Lake Garda or Benaco, a hinge between three regions, Lombardy (province of Brescia), Veneto (province of Verona) Trentino-Alto Adige (province of Trento), is parallel to the Adige, from which it is divided by the Monte Baldo. Its main river is the river Sarca, the emissary is the Mincio. While the other great Lombard lakes are of glacial origin, for Lake Garda there is no certainty about its nature, whether glacial or tectonic. Tourism has always animated its shores, favored by a particularly mild climate.

Interested in prehistoric settlements since the Iron Age, the lake saw on its banks settlements of Ligurians, Venetians, Etruscans, Gauls. The Roman conquest involved the birth of a city. the flourishing of agriculture and the development of trade in this particularly favorable area, thanks to the navigability of its waters, to the contacts between the populations of the Po Valley and those of northern Europe.
After the barbarian invasions and the dominance of Charlemagne, the lake entered the aims of the Municipalities and of the subsequent Lordships of the Scaligeri and the Visconti. In the disputes between these two powerful was inserted the Community of Garda, an alliance of Lombard Municipalities of the lake that stood under the protection of the Republic of Venice.
Having become Hapsburg with Lombardo Veneto in 1815, Lake Garda became Italian except for the northern part, now the territory of Trentino, which was annexed only with the end of the First World War.

Fonte: Wikipedia