For art and history lovers, Lake Garda offers an attractive leap into the past: medieval villages clustered between walls and towers, and Veronese and Venetian castles recall memorable battles and great leaders. The elegant villas, favoured by royalty and the scene of important historic events, are evidence of wealth and power in times of peace. In Gargnano the stately “Palazzo Bettoni”, designed in the late 18th century, is one of the most beautiful villas of the lake. The “Vittoriale degli Italiani”, the monumental citadel Gabriele d’Annunzio furnished and lived in during the 1930s in Gardone Riviera, constitutes an extraordinary and insuperable group of buildings, streets, squares, theatres, gardens, parks and streams. Not to be missed a visit to the remains of the Villa Romana in Sirmione known as the "Grotte di Catullo", the Latin poet who died in 54 B.C., which is the greatest example of a private building of aristocratic character in the whole of northern Italy.