Lombardy · Brescia
Limone sul Garda
The northernmost lemon-growing town in the world, at 46 degrees north on the western shore of Lake Garda, reached by road only in 1932.
Known for
LIMONAIE
Stone-pillared lemon greenhouses, used from the seventeenth century to export citrus north into Austria, Poland and Russia.
APOA-1 MILANO
Mutant apolipoprotein traced to Giovanni Pomarelli in the eighteenth century, carried by about forty descendants and linked to longevity.
THE GARDESANA
The cliff road to Riva del Garda, finished in 1932, ended centuries of isolation when the town was reachable only by boat or mule track.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Why come
Limone sul Garda sits on the western shore of Lake Garda at the foot of vertical limestone cliffs, the northernmost commercial lemon-growing town in the world at almost 46 degrees north. The Latin limes, meaning border, gave the place its name; the Bettoni counts gave it its industry. From the seventeenth century, limonaie, stone-pillared greenhouses heated and covered through winter, allowed lemons to be exported to Austria, Germany, Poland and Russia.
The road to Riva del Garda, the Gardesana Occidentale, was carved into the cliff and finished in 1932; until then the town reached the outside world by boat or mule track. In 1974 a Milanese pharmacologist traced a mutant apolipoprotein, ApoA-1 Milano, to a single eighteenth-century resident, Giovanni Pomarelli. Roughly forty of his descendants in town carry the variant, which suppresses cardiovascular disease and helps a handful of residents past one hundred.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Limone sul Garda’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
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What to see
Limonaia del Castèl
Restored seventeenth-century lemon greenhouse on stone pillars above the lake, demonstrating the heated wooden cover that protected the trees through winter.
Chiesa di San Benedetto
Eighteenth-century parish church on the lake front, with a single nave and Baroque altars rebuilt over an older medieval foundation.
Centro storico
Tight grid of stone alleys between the old harbour and the cliff, with narrow porticoes that survive from the pre-road fishing and citrus village.
Lungolago
Lakefront promenade running below the cliff face, with views east across the lake to Monte Baldo and the Veronese shore.
Ciclopista del Garda
Cantilevered cycle path bolted to the cliff above the SS45bis, opened in 2018, running south toward Capo Reamol.
The slow-trip planner
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We recommend
Where to eat and stay
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to — a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Senso Lake Garda Alfio GhezziRistorante
Senso Lake Garda Alfio Ghezzi carries one Michelin star.
EALA My Lakeside DreamHotel
Two Michelin Keys, at EALA My Lakeside Dream.
Living here
- Population 1,130
- Off the beaten pathi
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Nearest airport Verona, 1 h 33 min drive
- Regional capital Milano, 2 h 25 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
The numbers
- Elevation: 65 m
- Population: 1,130
- Surface area: 23.03 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Close by
More towns near Limone sul Garda
Riva del Garda
Province: Trento
The north tip of Lake Garda at 73 metres, where the Trentino mountains close in on the water and a Habsburg port town stayed bilingual into the twentieth century.
Tenno
Province: Trento
A hillside commune at 428 metres above Lake Garda, with a medieval stone hamlet, a turquoise lake, and the northernmost olive groves in Europe.
Bleggio Superiore
Province: Trento
A scattered Giudicarie commune whose hilltop hamlet of Rango holds the Christmas markets, with a Slow Food walnut grown on the terraces below.
Toscolano-Maderno
Province: Brescia
Twin lakeside villages on the western shore of Garda, paper mill suppliers to the Republic of Venice from the 14th century onward.
Tignale
Province: Brescia
A six-hamlet commune on a high terrace above Lake Garda's western shore, anchored by a clifftop sanctuary and the last working limonaie north of Salò.
🎨 Borghi più belli d'Italia
More Borghi più belli d'Italia towns in Lombardy
Bagolino
Province: Brescia
A mountain village at 778 meters in the Valle del Caffaro, with a three-day February carnival of masked dancers and violins.
Bellano
Province: Lecco
An eastern Lake Como town where the Pioverna cut a gorge through fifteen million years of rock before reaching the lake.
Bienno
Province: Brescia
A medieval ironworking village in the Val Camonica, where water hammers driven by the Grigna stream have shaped wrought iron since the 1200s.
Cassinetta di Lugagnano
Province: Milano
A Naviglio Grande commune west of Milan with fifteen ville di delizia and Italy's first zero-growth urban plan, adopted in 2007.
Castellaro Lagusello
Province: Mantova
A walled medieval borgo south of Lake Garda, ringed by 13th-century stone walls and overlooking a small heart-shaped natural lake that gives the village its second name and most-photographed silhouette.