Discover Monte Baldo

The ridge runs roughly 40 kilometres north-south between Lake Garda and the Adige valley, reaching 2,218 metres at Cima Valdritta.

Its western flank drops directly into the lake, which is why the shore road is cut into cliffs at the northern end and why the mountain feels far higher than its altitude.

The vegetation zones stack visibly: olive and citrus on the lake shore, then chestnut and oak, then beech, then conifer, then alpine pasture and bare limestone. Few places in Europe compress that sequence into so little horizontal distance.

The summit ridge is karst -- fissured limestone, with little surface water and snow lying in the hollows into early summer.

The mountain's own climate is alpine and can be twenty degrees colder than the shore, with cloud forming on the ridge while the lake below is clear.