Best Things to Do in Tenno

Things to do in Tenno

1. 

   01 Beach & lake

   Swim in Lago di Tenno

   • Lago di Tenno, 3 km above Tenno village on the Ballino road
   • Half a day
   • Free; paid car park above the lake

   The lake sits at 570 m in a bowl of woods, fed from underground, which is why it is so clear and so startlingly blue-green. A small pebble beach and a lawn on the northern shore have a bar in summer and a place to hire a canoe or SUP; the water reaches 21–23°C by August, a few degrees warmer than Garda itself. When the level drops in late summer the little island joins the shore and you can walk out to it. A path circles most of the lake in about an hour.

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2. 

   02 Sightseeing

   Wander the stone lanes of Canale di Tenno

   • Canale di Tenno, 2 km from Tenno village
   • 1 hour
   • Free

   Canale is on the official list of Italy’s most beautiful villages and it earns it: a knot of grey stone houses, wooden balconies, arched passageways and steep cobbled lanes, no signs and a couple of cats. It was nearly abandoned by the 1960s until artists started restoring the houses, and a handful of people live here year-round. Ten minutes of walking covers it; an hour lets you find the washhouse, the tiny church and the terrace at the top with the lake far below.

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3. 

   03 Outdoors

   Stand in the spray at the Cascata del Varone

   • Via Cascata, Varone, on the road between Riva and Tenno
   • 1 hour
   • €7–8

   The waterfall that most visitors think of as Riva’s is actually in the commune of Tenno, on the road up from the lake. The stream from Lago di Tenno has cut a gorge nearly 100 m deep, and two walkways, one at the bottom and one higher up, take you inside the rock to face the drop. It has been open to visitors since 1874 and is at its most violent in April and May. Pair it with Riva, 3 km below, which we cover in our guide to Riva del Garda.

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4. 

   04 Culture & history

   Visit the Casa degli Artisti in Canale

   • Canale di Tenno, in the centre of the borgo
   • 45 minutes
   • Free or a few euros

   The house named after the painter Giacomo Vittone is the reason Canale survived. Since 1967 it has hosted artists in residence and it runs exhibitions of painting, sculpture and photography through the summer, with an open studio feel and a terrace that looks over the roofs to the lake. The shows change every few weeks and are usually free or a few euros, and the shop sells work by the artists who have stayed.

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5. 

   05 Family

   Time your trip for Rustico Medioevo in August

   • Canale di Tenno
   • An evening
   • Free entry, food and drink extra

   For about a week in the first half of August, Canale turns the clock back: villagers in medieval dress, craftspeople working wood, iron and wool in the lanes, jugglers, fire-eaters and drummers, and long tables of polenta, roast meat and local wine under the arches. It is a real village festival rather than a themed attraction, it is free to enter, and children love it. Parking is in fields below the village with a shuttle, so arrive early or expect a walk.

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6. 

   06 Outdoors

   Hike Monte Misone from Passo del Ballino

   • Passo del Ballino, 6 km above Tenno on the road to Fiavè
   • 4–5 hours
   • Free

   Misone is the 1,803 m summit above Tenno, and from the Passo del Ballino (760 m) a waymarked path climbs through beech woods and then open pasture to a grassy top with the whole of Lake Garda laid out to the south and the Brenta Dolomites to the north. Allow about 1,000 m of ascent and 2.5 to 3 hours up, less coming down. It is a proper mountain walk with no bar at the top, so take food and water. It sits alongside the Ponale and Busatte paths in our pick of the best Lake Garda walks.

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7. 

   07 Culture & history

   Find the frescoes at San Lorenzo and look up at the castle

   • Frapporta, 1 km from Tenno village
   • 1 hour
   • Free

   In the hamlet of Frapporta, a short walk from Tenno village, the small Romanesque church of San Lorenzo has a cycle of frescoes from the 12th and 13th centuries inside, faded but still readable, and a cypress-lined churchyard with a view down to Riva. The castle of Tenno above it was a fortress of the prince-bishops of Trento and is privately owned, so you admire it from the lane below; the walk between the two passes olive terraces and old drystone walls.

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8. 

   08 Food & wine

   Eat polenta and carne salada at a village osteria

   • Canale di Tenno, Tenno village and Lago di Tenno
   • 1.5–2 hours
   • €25–40 a head with wine

   Tenno cooks mountain food: polenta from the local mills with melted cheese and mushrooms, carne salada with beans, canederli in broth, and trout from the streams, all washed down with Marzemino or a Trentodoc sparkling. There is an osteria inside the borgo at Canale with tables under the arches, an agriturismo or two on the terraces above Tenno that serve their own olive oil and vegetables, and a restaurant with a terrace by the lake car park in summer. For the wider area see our pick of the best Lake Garda restaurants.

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9. 

   09 Family

   Cross the Ballino to the pile dwellings at Fiavè

   • Fiavè, 14 km from Tenno via the Passo del Ballino
   • Half a day
   • Museum €4–6

   Twenty minutes over the pass, the peat bog at Fiavè holds one of the best-preserved Bronze Age lake villages in Europe, part of the UNESCO Alpine pile-dwellings listing. The museum in the village shows the wooden tools, bowls and even food that survived in the bog, and a path with reconstructed stilt houses runs out into the wetland reserve. It is a good wet-weather option and combines with the thermal baths at Comano, 10 minutes further on.

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10. 

    10 Markets & shopping

    Browse the Christmas market in Canale

    • Canale di Tenno
    • 2 hours
    • Free entry

    On weekends through December the borgo hosts one of the more atmospheric Christmas markets in Trentino: stalls in the vaulted passages and cellars rather than chalets in a square, selling woodwork, wool, honey, speck, strudel and hot wine, with carol singers and a living nativity. The lanes are lit with lanterns and it is often cold enough to see your breath. Parking is in fields below with a shuttle, and it is far less commercial than the big markets at Arco and Trento.

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11. 

    11 Evening

    Stay for the evening after the day-trippers leave

    • Canale di Tenno and Frapporta
    • 1–2 hours
    • €4–6 a drink

    There is no nightlife in Tenno and that is the point. By 6pm the coach groups have gone down to Riva, the bar at the edge of Canale and the lakeside terrace pour a last spritz, and the light drops slowly across the whole of Lake Garda below with Monte Baldo turning pink on the far side. Sit on the wall at the top of Canale or on the terrace at Frapporta church with a glass of local Nosiola and watch the lights come on in Riva.

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Tenno in pictures