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Grotte di Catullo, Sirmione
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Though the ancient Roman poet Catullus did take his holidays at Sirmione, there’s no evidence to suggest that this vast, ancient house at the very tip of Sirmione’s peninsula was actually his villa – in fact, it was probably built after Catullus’s death, sometime in the 1st century BC. It is the best surviving example of a Roman private home in northern Italy, but this didn’t stop it being mis-named a “grotto”, the result of the romantically overgrown and cave-like state it had assumed by the Middle Ages.
Practical Information
Via Catullo
Access by guided tour only 030-916-157 9am–7pm Tue–Sun (8:30am–4:30pm mid-Oct–Feb) Adm
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A 15 minute walk by road/lakeside or on a little electric "train" from Sirmione takes you to this magical ruin of a huge Roman Villa built in the 1st Century AD. Only four euros admission allows you to walk though massive ruins and enjoy fantastic panoramic views across the whole of Lake Garda enjoyed by the mega rich owners two millennia ago. The museum is airy and intelligently displayed.
about a year ago
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