Autumn at Lake Garda: Slow Travel, Great Wine, and Beautiful Landscapes

The temperatures are still pleasantly mild, the vineyards are dressed in beautiful autumn colours, and the entire region can be explored at a much slower pace than during the busy summer months. This is Lake Garda in autumn.

Many people think of Lake Garda as a summer destination. Here at Podere Selva Capuzza, however, we often encourage our guests to visit during autumn instead. It is the season when you can truly slow down, leave the crowds behind, and discover what makes this corner of northern Italy so special.

Discover the Region Through a Glass of Wine

A visit to our winery is much more than a tour through vineyards and barrel cellars. We love sharing the story of these moraine hills, explaining why they produce such distinctive wines and what it means to make wine here, generation after generation.

Our wine tastings take place beneath the winery's portico, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves—an ideal setting to experience the landscape in every sip.

Autumn is also the season for Profumi di Mosto, one of the area's most anticipated wine events. This year's edition will take place on 4 October 2026. Advance booking is required, clicking here.

Many guests arrive already familiar with Lugana. During their visit, they also discover San Martino della Battaglia, Groppello, and the many stories behind these local wines—stories that rarely appear in travel guides.

Explore the Moraine Hills on Foot or by Bike

The moraine hills surrounding Desenzano del Garda are among the most authentic landscapes of the Lake Garda region.

Winding roads, vineyards, cypress trees, and panoramic views create the perfect setting for hiking and cycling. One of the best-known routes is the Ciclovia del Sole which runs from Peschiera del Garda to Mantua.

At Selva Capuzza, we organise guided cycling tours with experienced local guides, often combined with hands-on cooking classes celebrating regional cuisine. These relaxed, family-friendly experiences naturally include our award-winning wines, together with a tasting of an older vintage. While our wines are enjoyable when young, bottle ageing allows them to develop remarkable complexity and character.

Browse our events calendar or contact us to create a personalised experience.

If you enjoy hiking, Monte Baldo is an excellent autumn destination. Its spectacular foliage and sweeping views over Lake Garda make every walk unforgettable. You can reach the summit via the charming Prada–Costabella chairlift or follow an easy hiking trail that takes around two hours. We'd be delighted to help you plan your excursion and recommend the best route.

Autumn offers ideal temperatures for outdoor activities, making every walk or bike ride especially enjoyable. It's also the perfect season to stop for photographs or linger over lunch in a traditional local trattoria.

The View That Will Surprise You

There is one place we recommend to every guest, even those staying for just a weekend.

The Tower of San Martino della Battaglia is only a few minutes from our estate and remains one of the area's hidden gems. Visitors often arrive because of its connection to the Italian Risorgimento, but they stay for the breathtaking panorama.

From the top, you'll enjoy sweeping views across Lake Garda, the surrounding mountains, the vineyard-covered moraine hills, and the peaceful countryside stretching into the distance. In autumn, the colours make the scenery even more striking.

The climb itself is well worth taking slowly. The staircase is lined with impressive frescoes depicting the Battle of San Martino, creating an immersive historical experience.

Did you know that the idea behind the Red Cross was born here? If not, you'll have to visit—we'd be happy to tell you the story.

The Best Time to Visit Lake Garda's Historic Towns

Desenzano, Salò, Sirmione, Peschiera del Garda and Lazise all take on a completely different atmosphere once summer comes to an end.

One of our favourite places is the Grotte di Catullo, the impressive remains of a Roman villa at the tip of the Sirmione peninsula. Overlooking the turquoise waters of Lake Garda with the mountains beyond, it is one of the region's most spectacular archaeological sites and an unforgettable place for photography.

A short walk away is Jamaica Beach, where smooth white limestone slabs create crystal-clear pools that often remind visitors of a Caribbean shoreline. It's a wonderful place for a walk in every season.

Autumn is also the ideal time to drive along both the eastern and western Gardesana roads. With lighter traffic, you can stop wherever a view catches your eye.

Don't miss the charming inland villages either, including Borghetto sul Mincio, Solferino and Castellaro Lagusello, or the famous Strada della Forra, described by Winston Churchill as the "eighth wonder of the world."

Photo Credit: Jacek Chachurski

The Luxury of Doing Nothing

Many of our guests return after a day of sightseeing and tell us the same thing:

"Tomorrow we're going to slow down."

We couldn't agree more.

That's why we're pleased to offer our guests a 10% discount at QC Terme Palazzo Arzaga, just twenty minutes from our estate. After a day spent walking, cycling or wine tasting, a few relaxing hours among thermal pools, saunas and wellness facilities are the perfect way to end the day.

Autumn naturally encourages this slower rhythm: taking your time, switching off, and forgetting about schedules.

Seasonal Flavours Around the Table

Dinner is much more than the final meal of the day. It's the moment to relax, share stories, and reflect on everything you've experienced.

At Cascina Capuzza, our cuisine celebrates local ingredients and the changing seasons. Autumn brings mushrooms, pumpkin, truffles, carefully selected meats, our own Garda extra virgin olive oil, and other regional specialities, all thoughtfully paired with wines from our cellar to enhance every flavour.

Autumn at Lake Garda, Our Way

The golden colours of Monte Baldo, vibrant sunsets over the lake, a glass of red wine, and a bike ride through crisp autumn air—this is the Lake Garda we love to share with our guests.

Come and discover a quieter, more authentic side of the region, and you may find that you don't need to travel to the other side of the world to experience something truly extraordinary.

A label, a story: our Luganas

For us at Selva Capuzza, a wine like Lugana, deeply connected to its territory and capable of surprising over time, could not have a label that was merely an aesthetic element: it had to become a story, a vision, a promise of evolution.

Lugana is a wine that challenges common assumptions: it is not created simply to be immediate, but to grow, mature, and transform.

Over the years it develops complexity, depth, and new aromatic nuances. From this idea the concept guiding the visual identity of our line was born: time.

TIME AS A SYMBOL

Time was not conceived as a straight line, but as a cycle—a continuous movement of transformation and return, just as happens in nature.

For this reason, the symbol that best represents this vision is the circle.

The circle recalls the rings in tree trunks, which preserve the memory of the seasons.

It evokes the succession of solar and lunar cycles, the rhythm of the harvest, the winter rest of the vine and its rebirth in spring.

It also refers to philosophical and scientific visions in which time is not only progression, but cyclic evolution, energy that renews itself.

From this reflection an essential and symbolic graphic identity was born, where the circle becomes the common thread linking the three expressions of our Lugana.

LUGANA - THE ENERGY OF GROWTH

“Lugana” represents the beginning of the evolutionary journey, a fresh and immediate wine, also symbolized by the greenish tones of its label.

On the label appear 7 circles, formed by green lines and accompanied by small green and yellow spheres, positioned in the lower left area.

It is a movement that suggests development, potential evolution, and energy taking shape.

It is the most immediate expression of time: continuous growth.

LUGANA SELVA - THE BALANCE OF ORIGIN

Selva is the heart of our story, born from the oldest vineyard, from which everything began.

Here time is not only growth, but also memory and stability.

The 11 central circles have a deeper color than those on the Lugana label, suggesting evolution.

The circles are yellow with brown filling points at their intersections, evoking balance and harmony.

The shapes meet, complete each other, and find a center: it is the conscious maturity of a wine that knows its roots.

LUGANA RISERVA MENASASSO - THE CONCENTRATION OF TIME

Lugana Riserva Menasasso represents the highest evolutionary potential: time gathering itself, deepening and transforming into substance and complexity.

On the label appear 13 circles, positioned in the upper right corner, gradually filling with color toward the core, with ochre-yellow tones surrounded by brown shades.

This is the final evolution of the color palette of our Lugana wines, representing maturity.

The movement suggests energy concentrating inward, an inner maturation that leads to depth and structure.

A COMMON THREAD: CIRCLE AND EARTH

The elements that unite the three labels are the circle, symbol of time, and color, which moves from greenish tones to yellow and finally to ochre.

Yellow symbolically recalls the clay soils that characterize the Lugana area, a fundamental component of the wine’s identity.

Present in all the labels—though interpreted in different ways—it becomes the tangible sign of the bond with the land.

Each bottle thus tells a different phase of time: growth, balance, maturation.

Three moments of a single journey, three expressions of the same soul.

Because Lugana is not only a wine to be enjoyed in the present, but a wine to be observed as it changes.

And its label, like a silent clock, preserves its rhythm.

A label, a story: Groppello and Chiaretto

Within Podere Selva Capuzza lies Borgo San Donino, a complex of holiday apartments whose name derives from the church located within it: the little Church of San Donino, a small jewel dating back to 1280, in the heart of the Lombard Romanesque period. It is a place that preserves not only spiritual memory, but also an artistic heritage made of symbols, stone, and silence. Among its architectural details, decorative motifs of clear Celtic origin emerge: interlaces, knots, and spirals that tell a story far older than its walls.

INTERLACES IN LOMBARD ROMANESQUE ART

In 13th-century Lombard Romanesque art, the influence of Celtic decorative motifs was well established, the result of a long cultural evolution. This was not an isolated phenomenon, but the outcome of successive layers: Gallo-Roman traditions, Lombard contributions, and influences from Romanesque Europe gradually merged, giving rise to a unique ornamental language.

The most widespread motifs are the so-called geometric interlaces—true “knots” that chase one another without beginning or end. They recall insular models of Celtic tradition, yet were reinterpreted by Lombard craftsmen, such as the renowned Comacine masters, who adapted them to their own artistic and symbolic context.

Alongside the interlaces, we often find zoomorphic elements: animals, fantastic creatures, sometimes stylized dragons, blending with the decorative lines until they become part of a single ornamental flow. It is an art form that never separates shape from meaning: every line is a story, every curve a symbol.

The last restoration of the little church dates back to 1911, and it is believed that the original designs were revived at that time. However, as this is a relatively small building, the available information is rather limited.

FROM STONE TO BOTTLE

Among the decorative motifs present in the Church of San Donino, we selected one to adopt as our emblem.

We created nothing new: that sign was already here, carved into stone for over seven centuries. We simply chose to listen to it.

Today, that ancient interlace has become the label of our Riviera del Garda Classico Rosso Groppello. A choice born from the desire to tell the story of the territory in its entirety: not only the vine and the wine, but also the history, the art, and the cultural roots that make this place unique.

A SYMBOL OF CONTINUITY

Like the interlaces carved in stone, wine too is the result of connections: between land and people, between past and present, between tradition and innovation.

An indigenous grape variety, vinified as in the past according to traditional and authentic practices: at Selva Capuzza, we produce Groppello as our grandparents did, without forcing techniques and with exclusively stainless steel vinification, in order to preserve and pass down knowledge deeply rooted in the land.

The Celtic knot, with its unbroken line, thus becomes a metaphor for our work: a thread that binds generations, safeguards memory, and looks toward the future.

Each bottle carries with it a fragment of that story carved in 1280. A label that is not merely aesthetic, but an authentic narrative of who we were and who we are.

Because sometimes it is enough to observe an ancient stone to understand that our identity had already been written, long before it was ever bottled.

For the Riviera del Garda Classico Chiaretto as well, we chose an image of the church: the colors of the symbol pair beautifully with the pink hues of the Chiaretto, creating a harmonious combination.

Zoomorphic elements in the church