Torbole, as early as the 15th century, was a stop for European travelers passing through on the Atesina road from Germany to Italy. Montaigne visited it in 1580. Goethe arrived here from Rovereto in the afternoon of 12 September 1786, four days after having crossed Brenner Pass. Goethe was 37 years old and upon seeing the blue expanse of Lake Garda and the silver olive-groves, he experienced for the first time the atmosphere and mild climate of the places extolled by the Classics, and he wrote that he had achieved happiness. The Brescian Cesare Arici, idyllic rural poet, exalted the fishy Torbole. The painter Hans Lietzmann bought a large olive grove on the lake's shore (behind the Hotel Paradiso) and opened a school of nude art. The current tourist centre evolved in the second half of the last century from a village of fishermen, farmers and mountaineers, into a seasonal health-resort for European travellers, like the neighbouring Riva and Arco.