Citrus fruits originate in China and India, but can be found around the globe. They first arrived in Europe with the Arabs around the year 1000. Several scholars believe that Sicily was the first Italian region to grown them, "probably under the Islamic influence first, and then under the Normans."
Citrus fruits were brought from the Liguria Riviera to Lake Garda during the 13th century by the monks of the San Francesco Monastery of Gargnano. From their garden, which still at the end of the 19th century was called the "first, because it was the first structure and cultivation" , citrus fruit trees later spread to Toscolano Maderno.

In September 1464 antiques dealer Felice Feliciano from Verona wrote that Toscolano Maderno was "a place that was not only delightful and scented with the floral fragrance of roses and purple flowers, but also shaded everywhere by leafy branches of lemons and citrons." In 1483 even Marin Sanudo mentioned "zardini de zedri, naranzari et pomi damo" (gardens of lemons, oranges and apples) along the coasts.
In the 16th century Bongianni Grattarolo wrote, "For nearly ten miles along the lake garda, from Salò to Gargnano, there are many gardens whose amenities do not pale in comparison with what the poets wrote of Atlantis, Alcino, and the Hesperides, full in every season of the year of all those fruits with the golden peel."