It was a 30 minute drive from our holiday residence to the charming town of Desenzano del Garda, beautifully situated on the southwest side of Lake Garda. The town has about 27,000 inhabitants and offers a splendid view of Sirmione, the pearl of Lake Garda, which was built on a…
The picturesque town of Desenzano on the shores of Lake Garda once had an imposing Roman villa. Like all Roman villas, this villa was primarily an agricultural estate. The part where the buildings related to agricultural production must have stood has not been excavated. The residential part has, although the…
Just outside the small village of San Martino della Battaglia, a few kilometres south of Lake Garda, we find a remarkable monument from the nineteenth century. The monumental tower closely resembles a chess piece and honours the memory of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a united Italy, who…
Modern Solferino is a charming little town about ten kilometres south of Lake Garda. In this peaceful region of extensive vineyards that have sprung up around the town, it is hard to imagine that on 24 June 1859 one of the bloodiest battles in Italian history was fought here. On…
We know very little about the life of the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 84-54 BCE), but there is no doubt that he and Sirmione were close. In his Carmen 31, Catullus mentions the town: “O Sirmio, little eye of peninsulas and of islands, whatever in shining lakes or…
The Santa Maria Maggiore, also known as the Santa Maria della Neve, is a parish church in the centre of Sirmione. It is difficult to establish how old exactly the church is, but construction of the current Santa Maria Maggiore took place between the second half of the fifteenth century…
If you visit Sirmione, the pearl of Lake Garda, it is certainly hard to miss the castle of the town, the Rocca Scaligera. Sirmione is situated on a promontory which extends into the lake and which is, from north to south, about four kilometres long. The last kilometre or so…
There are many reasons to consider the small church of San Pietro in Mavino to be the highlight of Sirmione. First of all, it literally occupies a high spot, as it was built at the top of a hill near the end of the promontory on which Sirmione is situated.…