My Adventures 3: Sirmione

On Thursday the 19th September 2024, we left Camping Bella Italia in Peschiera Del Garda and walked along the lake into town.

Today Venice is ‘merely’ the capital of a region in Italy, but once it was the capital of an Empire that extended to the Eastern Mediterranean and in Italy. Like the Romans, even the Venetians used to create mighty fortifications just after conquering a stronghold... Even today these mighty walls are a testimony to Venetian power.

Peschiera del Garda is one of the places where you can admire one of these fortifications, recently included by UNESCO in the List of World Heritage Sites.

In the fifteenth century Peschiera's fortress passed under the control of the Republic of Venice, which decided to renew the existing fortifications entrusting the work to the famous architect Michele Sanmicheli. The new fortified 'modern wall' followed the course of the medieval one, with five sides and five corners protected by bastions. Along the perimeter there were also open two gates, Porta Verona and Porta Brescia, placed in the direction of the roads leading to the two major cities.

Around the middle of the sixteenth century, the Scaligera fortress was modified and submerged to fit it with new firearms. In the seventeenth century important restoration works took place and later, with the Treaty of Campoformio of 1797, the fortress of Peschiera passed under the rule of the Austrian Empire, which provided for its modernization: it became one of the four forts to form the famous square that joins Legnago, Mantua and Verona. Lastly, after passing in Italian hands, following the Third Independence War (1866), the fortress lost its strategic importance.

We decide to find the Railway Station in Peschiera and try to get tickets to Venice for tomorrow.

We pass a beautiful house on Viale Stazione on the way to the Station.

We find the station at the end of the road and it is much more expensive to buy tickets there than on Trainpal app. So I bought online and we walk back into town.

Piazza della Serenissima

We cross over to the ferry port to see about getting ferry tickets to Sirmione. The ticket office is at the end of the pier. Don't go to the kiosks at the start of the pier which are stupidly expensive!

The ticket office is closed for a while reopening soon, so we walk back across the road for pizza at a restaurant there while we wait.

I buy 4 tickets on the ferry one way to Sirmione for 20 euros and we board the ferry.

The ferry takes about 20 minutes to reach Sirmione, but its a nice ay to see the lake.

The view of the mountain ranges from the Lake is just immense!

We go around the headland and head into Sirmione and the ferry pier.

We disembark and head into the town.

Sirmione is a comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy (northern Italy). It is bounded by Desenzano del Garda (Lombardy) and Peschiera del Garda in the province of Verona and the region of Veneto. It has a historical centre which is located on the Sirmio peninsula that divides the lower part of Lake Garda.

The first traces of human presence in the area of Sirmione date from the 6th–5th millennia BC. Settlements on palafitte existed in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC.

Starting from the 1st century BC, the area of the Garda, including what is now Sirmione, became a favourite resort for rich families coming from Verona, then the main Roman city in north-eastern Italy. The poet Catullus praised the beauties of the city and spoke of a villa he had in the area.

In the late Roman era (4th–5th centuries AD) the city became a fortified strongpoint defending the southern shore of the lake. A settlement existed also after the Lombard conquest of northern Italy: in the late years of the Lombard kingdom, the city was capital of a judiciary district directly subordinated to the king. Ansa, wife of King Desiderius, founded a monastery and a church in the city.

We pass the impressive Castello Scaligero di Sirmione.

Built in the latter half of the 14th century on the southernmost part of Lake Garda in the Northern Italy. Construction was initiated on behalf of the Della Scala family of Verona, who are known as the Scaligeri from which it takes its name. The family ruled Verona and a large part of the Venetian area from the years 1259 to 1387.

The castle was later controlled by the Republic of Venice from the 15th century after the Della Scala family submitted to Venice in 1405. It continued to be an important fortification in the area. Its decline in importance began with the completion of the nearby fortress in Peschiera del Garda in the 16th century.

It continued to be used as an armoury and fortification until the Unification of Italy when it became the office of the local government of Sirmione. Restoration began after World War I in 1919, when it became a museum and tourist attraction. However it was not fully restored until 2018 when the internal waters of the castle were cleared. The internal docks are the only surviving example of a 14th-century fortified port.

Around the year 1000, Sirmione was probably a free comune, but fell into the hands of the Scaliger in the early 13th century. Mastino I della Scala was probably the founder of the castle. In the same period, Sirmione was refuge for Patarines hereticals. The military role of the city continued until the 16th century, but a garrison remained in the castle until the 19th century.

Sirmione was a possession of the Venetian Republic from 1405 until 1797, when it was acquired by the Habsburg Empire. It became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

The main historical landmark of Sirmione is the so-called Grottoes of Catullus (Grotte di Catullo), the most striking example of a Roman private edifice discovered in northern Italy. The edifice had a rectangular plan and measured 167 by 105 metres (548 ft × 344 ft).

The Scaligero Castle (13th century). This is a rare example of medieval port fortification, which was used by the Scaliger fleet. The building of this complex started in 1277 by Mastino della Scala. It presents the typical Ghibelline swallowtail merlons and the curtain-walls (with three corner towers) in pebbles alternating with two horizontal bands of brick courses. The walls on the inside were finished with plaster with graffiti, simulating blocks of stone. The castle stands at a strategic place at the entrance to the peninsula. It is surrounded by a moat and it can only be entered by two drawbridges. The castle was established mainly as a protection against enemies, but also against the locals. The main room houses a small museum with local finds from the Roman era and a few medieval artifacts.

Alfred Tennyson described his impressions of Sirmione in the summer of 1880 in his poem Frater Ave atque Vale.

Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row!

So they row'd, and there we landed-"O venusta Sirmio"

There to me through all the groves of olive in the summer glow,

There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow,

Came that 'Ave atque Vale' of the Poet's hopeless woe,

Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen-hundred years ago,

'Frater Ave atque Vale' - as we wandered to and fro

Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below

Sweet Catullus's all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio!

We walk down to the Lakes edge beside the castle.

We head back into the town.

We pass a typical Italian style garden of Giardino Grazia Deledda.

This small garden is located along the water in the Centro Storico of Sirmione. It is dedicated to Italian writer Grazia Deledda.

Mel refused to kiss me, Rude!

We down onto Spiaggia del Prete, a small pebbly beach.

We spend our time popping in and out of shops here.

We stroll along the peninsula, as we pass through alleys full of life, among ice cream parlours, restaurants with outdoor tables and shops in pure Italian style.

Typical house in the old town

We pop into Chiesa Parrocchiale di Santa Maria Maggiore.

A lovely old church!

One of the most photographed homes in Sirmione!

We stop off by a jetty for a rest and take in the pretty views whilst watching the ducks.

Another ferry arriving

We stop off in an Gelato Parlour, a lady is shouting Ice cream and insists everyone tries a sample.

We buy one each, wow best ice cream ever!

We walk on and stop at Aquaria Thermal.

The town was already known in the Middle Ages as a spring of thermal water, and today Aquaria Thermal Spa boasts a wide range of facilities and services: around the sulphurous salsobromoiodic thermal water, known for its healing and preventive properties, revolves a 360° wellness experience.

In Sirmione there are two thermal centres, Virgilio and Catullo, and hotels with internal thermal spas, where you can enjoy swimming pools, massages, beauty treatments, thermal mud pools and inhalation therapy.

We look around and we see a land train that takes you up to the Grottoes of Catullus.

We get off at the end and walk on along the path.

We stop at a bar here to try an Aperol Spritz and sit looking out at the bay, whilst being buzzed wasps and joined by a long line of House Sparrows sitting in front of us.

We walk down onto the beach and I wade out into the water.

The rocks here in the water are very slippery and I warn George as he makes his way out. Lucy then decides to join us. They both ignored my advice of the best way out, Lucy slips as George does nothing to stop her fall. She ends up arse down in the water! Roars of laughter from us all!

George doing the crab trying to get back without slipping!

We decide not to pay the entrance fee to see the Grottoes of Catullus, just looks like ruins from the outside.

Grottoes of Catullus is the name given to the ruins of a Roman villa built between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD at the northernmost end of the Sirmione peninsula on the southern shore of Lake Garda.

The archaeological complex, which always remained uncovered over time, has been the subject of academic research since the 15th century. Today, it is the most valuable testament of the Roman period in Sirmione's territory and an exceptional find of a Roman villa in northern Italy. The site, which includes the archaeological museum of Sirmione, was the twenty-seventh most visited Italian site in 2013, with 215,961 visitors and a total gross income of €504,700.

We get the land train back, now we are on a mission to find Lucy some new and dry trousers from the shops.

We head back to the ferry, we just missed one and the next and last ferry was not for some time, so tickets bought we head back to the beach for hot chocolate and coffee.