Arco trip planner

A vacation guide to the tiny town and castle of Arco on Italy's Lake Garda

The Arco Castle, or Rocca di Arco. (Photo by Aurelio Candido)

To me, the northern end of Lake Garda has always channeled the Middle Ages better than anywhere else in the lake district—especailly when its comes to castles.

A medieval fresco of the investiture of a knight in the Castello di Arco.My favorite castle is just 5km (3 miles) north of Riva del Garda in the village of Arco. (I like to rent a bike in Riva to tool around up here for a morning.)

The Castle of Arco

The 12th century Castello di Arco (tel. +39-0464-510-156) perches dramatcially atop a knobby outcropping of rock amid the greenery above the town of Arco.

It is not large, but it is in that perfect, Romantically sufficient state of near-total ruin that makes medieval castles so hauntingly thrilling to explore. It also has some amazing frescoes.

A medieval fresco of women shooting dice in the Castello di Arco.Of the imposing central keep topped by swallow-tailed battlements, only three walls remain. (It looks solid from down below, but once you're up there, the interior wall is simply missing.)

The only room in the complex to survive intact was filled with debris until 1986. When they cleared it, they discovered some excellent late 14th century frescoes depicting local nobles—some playing at board games, others playing at war.

Such secular frescoes from the 1300s are incredibly few and far between anywhere in Europe, and they can tell us more about daily life back then than a thousand Madonna and Childs on church altars.

A medeival fresco of nobles playing chess in the Castello di Arco.For example, when I said they show "nobles" playing, did you ever picture it was actually the women—not the men—who were playing chess and shooing dice in the strait-laced Middle Ages?

The castle is open daily 10am to 7pm (from 10am to 4pm Oct–Mar; in January, may open only on weekends). Last entry is one hour before closing. (Adm)

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