Legend says that the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus lived in the Grotte di Catullo. 
The archaeological site and museum is open all year. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.
The first to attribute the villa to Catullus was Marino Sanuto the Younger in 1483.
Thank you, Valentina! The site was one of the sets in the 2017 movie Call Me by Your Name (recipient of four nominations and one Academy award). Arguably too hot to tour what are the remains of the largest Roman villa in northern Italy.
Sirmione looks like an absolutely magical place!
The Roman Emperor's lost summer home and grotto full of enormous sculptures sit along the Italian seashore. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. The site is closed every Tuesday, and on January 1, May 1, and December 25. Films are shown on monitors that recreate the life of the time. Excuse me, Dear, but youre in Italy! Winter hours 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. COSTS: Adults: 8 euros; 18 and under: free. The buildings are reconstructed in 3D animations.
Haha! and 1st century A.D. for some 1 percenters from Verona.
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See. I think that Lake Garda should be our next Italian adventure! Hope to make it there one day, Your email address will not be published. As, In the late spring, I visited the Black Forest on, Each day of the Viking cruise, theres an includ.
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When she isn't in the kitchen, she loves to travel, near and far, as long as good food is involved. During the Italian Renaissance, many Roman poets were rediscovered, Gaius Valerius Catullus among them.
In summer there is an electric train that runs between the thermal spa and the entrance to the ruins. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed.
Besides the exhibitions from the Roman era, there is also a prehistoric and medieval exhibition. Keep up your great post as they are always a delight to read. After seeing your pictures and yes, love the slideshows,
Sirmione has hot thermal water that the Romans already knew and used.
The archaeological complex, which always remained uncovered over time, has been the subject of academic research since the 15th century.
Comment *document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a1d7775615b1c6fbb1773de5c2856866" );document.getElementById("e690727018").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); A Scottish Italian cook living in Los Angeles, Christina is usually cooking, baking or (cr)eating something scrumptious. Roman lead pipes were discovered at a depth of 18 meters in the complex of the Catull caves, which led the healing water into the ancient thermal bath. Check the website for schedule changes. What beautiful places, and what fun to travel with your mom. The skulls and bones of thousands of soldiers line the walls of this small Italian chapel. It is approximately a 1 kilometer walk from the old town to the entrance of the ruins.
At its prime, the villa consisted of two large residential areas with a garden in between, surrounded by long colonnades, and decorated with porticoes and terraces. Closed Mondays. The Grotto of Catullus is open from 8:30am 7:30pm in summer and from 8:30am 5pm October 15 February 28.
Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). The museum shows the luxury and splendor of the original ancient complex. We love Italy and every visit has been extraordinary!
No purchase necessary.
A small museum at the entrance traces the history of the area, from the formation of northern Italys lakes through glacial melt, to the earliest settlements and Sirmiones place on the trade route connecting Rome with the Alps and beyond.
It became a popular destination for scholars and nobles. In addition to Italian and English, the information is also available in German. (Nancy Montgomery/Stars and Stripes), The Grottoes of Catullus is neither a grotto, nor relevant to the Roman poet Catullus.
Surrounding the villa are a number of olive groves, some several centuries old.
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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. Buttery Maple Peach Topping (Sauce) for Waffles, Pancakes, Ice Cream and More, Visiting Sirmione by Car and Le Grotte di Catullo Roman Ruins on Lake Garda. The villa was actually built after his death. Great post, so lovely to be able to travel with your Mum!
Nothing beside remains" (Nancy Montgomery/Stars and Stripes). There arent any grottoes there, nor was Cattulus, the classical Roman poet in love with Lesbia, in attendance.
The Roman villa or Italian Grotto di Catullo is a Roman excavation at the far end of the Sirmione headland on the southern shore of Lake Garda. The Roman Catullus lived in the 1st century BC, but very little is known about his life. The former Roman villa with thermal baths has partially collapsed nowadays, but it is a fantastic example of the old way of life and building technology.
And Catullus did have a nice house in the area he wrote about it in his poems but at an even earlier time.
But, Catull dedicated some of his verses to Sirmione, its idyllic location, and its beauty.
Sirmione is easily reached by car from the A4 or A22 motorways. We are only going for 10 days this time as work is calling.
On a June trip to Sirmione, the charming town on Lake Garda, I did what many tourists do and visited the Grottoes of Catullus. (Nancy Montgomery/Stars and Stripes), The "grand pilone" or big pylon, in the Grottoes of Catullus is one of the foundation elements of the villa built for wealthy Veronans beginning at the end of the 1st century B.C.
It brings to mind the poem "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. To overcome the inclination of the rocky bank on which the building was set, large support structures, called substructions, were created in the northern part, and substantial cuts were made to model the rocky bank. The various rooms of the villa have suggestive conventional names, derived from established local tradition or interpretations formulated during the first excavations.
The main entrance to the building was in the southern forepart. FOOD: Sirmione is full of cafes, restaurants and gelato stands. In 1939, the National Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage started an extensive excavations and restorations program; it acquired the entire area in 1948 to guarantee adequate protection of the complex and its natural environment.
It is open to visitors every day but Monday.
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This amazingly well-preserved villa just outside Pompeii boasts rare examples of ancient Roman paintings. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies.
The capacious ruins are thought today to be from a grand home built between the end of the 1st century B.C. On the southern side, under an opus spicatum floor, there is a large cistern almost forty-three meters long, which collected the water necessary for daily use. There is no hard evidence to identify Catullus's house; however, the term has remained and is still used today.
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In the summer, the site and museum are open from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, and from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on holidays. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Parking is available in a lot near the entrance to the old town and costs around 2 per hour.
The villa has a rectangular plan of 167 105 m with two foreparts on the north and south sides.
In the winter, the museum is open on from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and the archaeological area is open from8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Its remains were still visible, although mostly covered with vegetation and buried to the point that it looked like a cave.
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During the 1990s, further studies confirmed that the construction was carried out through a unitary project, which defined the orientation and distribution of the internal spaces according to a precise axiality and symmetry criterion. As a prominent visitor to Sirmione, Catull had to serve as the namesake for the villa, which spread over an area of two hectares. 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.[1]. (Nancy Montgomery/Stars and Stripes), The Grottoes of Catullus, an archaeological site and museum in Sirmione, showcases the ruins of what was a huge Roman villa perched above Lake Garda centuries before Alaric, king of the Visigoths, invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410, a decisive event in the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire.
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Tickets cost 8.
Word grotte actually means cave. The parts not exposed are covered with mature olive trees. Only his work of poems and epigrams has survived.
At the very end of it lie the ruins of a large Roman villa.
The ruins retain their name for understandable reasons. These cookies do not store any personal information. Everywhere you can find old walls, columns, and paths on the vast complex. The ruins are accessible to visitors and give a hint of the luxury of that time. Many interactive offers are also aimed at children. Buried next to Pompeii, this lesser-known Roman villa was the opulent vacation home of Emperor Nero's wife. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Offer subject to change without notice. Sign-up to receive a daily email of todays top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets
The architectural site is located at the tip of the Sirmione peninsula.
But signs in three languages explain how the multi-story villa was constructed and what individual rooms were used for. Still, it's a nice walk among very old stones.
Venice is totally car unfriendly and the train will take us everywhere we want to visit.
He spent his life in Verona and came to Sirmione to relax and recover. About 1500 olive trees, some centuries old, are currently present across the whole site, belonging to three different varieties typical of the area (casaliva, leccino and gargn). It is considered one of the most impressive examples of Roman villas in northern Italy. (Nancy Montgomery/Stars and Stripes), The Grottoes of Catullus, the ruins of an old Roman villa in Sirmione, offers an archaeological lesson and numerous photo ops.
The large villa, under which structures of the 1st century BC were found, was built at the beginning of the 1st century AD.
TIMES: 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. The complex was renovated in the 20th century and it is now a museum and archaeological site. The beautiful location and mild climate have attracted people to settle on the shores of the lake for thousands of years.
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Thank you for another great post, filled with useful information.
However, viewing what remains of the ancient mansion, along with its cypress trees, olive groves and panoramic lake in the autumnal light might be ideal.
Especially from the Roman era, there are impressive legacies that are now among the sights of the regions around Lake Garda.
[4], Residential area crossed by the Lungo corridoio, Ruins of a Roman villa in Sirmione, Italy, "Rilevazione 2013 Musei, monumenti e aree archeologiche statali", "Where to Go to See the Real-Life Places from 'Call Me By Your Name', Grotte di Catullo (Grottoes of Catullus) Review, Catullus' Grottos, Sirmione, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, Info about the Roman Villa and the archaeological park, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grottoes_of_Catullus&oldid=1096106727, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 July 2022, at 10:10. castle, Grotte di Catullo, Italian lakes, Italy, Lombardy, road trip, Rocca Scaligera, Roman ruins, Sirmione, Sirmione del Garda, Travel, travels, Verona, [] and I left Sirmione sul Gardaafter being in Venice for three [].
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Drawings show how it might have looked in all its splendor.
Initially, there was a large, magnificent villa, a thermal bath, and some outbuildings on the site. Last admission is 45 minutes before closing time.
An archaeological museum collecting finds from the area was inaugurated in 1999. There is a small but very modern museum at the entrance to the former villa where the visitor can view many of the excavation finds. The truth is that the poet, who is called Catull, never saw this villa. The oldest part of the structure dates back to the first century B.C., but most of the villa was built about 100 years later.
Now it costs just 8 euros (about $8.80) for visitors to wander among the ruins of the villa, some 550 feet long and 350 feet wide, and its nearly 5-acre site.
Substructions of the so-called Grottoes of Catullus, The coast of Sirmione from the Grottoes of Catullus. A small island in Lake Garda that was used as a burial site, pirate hideout, and a monastery.
The extensive thermal sector of the villa, consisting of several rooms located in the south-western area, including a swimming pool, was probably obtained at the beginning of the 2nd century.
Along the western side, there is a cryptoporticus, a long walk once covered.
One of the most impressive archaeological excavations from Roman times is the Grotte di Catullo.
Slideshows are good I think especially as you have so many lovely photographs! (Nancy Montgomery/Stars and Stripes), A small museum near the entrance to the Grottoes of Catullus in Sirmione has on display mosaics and pottery shards of the area.
The rest of Lake Garda is stunning as well. The archaeological complex, still partially unearthed today, covers an area of about two hectares. Your travel recaps always make me want to hope on a plane and go! One can almost assume that they were already present when the plant was built.Ancient thermal spa in Sirmione. It also has a collection of tools, pottery shards, buttons and coins from past settlements, and parts of surviving mosaics found in the area. This is unlikely, as most of the villa was built afterCatullus death, but regardless of the true owner, the place became known as the Grottoes of Catullus. Required fields are marked *.
Also, there are old gnarled olive trees between the excavations, which look really awesome.
One of my mums favorite spots is Limone sul Garda, but sadly, Ive never been. Still, it was hot during the visit, nearly 95 degrees.
museum terrible no English translations.
When they were first discovered and before they were excavated, they looked like caves.
Sirmione can also be reached by a short taxi or bus ride from nearby train stations at Peschiera (11km) or at Desenzano (10km).
But, a complex is incorrectly referred to as caves, which includes an old Roman villa with thermal baths. Hope you are able to go next time!
The residential parts of the building were in the north and south areas, while the central region, made up today of the grande oliveto, was occupied by a garden.
Along the southern shore of Lake Garda, a two-mile promontory projects into the water.
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