Villa Fiordaliso

The neoclassical styled Villa Fiordaliso sits on the lake-front surrounded by a beautiful park. The idyllic location was where Gabriele D’Annunzio pondered over his project to monumentalise himself in Italian history, and where Musollini came to meet his lover towards the end of the Second World War.

Now open as a hotel and restaurant, you can gain an intimate look in to where these fiercely powerful figures spent their most personal moments. Heading north you will reach the Italian Vittoriale (the shrine of Italian victories), home of the famous poet Gabriele d'Annunzio in Gardone Riviera.

The Vittoriale is a complex of buildings with bizarre shapes, surrounded by beautiful gardens with water games, hosting various works, the war museum, a rich library and the amazing open-air theatre which hosts the Summer Festival, a rich Season of Shows.

From here, just in a few time we arrive at a large botanical park Giardino Botanico Hruska, a private garden, realized in 1912 by another famous person of Gardone Riviera, the naturalist Arthur Hruska. He was dentist of the Russian sovereign, he had a great passion: travelling round the world and so he arranged this garden. It is divided in various sectors, for example Japanese part with little ponds and a typical Japanese vegetation, followed by an Indian sector, an Dolomiti part of garden, where you can find a 13m high rock with gaps and rifts and three waterfalls.

Since 1980 the famous Austrian Andrè Heller is the owner of this wonderful property. The completely restored park today has about 2.000 different species of trees and plants, many exotic and alp flowers, enriched with modern sculptures by Keith Haring and Mimmo Paladino