An ancient history for the Antica Locanda Mincio and for Borgetto di Valeggio sul Mincio, between Mantua and Verona. The village, after numerous historical vicissitudes, was taken over by the order of the Knights Templar who founded their own Preceptory here.

For over a century the Templars transformed the monastery into a hospice to welcome the numerous pilgrims who passed through the Mincio ford on their way to the three great centres of the Christian faith: Rome, Jerusalem, and Santiago de Compostela.

In the Middle Ages, the crossing at Peschiera del Garda had declined and the river could only be crossed, between Lake Garda and the lakes surrounding Mantua, at Borghetto. It was at this strategic point in the thirteenth century that the Templars built the first wooden bridge to control the ford, a river excavation, the first mills, a fixed fish market and an inn.

The remains of the “thaberna templare” mentioned in many historical documents attesting to the transfers of ownership of the fiefdom are, most likely, under the foundations of the current Antica Locanda Mincio restaurant.