The Vittoriale

During a spa cure in Sirmione, I visited various spots on Lake Garda, among them Gardone Riviera and its Vittoriale. Senior ticket € 11.00, which includes the full guided tour; unfortunately you can't take photographs inside. With the camper I parked in the first car park; I didn't dare go further and continued on foot, then I saw that shortly before the entrance there's another, much larger car park, and it's paid, and therefore supervised. The Vittoriale was the home of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who, before dying, donated it to the Italian people. Its design is due to the architect Giancarlo Maroni; the conversion works on the original house began in 1921 and lasted beyond the poet's death. In 1925 it was declared a national monument. The aeroplane of the flight over Vienna.

It occupies a very large plot of nine hectares, containing a complex of buildings, squares, avenues and fountains, among them the poet's house known as the Prioria, the War Museum, the Mausoleum, the MAS that carried out the Beffa di Buccari, the ship Puglia donated to him by the Italian Navy and set into the hillside, and an auditorium housing the aeroplane with which the writer made his famous flight over Vienna.