Lake Garda from the WaterSports Pier

A grand panorama of the upper lake

This camera looks south down the Alto Garda, the narrow northern reach where Lake Garda presses between near-vertical mountain walls. The water stretches toward the distant Brescia and Verona shores, giving a sense of the lake's remarkable fjord-like scale.

A world-class watersports basin

Riva del Garda is one of Europe's premier sailing and windsurfing destinations. The pier below the lens belongs to an active watersports center, where dinghies, windsurf boards and catamarans launch from the floating pontoons in the foreground.

Mountains of the Garda Trentino

The steep slopes rising on either side belong to the Garda Prealps, their limestone faces and forested flanks sheltering the lake. The thermal breezes funnelled between these ridges are what make the basin so prized by sailors and surfers.

The town of Riva del Garda

At the head of the lake sits Riva del Garda, a historic Trentino resort town with a medieval harbour and lakeside promenade. Its position at the meeting of alpine and Mediterranean landscapes draws visitors year-round.