Boat tour of Garda Island and Punta San Vigilio, everyone on board
Between history and nature
This boat tour will make you discover the hidden beauties of the southern Brescia and southern Veronese shores of Lake Garda and our beloved Sirmione peninsula. You will discover and admire islands fascinating in history and nature, a medieval fortress perched on a mountain, a Roman villa, the bucolic port of San Vigilio, Villa Canossa, the castle of Sirmione and you will see where the thermal waters of Sirmione emerge from the bowels of the Earth. Let our captains accompany you and tell you ancient stories full of charm.
Tour duration
150 minutes
Itinerary
Valentino port, Sirmione Del Garda
Departure
The mooring port where our tours depart is Porto Valentino in the historic center of Sirmione.
Villa Callas
Stop
1
From the boat we could admire Villa Callas which was the home of the famous soprano singer of Hellenic origin. The villa was purchased by Giovanni Battista Meneghini to spend family holidays on our magnificent and romantic Sirmione peninsula. The villa was sold after the separation of the two spouses and today it is a private home that cannot be visited. Arriving near the villa on foot along Via Caio Valerio Catullo, you will find a marble plaque commemorating the stay of Maria Callas and her husband during the 1950s.
Grotte di Catullo
Stop
2
In the next stop of our boat tour we find the remains of the Roman villa known for centuries as the Grotte di Catullo.
To date, the Villa is a fundamental testimony of the Roman period in the Sirmione area and is the most impressive example of a Roman villa present in northern Italy.
Fortress of Manerba
Stop
3
The Manerba fortress perched on the top of a hill on the Brescia side of Lake Garda is a site of significant medieval archaeological importance. From our boat, during the tour, we could admire the medieval fortifications and the magnificent nature that surrounds it.
Rabbit Island
Stop
4
The rabbit island or San Biagio island is a private island famous for the particular characteristic of transforming into a peninsula when the tide of the lake goes down, allowing tourists to walk along a narrow strip of land that emerges connecting it to the mainland. A particular place immersed in the fairy tale of Lake Garda.
Garda Island
Stop
5
The island of Garda, visited over the centuries by illustrious figures such as San Francesco D’Assisi, Sant’ Antonio da Padova, San Bernardino da Siena and Dante Alighieri; theater of fascinating historical events that made it a hermitage for hermit monks, a refuge for pirates as well as having also been the headquarters of a Savoy garrison at the dawn of the Kingdom of Italy, today it houses a villa built in the 19th century in neo-Gothic Venetian style, framed as in a painting by green nature and the blue Lake Garda. You will discover, on board our boat, a fascinating place from an unusual perspective, the island of Garda, a pearl of undisputed beauty.
Punta San Vigilio
Stop
6
A unique place frozen in time. Punta San Vigilio, a small peninsula in the municipality of Garda, is one of the most romantic places on the whole of Lake Garda thanks to its characteristic port, the historic inn and the lush nature that frames it. Punta San Vigilio is an almost dreamlike place, it seems like it came from the brush tip of some romanticist painter. Come with us, with this boat tour, to discover it and you will be fascinated.
Villa Canossa
Stop
7
Villa Canossa, admirable only from the perspective of the lake as it is a private villa that cannot be visited, was inhabited by Countess Alessandra di Rudini, descendant of the Sicilian princes Paternò. The Countess will go down in history, after becoming a widow at the age of 23, for having undertaken a romantic relationship with Gabriele D’Annunzio. She is a cultured, beautiful and rebellious countess who will be disinherited by her father due to the couple’s follies and prodigality. Alessandra will retreat to reflect in her villa after being left by her D’Annunzio with whom she had gone to live in Florence and subsequently she will become a nun until her death in Paray le Monial in France.
Garda
Stop
8
We will visit the beautiful village that gives its name to our magnificent Lake Garda. From the motorboat we will be able to admire the lakeside promenade and the characteristic village on the Veronese coast of the lake.
Sirmione thermal spring
Stop
9
Through a journey of over 20 years, the water that rains within the impluvium basin of Monte Baldo at 800 meters above sea level, is channeled into the depths of the earth at 2500m below sea level, enriching itself with mineral substances and increasing its temperature until it gushes to the surface at 69° centigrade. From the boat we could see the exact point of the lake where the water re-emerges from the depths of the rock where, to signal its presence, there will be air bubbles and the classic smell of the spa.
Scaliger castle of Sirmione
Stop
10
The Castle dates back to around 1278 and was built by Mastino I della Scala, lord of Verona, on the remains of an ancient Roman fortification. It was a focal point of the Scaliger system of defense and control of Lake Garda thanks to its territorial location on the border, in the middle of the lake. The Castle with its dock is a rare case of fortification intended solely for port use. In fact, the castle was not used as a residential place. The place is very suggestive and can take the visitor into an ancient and fairy-tale world. Regarding this, a legend about the Castle is known: that of Ebengardo and Arice.
Passage under the castle bridges
Stop
11
If the conditions of the lake allow it, we will pass with the boat under the low bridges of the castle which act as a passage to the historic center of Sirmione. Watch your head!
Return to the Valentino port
Stop
12
We return to the Valentino port with new memories and emotions that will remain indelible in our minds forever.
