Destination guide
Veneto
Veneto’s destination-park history includes a locally developed response to an international entertainment idea.
The story behind the day out
A lakeside park finds its own identity
Gardaland opened on the shores of Lake Garda on 19 July 1975. Its official account credits Livio Furini with conceiving the project after a visit to Disneyland in California. The resulting park was an independent Italian development, not a Disney-operated resort. The story connects the Garda setting with an entrepreneur’s adaptation of the themed-park idea into a destination with its own identity.
