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Lake Garda, also known as Benaco, is the largest mirror of fresh water in Italy. It is of glacial origin, found to the south of the Alps, on the borders of the provinces of Brescia, Verona and Trento.The Mediterranean microclimate regulated by the presence of a large mass of water makes the cultivation of the olive possible, so much so as to define Garda as the last ramification of the Mediterranean in Europe.
The cultivation of the olive tree in the territories surrounding Lake Garda has ancient origins. The introduction of the olive into the territory is due to the Romans, or even, according to some theories, to the Etruscans passing through the Garda area on their way from the Mediterranean to the Rhine.
The noteworthy development of the cultivation takes place later though, in the post-Medieval period, until reaching the present 2,000 hectares. Today olive-growing in the Lower Garda and Valtenesi is specialized, the more rational installations have taken the place of those which were once known, other crops and forms of farming such as the polyconic vessel have substituted the old forms of free farming.
Among the varieties cultivated, apart from those spread all over the Italian territory such as Leccino, Frantoio, Pendolino and Moraiolo, there are native ones present, first among them the Casaliva, the Gargnà and other lesser varieties such as Miniol, Trep, Baia, Regina del Garda and Mitria.