Friday 18 September, at the Parco di Villa Carrara Bottagisio in Bardolino, an institutional event titled “Tre sponde, un’unica identità culturale. Un lago cuore del mondo” was held to mark the signing of the Patto per il Lago di Garda. The ceremony also marked a decisive step in the process of Bardolino and the Lago di Garda being nominated as Italian Capital of Culture 2029, promoted by the Municipality of Bardolino as the lead authority together with the Comunità del Garda, the Consorzio Garda Unico and Destination Verona & Garda Foundation.
The agreement is a formal commitment to recognise the lake as a single cultural heritage, beyond the administrative and regional borders that split its shores between Veneto, Lombardy and Trentino. During the evening, after institutional representatives had already signed in the previous weeks via a protocolled administrative act, the signing became a collective gesture: one by one, in front of a panel set up in the park, over 200 people affixed their signatures to the text of the Patto. The signatories included not only mayors and local administrators, but also cultural and sports associations, economic and production-sector operators, and citizens present.
Symbolic delegations from the Garda area also took part, with boats carrying representatives from Brescia and Trentino docking at the Bardolino jetty in the late afternoon, arriving from the Garda as the route on the lake has long been. Support was also announced by Alberto Stefani, President of the Regione Veneto, and Luca Zaia, President of the Regional Council of Veneto. The next scheduled step is Wednesday 23 September, when the nomination dossier will be submitted to the Ministry of Culture; it was prepared by architect Daniela Cavallo, project director. According to Mayor Daniele Bertasi, the Patto does not end depending on the outcome of the bid, describing it as “the commitment to work together, with one voice,” with water highlighted as the central element linking the three shores through languages, trades, architecture, trade routes and forms of coexistence.
Italian Version
