Historical Sirmione sits proudly at the head of a peninsular that juts 4 km into the southern reaches of Lake Garda. Spectacular in setting, home to the impressive Castello Scaligera and the famous Grotte di Catullo, it richly merits the accolade the ‘pearl of Lake Garda’.
Getting there
Sirmione is on the route of a regular bus service that runs between Verona and Desenzano, calling at Peschiera. The bus station is conveniently near to both the Tourist Information and the entrance to the historic centre. But it is the arrival by ferry that reveals Sirmione at its spellbinding best.
The Bardolino/ Garda ferry skirts the head of the peninsular granting you views of the awe-inspiring Grotte di Catullo. The approach from Desenzano is a treat that is worth the price of the ferry ticket, particularly if the weather is fine and you are lucky enough to have a front seat on the top deck of one of the big ferries. A trick of perspective sets the peninsular against a background of the distant Monte Balde, and you are likely to watch transfixed as the soft colours and shapes of the historic centre come into focus.
Brief History
Evidence suggests that in pre-historic times Sirmione was home to fisher folk. In the 1 century BCE its congenial environs began to attract wealthy Veronese and Roman families, who built holiday villas towards the tip of the peninsular. The poet Catullus, entranced by its beauty, probably had a villa here. Its strategic position became apparent, and by the end of the Roman era it was well fortified. Very unsettled times followed the fall of Rome, with successive invasions, Lombard expansion and struggles between supporters of the Pope and supporters of the emperor.
Enter the Scaliger lords of Verona, who in the early part of the 13 century built the castle that is now such a major landmark. Soon Sirmione was under the dominion of the Venetian Republic (1405-1797), this was followed by a relatively short period of Habsburg control, before it finally took its place in the kingdom of Italy (1860).
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