Sirmione

Sirmione is a strip of land four kilometres long that runs straight into the lake. You pass the Scaliger Castle, a fortress surrounded by water on every side, with its drawbridge and fortified dock: one of the few lake castles in the world still fully intact.

At the tip of the peninsula, the Grotte di Catullo: the remains of an enormous Roman villa from the first century, spread across an olive grove that overlooks the lake on three sides. They are not caves, and perhaps were not Catullus's: but they are the largest Roman residential complex in northern Italy, and the setting is breathtaking.

Sirmione is also thermal water: a sulphurous spring gushes up at 69°C from the lakebed and has fed the spa baths for over a century. Jamaica Beach, on the rocks below the Grotte, is the loveliest and most famous bathing spot on the lake.