Gardone Riviera
Western shore
Grand hotels, a poet's eccentric estate and the best gardens on the lake
Western shore · Lombardy
Best Things to Do in Magasa
Thatched hay barns, a high meadow plateau and the quietest walking on the whole lake
Magasa is a village of about 120 people at nearly 1,000 metres at the head of the Valvestino valley, an hour’s drive from the lake by a road that was Austrian until 1918. It has one bar-shop, a church, a few dozen stone houses and, four kilometres above it, the plateau of Cima Rest, where hay barns with steep thatched roofs stand in the meadows like something from a Nordic postcard. Above that the grass runs up to Monte Denervo and then to the limestone ridge of Tombea and Caplone at nearly 2,000 metres. You will hear cowbells, wind and very little else.
This is not a base for a lake holiday. There is no beach, no ferry, no bus worth relying on and no restaurant open every night of the week; you come by car, for a long day or a couple of nights in a converted barn, and you come to walk. If that sounds right, it is one of our favourite places in the whole Garda area. Below is what we do up here, and how it fits with Valvestino, the reservoir and hamlets on the way up, and with the lake towns below such as Gargnano.
Things to do in Magasa
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01 Sightseeing
Walk among the thatched fienili at Cima Rest
- Cima Rest, 4 km above Magasa by a narrow paved road
- 1–2 hours
- Free
Cima Rest is a rolling meadow plateau at about 1,200 metres, and its fienili are the reason most people make the drive: stone hay barns with roofs of rye straw pitched so steeply that snow slides straight off, some of them centuries old, a handful still used for hay and summer cattle, others restored as holiday lets. A gravel track and mown paths loop between them; it takes an hour to see the lot at a stroll. Come in late June and the hay is being cut around you, come in October and the larches on the slopes above have turned.
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02 Outdoors
Hike from Cima Rest up to Monte Denervo
- Trailhead at the Cima Rest car park
- 2–3 hours return
- Free
The easiest summit in the area and the best return on effort: a marked path climbs from the top of the plateau through pasture and larch to the grassy dome of Monte Denervo at 1,461 metres, about 300 metres of ascent on a good track. From the top you look east over the whole Tremosine plateau to Monte Baldo and, on a clear day, down a slice of the lake itself. Cows graze the summit in summer, so keep dogs on a lead. It is one of the walks in our pick of the best Lake Garda walks.
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03 Outdoors
Climb Monte Tombea and Monte Caplone
- From Cima Rest, marked CAI paths
- Full day, 6–7 hours
- Free
The big walk from Cima Rest is the limestone ridge to the north: Monte Tombea at about 1,950 metres and its neighbour Caplone a little higher, with roughly 800 metres of climbing on marked but rocky paths. Tombea is famous among botanists for Saxifraga tombeanensis, a white-flowered plant that grows on these cliffs and almost nowhere else, and the ridge was the Austrian frontier until 1918, so you pass old military positions on the way. The views take in Lago di Ledro, the Brenta Dolomites and the Adamello glaciers. Not for wet weather or poor visibility.
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04 Food & wine
Eat Tombea cheese, spiedo and polenta on the plateau
- Cima Rest and Magasa village
- 2 hours
- €20–35 a head
Tombea is a hard, straw-yellow mountain cheese made in the summer malghe above Magasa and Valvestino from raw milk, aged for months, and protected by a Slow Food presidium because so few people still make it. The agriturismi and rifugio-style restaurants at Cima Rest and in the village serve it shaved over polenta, in gnocchi and on a board with local salami and honey, alongside spiedo (spit-roast meat) at weekends. Opening is seasonal and mostly Friday to Sunday outside July and August; ring ahead rather than turning up hungry.
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05 Evening
Stargaze at the Cima Rest observatory
- Cima Rest plateau
- 2 hours
- Small charge on public nights, otherwise free
Cima Rest is one of the darkest places within an hour of the lake, with no street lights, no town glow and a clear horizon, which is why a group of amateur astronomers built a small observatory on the plateau. From May to October (8 May to 10 October in 2026) they open it to the public on booked evenings for a guided session with the telescope and a talk on what’s up that month; booking is through the Val Vestino tourist office, so check the dates before you drive up. Even without the observatory, lying on the grass at midnight in August during the Perseids is worth the night up here on its own.
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06 Culture & history
Explore Magasa village and the hamlet of Cadria
- Magasa and Cadria
- 1 hour
- Free
Magasa itself is a tight cluster of stone houses with wooden balconies, exterior stairs and the odd fresco, arranged around the parish church and a fountain, with a small war memorial that records how close the front came. Cadria, its one hamlet, sits a little lower on the road and is even quieter. Both were Austrian, in the Tyrol, until 1918 and only became part of Brescia province in 1934, which explains the Trentino look of the roofs and the dialect. Walk it slowly; there is a bar with a shop counter for a coffee and a slice of cake, and not much else.
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07 Family
Picnic and paddle with children on the Cima Rest meadows
- Cima Rest
- Half a day
- Free
For families the plateau is a big, safe, car-free field: flat mown paths between the barns, cows behind wire fences, a stream to dam, wooden benches and a couple of picnic tables in the shade. Small children can manage the loop round the fienili and a short way up the Denervo path; older ones can be sent to count the barns (there are more than 30). Bring everything you need, as there is no shop on the plateau and the restaurants are not always open on weekdays.
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08 Outdoors
Snowshoe the plateau in winter
- Cima Rest
- 2–3 hours
- Free; snowshoe hire about €10–15 a day
Between December and March Cima Rest is usually under snow, the barns look like they were designed for it, and the meadows become a gentle snowshoe circuit with the Denervo track as the harder option. The road up from Magasa is ploughed but narrow and icy in the shade, so winter tyres or chains are needed by law, and almost everything on the plateau is shut apart from the occasional weekend opening. Hire snowshoes at lake level before you come, there is nowhere up here to get them.
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09 Outdoors
Cycle the climb from Gargnano to Magasa
- SP9 from Gargnano
- Half a day
- Free; road-bike hire in Gargnano or Salò from about €35 a day
Road cyclists know the Valvestino road as one of the best climbs on the lake: roughly 20 km from the harbour at Gargnano to Magasa with around 1,000 metres of ascent, through tunnels, along the green reservoir and up hairpins with almost no traffic, then the last four kilometres to Cima Rest as a sting in the tail. Gradients are steady rather than brutal. It is in our pick of the best Lake Garda bike rides; e-bike riders should note there is nowhere to charge on the way up.
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10 Sightseeing
Drive down to Lago di Valvestino and the hamlets
- Valvestino valley, below Magasa
- Half a day
- Free
The road you came up on deserves a slower look on the way down. Below Magasa it drops to the reservoir of Lago di Valvestino, a green finger of water between forested walls that looks more like a Norwegian fjord than an Italian lake, and the side roads climb to the five hamlets of the Valvestino comune: Turano, Armo, Bollone, Moerna and Persone, each with a church and a few houses. We have written it up separately in our guide to Valvestino; from Magasa it is a natural half-day loop.
Getting there
By car
There is no other way. From the A4 we leave at Brescia Est or Desenzano, follow the western shore to Gargnano and take the SP9 signposted Valvestino: about 12 km of tunnels and hairpins to the Ponte Cola dam, along the reservoir to Molino di Bollone, then about 8 km up to Magasa. Cima Rest is a few kilometres above the village. The SP9 was closed for weeks in 2025 after landslides and more rockfall work was announced for late summer 2026, so we check provincia.brescia.it before driving up. The Cima Rest car park is a small unpaved area for about a dozen cars with a 6.5 m length limit, so no motorhomes.
By ferry
None. The nearest Navigazione Laghi pier is Gargnano, and from there you still need a car, a taxi or strong legs.
By bus and train
The nearest station is Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione on the Milan–Venice line; Arriva buses run to Salò, and the R-Link 202-1 on to Gargnano. From Gargnano the LN015 serves Magasa (stop at the turn for Cima Rest) on the school timetable, 14 September 2026 to 8 June 2027, Monday to Saturday, but only one run a day each way reaches the village and nothing runs on Sundays or up to Cima Rest.
Checked against the operators’ own websites on 28 September 2026. Timetables and prices change every season: confirm times with Navigazione Laghi and the bus operator before you travel.
Magasa in pictures
Good to know
Is Magasa worth visiting?
Yes, for walkers and for anyone curious about the mountain side of Lake Garda, but only with a car and only with the right expectations. The thatched barns of Cima Rest and the walk up Monte Denervo make a superb day out from the western shore. There are no shops, no beach and few places to eat, so it is a day trip or a quiet couple of nights, not a holiday base in the usual sense.
Can I get to Magasa without a car?
Not realistically. The Arriva LN015 runs from Gargnano into the Valvestino on the school timetable, Monday to Saturday, but only one run a day each way actually reaches Magasa, nothing runs on Sundays or up to Cima Rest, and there is no boat. A taxi from Gargnano or Salò is possible if you agree a return time. Cyclists in good shape can ride up the SP9 from Gargnano, which is how quite a few visitors arrive; see our bike rides guide.
How long should I spend in Magasa?
A long day covers the drive up through the Valvestino, the loop round the fienili, Monte Denervo and a late lunch. Two nights in one of the converted barns or an apartment in the village lets you add the Tombea ridge, a sunrise on the plateau and an evening at the observatory. Any longer and you would want to be moving on to Tremosine or the lake for variety.
Is Magasa good for families?
For a day, yes: the plateau is flat, traffic-free and full of cows, streams and barns to run between, and the Denervo path is short enough for school-age children. For a longer stay it is hard work with small ones, because there is nothing to do in bad weather, no pool or beach, and the nearest ice cream is a long way down the hill. Families who camp or self-cater and like walking do fine.
Where can I eat in Magasa?
At one of the agriturismi or the rifugio-style restaurant on the Cima Rest plateau, or at the bar in the village, all serving Tombea cheese, polenta, gnocchi and roast meats at fair prices. The catch is opening hours: outside July and August most open only at weekends, and even in summer a weekday evening can find everything shut. Ring ahead, carry a picnic as backup, and for dinner drive down to Gargnano, which is in our restaurants guide.
When is the best time of year to visit Magasa?
Late May to June, when the meadows are full of flowers and the hay is being cut, and September to early October, when the air is clear and the larches turn. July and August are pleasant, being 10 degrees cooler than the lake, and it is when the restaurants are most reliably open; the observatory's programme runs on booked evenings from May to October. Winter is beautiful under snow but needs winter tyres and brings almost total closure; spring can be wet and muddy until mid-May.
Where can I stay in Magasa?
A few of the Cima Rest fienili have been converted into simple self-catering lets, which is the most memorable option, plus a couple of agriturismi with rooms and some apartments in the village. Book well ahead for summer weekends, as there are only a handful of beds in total. Many people stay down on the lake instead and drive up for the day; our Lake Garda holidays guide covers the western shore bases.
Magasa or Valvestino, which should I visit?
Both, in one loop, since the same road serves them. Valvestino is the lower comune with the reservoir, the hamlets and the churches, best seen from the car with short stops. Magasa is the top of the valley, with the barns and the walking. If you only have a morning, drive to Cima Rest and see the Valvestino lake through the windscreen on the way; if you have a day, stop everywhere. Our Valvestino guide has the lower valley.
Can you swim in Lago di Valvestino on the way up?
We wouldn't. It is a hydroelectric reservoir with a working dam, the water is cold and the level rises and falls, and although we have found no published rule either way, we have never seen anyone swimming or boating on it and would not try. Photograph it from the lay-bys and the bridge instead. For a swim after a day on the mountain, head back down to the pebble beaches at Gargnano or Bogliaco, which are in our guide to the best Lake Garda beaches.
When can I visit the Cima Rest observatory?
The Osservatorio Astronomico di Cima Rest opens on set evenings from 8 May to 10 October 2026, with a two-hour outdoor session led by the Salò astronomers' association starting at dusk. Booking is compulsory through the Val Vestino tourist office at Molino di Bollone (+39 0365 745060, info@visitvalvestino.it). Bring a torch and a jacket; the observatory is a 20-minute walk from the little church at Cima Rest.
Is the ethnographic museum in the Cima Rest barns open?
In 2026 the Museo Etnografico della Valvestino, housed in one of the thatched fienili, opened at weekends only until 13 September: Saturdays 19.00–20.00 and Sundays 10.30–12.30 and 13.30–17.30. Admission is free, as it is at the other Ecomuseo sites in the valley.
Photo credits
- "Osservatorio Astronomico di Cima Rest - panoramio" by Gianluca Cogoli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "Ingresso Superiore Martì - panoramio" by Gianluca Cogoli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "Fienile - panoramio (4)" by Gianluca Cogoli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "Fienile1" by Cadria at Italian Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "MulinodelSomalàf" by Cadria, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "Roccolo - panoramio" by Gianluca Cogoli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "Cadria, chiesa di San Lorenzo by drone 03" by Syrio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "Camiolodifondo, Celi" by Cadria, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
- "FieniledelFo3" by Cadria, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
