In the heart of Gardone Riviera, Vittoriale degli Italiani, D’Annunzio’s last home, is a veritable wunderkammer packed with mementoes, gardens and even a navy vessel.
Gardone Riviera, a town of just over 2500 people on the Brescia side of the lake, is best known as the seat of the Vittoriale degli Italiani, the home of man-of-letters Gabriele D’Annunzio, who died here in 1938. It is a large complex made up of buildings, squares, an open-air theatre and a 9-hectare park built from 1921 to 1938. ‘On Lake Garda I found an old villa formerly owned by the late Doctor Thode. The garden is sweet… And the warm light makes me hanker after Rome’s’, wrote D’Annunzio to his wife Maria in 1921. D’Annunzio intended the building to be a repository of memorabilia commemorating his ‘inimitable life’ as a soldier-poet and the heroism of Italian soldiers during World War One. While not a Futurist (Italian anthologies have him down as the maximum exponent of Decadentism) the writers of the day saw D’Annunzio as having qualities such as courage and love of speed, key features of the Futurist hero. And the Vittoriale is home to three of his last cars: a Fiat Tipo 4, an Isotta Fraschini and his Alfa Romeo, known as ‘Satan’s breath’. The reliquary room contains Sir Henry Segrave’s broken motorboat steering wheel, recovered when he died in it in 1930 during an attempt to break a speed record. But D’Annunzio’s grandeur is most evident in the park showcasing his Puglia navy ship, which includes part of its bow and the bulk of the upper decks (forecastle, bridge, artillery, etc.) of the torpedo boat which the Royal Navy presented him with in 1923. The visual impact of a late 19th century boat in the midst of trees with its bow facing the Adriatic is surreal.
MITTELEUROPE ON LAKE GARDA
Everyone knows that Lake Garda is particularly popular with tourists, who flock to all three of its shores every summer. And it is no coincidence that many Austrian and German families built splendid villas here during the Belle Époque, with Villa Alba – summer residence of Emperor Franz Joseph and Princess Sissi and now an event venue – being a perfect example. Gardone Riviera developed without a true town plan but the powerful influence of Engineer Fuchs – also town mayor – and the work of some good architects gave it a harmonious park town look all the same. Its illustrious guests included a memorable visit by former British prime minister, Winston Churchill, who stayed at its Grand Hotel in the summer of 1949 and also at the small San Vigilio hotel, then managed by fellow Englishman Leonard Walsh. The official purpose of his stay was to paint lake landscapes, but malicious newspapers wrote that Churchill was there to get back his correspondence with Mussolini which may have been concealed in the Duce’s safes in nearby Salò. Further buildings of interest include the former Casino, built in 1909 in Art Nouveau style, and the André Heller Botanical Garden with its sculptures by artists such as Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Mimmo Paladino, Erwin Novak and Susanne Schmoegner. Lastly, there is Torre San Marco (ex Torre Ruhland), built in the early 20th century by German industrialist Richard Langensiepen and used as an observatory. It was bought by D’Annunzio in 1925 who gave its current Venetian appearance.
