top quality tourist experience. The heart of this vision is Garda Unico, integrated transport across all three sides of the lake — Veneto, Lombardy and Trentino — designed to link up buses, ferries, cycle tracks and trains seamlessly.
The support plan Veneto in Action guarantees a single regional direction
capable of co-ordinating and promoting initiatives ranging from transport to infrastructure and promotion of the region’s cultural, culinary, tourism and training heritage.
