The Ship

A “Lady” Ship with a glorious past

The sailing ship “Siora Veronica” was designed and built in two years, between 1926 and 1927 by some blacksmiths from Peschiera del Garda. It was part of a fleet of over 100 boats or “bragozzi”, originally used for merchant transport. Mostly they transported heavy goods (building materials, wood, livestock) but sometimes also food: these boats shuttled between Riva del Garda and Desenzano/Peschiera, the southern edges of the lake, where the main railway stations were, but also between the eastern and western coasts of Lake Garda (between Malcesine, Torri, Garda and Castelletto), where the marble and stone quarries were located; occasionally they also transported waste paper destined for the paper mills in Toscolano. This happened in the period between the 1920s and 1930s, when there were no roads around the lake and therefore water transport was the priority.

The sailing ship “Veronica”, built in 1926, belonged to Giovanni Fravezzi from Castelletto. Beside its commercial aim, it was also used privately as a work boat, both to plant piles in the water for moorings and as a floating platform with cranes for recovering wrecks from the lake, as well as a lake minesweeper in the period between the two wars, equipped with a turret, to allow a diver to descend into the depths of the lake and explore the seabed, identifying material to be recovered beyond 70-80 meters of depth.

In addition to work and trade purposes, these boat types were also used in the past for regattas: the famous one was that of 15 August 1929 organized in Riva del Garda by the poet Gabriele D Annunzio, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Western Gardesana Road, in which about 18 boats divided into two categories based on size, competed in a 20 km regatta field in the northern part of the lake between Riva, Malcesine and Torbole. A second regatta was organized the following year, in July 1930, with the same modalities.

With the construction of the roads around the lake between 1929 and 1932 (Gardesana Orientale between 1929 and 1930/Gardesana Occidentale between 1931 and 1932), this type of vessel gradually fell into disuse, no longer necessary as a means of local transport, replaced by trucks for land transport, faster and more efficient. The situation worsened by the outbreak of the Second World War. The “Veronica” was then abandoned for several years in the harbour of Toscolano Maderno.

Nowadays, only two examples of the original fleet have survived: Veronica and San Nicolò (moored in Bardolino). In August 2001, the “Veronica”, now reduced to an old rusty hull, was taken over by its first owner, the South Tyrolean entrepreneur Hans Renner, who worked on it for nine months of restoration to give it new life, transforming it from a merchant ship into an elegant sailing ship for charming and stylish cruises, making it the ideal place for holding exclusive events and weddings, so much so that it was renamed “Siora Veronica” which in local dialect means “Lady”.
In 2014, it became the property of the Cavazza family, already owners of Isola del Garda.

Currently, since the end of 2020, it has been owned by the Olympic sailing champion Roberto Benamati, winner of the Star World Championship in Cannes in 1991 and of 12 editions of the “Centomiglia” regatta. Roberto, originally from Malcesine, with his passion for the world of sailing, for the lake area and for the history of Garda, continues to make the ancient sailing ship “Siora Veronica” live and shine, making it an essential experience for all visitors to Malcesine and the Lake: a “must” to make a holiday on Garda unforgettable and a location in perfect balance between the charm of times gone by and the present, between exclusivity, luxury and usability for everyone: couples, families, groups of friends.

The sailing ship is now moored in the harbour of Malcesine and during the summer season from May to October it can be rented or private events such as birthday parties, weddings, aperitifs or corporate team building, but also for short cruises and tours regularly organized during the week. The sailing ship is also the stage for the performance of suggestive concerts and events organized by the Municipality of Malcesine during the summertime.