A majestic succession of buildings on the lake, and splendid aristocratic halls with frescoed ceilings and stuccoes, this is a Belle Époque masterpiece with touches of Art Nouveau by the German architects Billing and Vittali. In 1901-02, the Nobel laureate Heyse set two of his Tales of Lake Garda here. Ministers, ambassadors, scientists, lovers and even Mussolini enjoyed blissful hours here waiting to be received at the Vittoriale by D’Annunzio, who himself stayed here in 1921. The hotel opened Gardone to international tourism: Churchill came to paint in the park and it inspired some of the finest pages by Nabokov and Maugham.
