Sirmione Things to Do

According to the founds, the complex of Roman villa had over 20.000 square meters and occupied 241 meters of the terrritory. It seems that villa was build in two different epochs; prof. Mirabella Roberti discovered an Antiquarium during the excavations in the mid of last century.

Grotte di Catullo occupies whole area on the top of the peninsula, where an huge residential villa from the empirial Roman times was situated. Besides, the remains of an thermal complex of huge proportions have been found too.

The peninsula of Sirmione, due to its position which penetrate deep into the Lake of Garda, was first colonizated in the ancient pre-Roman times. The only remeining traces, however, known as Grotte di Catullo, originate from the Roman times.

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore was built around 1400, on the site of the remains of an ancient basilica Longobarda. It is simple one nave construction with five altars in its interiors.
There is a beautiful park around the church from which you have approach to the main public beach of Sirmione.

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Don't miss to visit the smal but Beautiful church of St. Maria Maggiore, from the 15th century. The late Baroque styled church was built on the site of an pagan church. There is an beautiful porticoe with columns in front of the entrance to the church and the first column from left is of Roman origin dating from the IV c. B.C. known as "Miliario di Giuliano l'Apostata.

The castle built by the Scaligers on the foundations of the old eastern harbour is supposed to be a good one to visit - certainly looks impressive - but it was closed when we were there -((

It was built around 1250 for the lord of Verona, Mastino I della Scala. His family inherited their money and built a mighty castle here to flaunt their wealth and demonstrate their prowess.

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The Castle Scaligero, built from 1308 to 1329 as an project of the famous Cangrande, is the emblem of the town of Sirmione. During the medieval times it was Lago di Garda seat of the Scala Family, the Lords of Verona, Vicenza and huge space around this two cities.
It is whole day and night open for the visitors and offers an great sightseaing on area of Lago di Garda.

In 1889 a Venetian deep-sea diver, armed with a diving suit and special pumps from England, dove two meters into the lake. around the Catallus' villa. He was the first person to reach an underwater hot spring, which had been known to exist for three centuries. After several attempts he planted the tube into the rock and a sulphurous spray flew out, five meters high. Thus began the laying of 300 meters of pipes to carry the thermal waters to Sirmione. In 1900 the first spa opened.