Sirmione, a town near the famous lake Lago di Garda is mostly known after the adrenalin park Gardaland. Sirmione was populated in the Stone Age, when people were mostly fishermen. A famous monastery, a castle, churches and forts are here because of people who lead and ruled this area. Today, the city is a tourist city and offers all of its history in the city.
A popular resort for the rich
“Salve, o, Venusta Sirmio...” have the Roman emperors worshiped Sirmione by Lake Garda. The peninsula had its ups and downs but it never lost its shine that touches every visitor. Sirmione became a popular resort throughout the history, today, it’s a resort for the rich. Most of them come from Verona. Nice streets in the old city centre, expensive restaurants, shops and hotels are showing that this city is built for the rich. Even visiting a restaurant will cost you more than anywhere else. Traffic is permitted in the city, but is limited to guests of modern hotels. Everyone else can park in front of the city. There’s a harbour nearby where you can also see elite sailboats as well as fishermen’s boats where locals catch fish in the lake.
Attractions that invite many tourists
Sirmione is one of the biggest attractions at Lake Garda with more than 1000 visitors per day. When we enter the city centre through the fort Rocca Scaligera, we get a feeling that the time has stopped. The beautiful peninsula is flooded with tourists in the summer months. Roman ruins, castle and many more invite many visitors. At the end of the peninsula you can visit the ruins that Italian call Grotte di Catullo. But it isn’t a cave, like you would think if you’d translate the name. A villa stood here and Catullus Roman lived there, tell the stories. But this definitely isn’t true as the ruins appeared years after he died. A small museum is located there today. Here is also an interesting castle from 12th century, and its specialty is a medieval fort in the harbour. From the lookout tower, you can see the long, narrow shape of the peninsula. The church San Pietro Mavino with amazing fresco from 12th to 16th century is worth a look. At the end of the peninsula there’s an interesting rocky coast with cliffs. The water is very shallow, and it has a lighthouse to remind us that. After the shallow waters, the water is steeply rising. Right at the end of the peninsula among the ruins they found Roman spa that lead to the discovering of thermal water not far back. Temperature of thermal water is about 70°C.
Sirmione is a city that is old and new, complicated and simple and extremely lively and sometimes calm. It’s a city of contrasts. If you’re travelling around Italy, it’s definitely worth it to see Sirmione.
