But history is complicated on the shores of Lake Garda, a 143-square-mile body of water just west of Verona. In many ways, Garda—its crisp blue water reflecting the nearby Alps—feels like a curiously liminal space. Its northern shores were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until after World War I; even today, German-language street-signs dot the villages along its northern coast. Traces of Venetian architecture abound, remnants of the Venetian Empire’s conquering of several lakeside strongholds. On the southern shore, the beautiful town of Sermione boasts the extant grounds of a Roman villa named after the poet Catullus.

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