Salò (Garda)
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Perhaps most famous as the capital of Benito Mussolini’s Republic of Salò during World War II, Salò on Lake Garda was far more attractive than I imagined given such a notorious past.
With its views across Lake Garda, and numerous chic shops and restaurants, Salò has a pleasant sophistication about that makes it appeal to tourists. The town was founded by the Romans and later fell under the reach of the Venetian Republic, and its Roman heritage is what attracted Mussolini to make it the nexus of his puppet state. Yet little remains of historic import because an earthquake destroyed the town in 1901. The compensation is that the flurry of building that followed was in the Liberty, or Art Nouveau, style, and many of the town’s colourful buildings look fabulous with scrolling stone flowers snaking up and down walls that are peppered with elaborate wrought-iron balconies, all adding a touch of graceful elegance to the general feel of the place, particularly along the promenade.
Salò's Duomo, or cathedral, on Vicolo Campanile was built in the fifteenth century and restored in the twentieth. Architecturally, it offers little of note but it is richly decorated with statues, carvings, including an impressive one of Christ on the Cross that dominates the aerial space, and numerous Renaissance paintings from the Veronese school, together with Brescian artist Girolamo ‘Romanino’ Romani’s Saint Anthony of Padua.
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Brescia Tourism
Review of Hotel Binaco di Salo
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