The Vittoriale degli Italiani is the citadel that Gabriele d’Annunzio built between 1921 and 1938 on the hill of Gardone Riviera: a house-museum, a nine-hectare park with a warship set among the cypresses, a red marble amphitheatre, a mausoleum at the top and a series of museums that keep opening. With over 300,000 visitors a year (303,403 in 2025) it is among the most visited house-museums in the world, and in 2026 it reopened two of its landmark sites: the Mausoleo, restored and lit again, and the fully renovated Auditorium.
What the Vittoriale is, in brief
It isn’t a villa but an entire complex: buildings, avenues, squares, gardens, waterways and an open-air theatre, wanted by the poet as a «book of living stones» of his «inimitable life» and of Italy’s feats in the First World War. Since 2010 the Foundation has been privatised and receives no state funding; since 2008, under the presidency of Giordano Bruno Guerri, the «Riconquista» project has restored and reopened every area, also turning the park into an open-air museum of contemporary art: Mimmo Paladino’s Cavallo blu (Blue Horse) near the amphitheatre, Ugo Riva’s Angeli (Angels), Ettore Greco’s San Sebastiano at the base of the Mausoleo, Velasco Vitali’s dogs on its summit, Mario Botta’s fountain.
The Prioria: the poet’s house
It’s the heart of the visit and can only be seen with the Vittoriale’s in-house guide: about 35 minutes in groups of 10 people, with limited places throughout the day. It’s worth buying the ticket in advance, even the evening before, at bottega.vittoriale.it. Inside, every room is an obsession: the Stanza del Lebbroso (Leper’s Room), the Stanza delle Reliquie (Room of Relics), the Zambracca, the Officina (workshop) where he wrote, the Bagno Blu (Blue Bathroom) with hundreds of objects, the Stanza della Musica (Music Room). The Prioria has many architectural barriers; the park and several museums, on the other hand, are wheelchair accessible.
The park, the Nave Puglia and the Laghetto delle Danze
The park won the «Most Beautiful Park in Italy» award in 2012 and is now grown pesticide-free. You climb among cypresses and olive trees up to the Regia Nave Puglia, the bow of a cruiser donated by the Navy and set into the hillside, facing the Adriatic; further down is the Laghetto delle Danze, a violin-shaped pool fed by the Acqua Pazza and Acqua Savia streams, reopened in 2013 after works against slope instability. In the Roseto (Rose Garden) grow varieties from the twelve countries linked to the poet and the Rosa Gabriele d’Annunzio, gold medal at the Rome competition in 2020. Also not to be missed are the Arengo, the Piazzetta Dalmata, the Cortile degli Schiavoni and the Loggiati, opened to the public in recent years with views over the park and the lake. The park ticket is valid all day: you can leave and come back in. Dogs on a leash may enter the park, not the Prioria.
The Mausoleo and the Auditorium, reopened in 2026
Works on the two buildings began in October 2025, and in March 2026 the Mausoleo reopened to visitors after a complete restoration, with new lighting created together with A2A that makes it visible even after dark. It’s the highest point of the Vittoriale: three tiers of white stone, d’Annunzio’s tomb at the centre and around it those of the legionaries of Fiume, with the widest view over the gulf of Salò. The Auditorium, fully renovated, holds the SVA hanging from its ceiling, the biplane from the 1918 flight over Vienna, and hosts talks and concerts.
The museums and d’Annunzio’s hologram
Besides the Prioria there are the Museo d’Annunzio Segreto (Secret d’Annunzio Museum), with objects that stayed shut away in the house’s cupboards for decades; the Museo d’Annunzio Eroe (Hero d’Annunzio Museum), on his military record; the Museo «L’automobile è femmina» («The car is female»), with the Isotta Fraschini, the Alfa Romeo «Soffio di Satana» (Satan’s Breath) and the Fiat Tipo 4 from the 1919 entry into Fiume; the Museo della Santa Fabbrica dedicated to the architect Gian Carlo Maroni, set up in the Casseretto; and the Golfo Nascosto, an exhibition space beneath the theatre’s stands. The Saletta Cinematografo, with a single seat, is the smallest cinema in the world. Since 2025, in Casa Cama, there’s AVaDa: a fifty-year-old d’Annunzio recreated life-size, with his voice restored by artificial intelligence, who answers visitors’ questions.
The amphitheatre and the events
The Parlaggio, the amphitheatre designed by Maroni in 1931 and only completed in 2020 with its Verona red marble cladding, is the loveliest concert venue on the lake: the stage has Lake Garda at its back. Every summer it hosts the Tener-a-mente festival, which in 2025 topped 23,000 attendees with a packed theatre throughout, and over the years has brought here Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Paolo Conte, Ludovico Einaudi, Diana Krall, Jeff Beck with Johnny Depp. In summer there are also the Notturnali, evening openings with the park lit up.
Practical information
Where: Via del Vittoriale 12, Gardone Riviera (BS), 10 minutes from Salò; paid parking at the entrance. Hours: with summer hours (from 7 March 2026) the complex opens at 9 am and closes at 8 pm, ticket office until 7 pm; in winter the park opens 10 am–5 pm (weekends 9:30 am–5:30 pm) and the Prioria 10 am–4 pm. Tickets: different routes, from park-only to the full ticket with Prioria and museums; the Prioria must be booked in advance at bottega.vittoriale.it. The Vittoriale leads GardaMusei and takes part in the One Garda Ticket. Updated prices and hours at vittoriale.it, tel. +39 0365 296511, info@vittoriale.it. Place page: Il Vittoriale degli Italiani.
Vittoriale Lab: the call for under-25s
Since September 2026 the Vittoriale has opened Vittoriale Lab, a national ideas competition for under-25s: applications by 30 October 2026 and a residential workshop at the Vittoriale on 30–31 January 2027.
Source: 2026 institutional press release from the Fondazione Il Vittoriale degli Italiani (press office) and vittoriale.it. Updated 21 September 2026.
