The tour of Lake Garda begins at the little town of Riva del Garda (70m/231ft; pop. 13,000), a summer and winter resort and congress center at the northwest tip of the lake. To the west of the town is the precipitous Rocchetta (1,527m/5,039ft), with a Venetian watch-tower.
The town's busiest traffic intersection is the square by the harbor,
with arcades and a massive old clock-tower. To the east, by the lakeside, is the little Piazza Carducci. Nearby stands the old moated castle of the Scaliger family, the Rocca (12th-15th century). On the road to Arco is the church of the Inviolata, with a Baroque interior (1603).
On the south side of the town is the Ponale hydro-electric power station (88,000kW), fed by water brought from the Lago di Ledro, 585m/1,930ft above Riva, in a pipeline 6km/3.75mi long.