The GardaNotes column Accadde sul Garda 21 settembre looks back at artistic, literary and historical events connected with Lake Garda on 21 September and in the same days of the month, ranging from the incident that nearly led to the arrest of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Malcesine on suspicion of Austrian spying, to Maria Callas finding autumn peace in Sirmione, the rediscovery of the sculptural works of Domenico Ghidoni in Lonato, and performances staged at the Vittoriale degli Italiani.
In mid-September 1786, during Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s memorable descent toward Verona described in Viaggio in Italia, a sudden calm forced his boat to land at Malcesine. Struck by the view from the rock over the water, the German poet sat in a secluded courtyard and began sketching the castle. The locals became suspicious, and a guard seized the drawing; Goethe was taken before the Venetian podestà Gregorio Montanari, accused of conducting topographical reconnaissance for military espionage. The misunderstanding was later resolved thanks to the intervention of a local corporal who, having worked in Frankfurt, recognized Goethe’s accent and intellectual bearing and turned the detention into a warm literary conversation within the Palazzo Pretorio.
On 21 September 2022, the morainic area around Lonato marked Domenico Ghidoni (1857-1920), a Lombard verist sculptor born in Lonato del Garda. A student of Enrico Butti at the Accademia di Brera, Ghidoni is remembered for the monumental pair of stone lions created for the monument to the Ten Days of Brescia in Piazza della Loggia. The same date also features Maria Callas’s autumn retreat: after the summer season at the Arena di Verona, she went to Villa Meneghini in Sirmione for rest and balance before the autumn openings at La Scala in Milan, enjoying quiet walks at sunset along the olive-lined lakeside toward the Grotte di Catullo with her poodles. And on 21 September 2023, the open-air amphitheatre of the Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera hosted the first staging of a multidisciplinary production marking the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the most famous underwater statues from classical antiquity, presented through a dialogue between Magna Graecia archaeology, historical storytelling and musical suggestions in the setting of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s estate.
Italian Version
