Grottoes of Catullus

2023

ITRAVELinITALY.IT

Best places to visit in Italy for the first time. Travel, tell, and share. Yesterday, a job for a select few and still too marked by the slow pace of the Grand Tour; today, however, at the time of Web 2.0., everyone can do it by documenting their experiences with written reports, photos, videos, and maps.

The Grottoes of Catullus, also known as Grotte di Catullo in Italian, are the ruins of a Roman villa located on the northern tip of the Sirmione peninsula on Lake Garda in northern Italy. The villa is believed to have been built in the first century BCE and was named after the famous Roman poet Catullus, who was born in Verona and is said to have owned a villa on the site. The Grottoes of Catullus are one of the most important and well-preserved examples of a Roman villa in northern Italy. The ruins cover an area of about 2 hectares and include the remains of several buildings, including a large courtyard, a series of terraces, a thermal bath complex, and a number of residential quarters. The thermal bath complex is particularly noteworthy and includes a frigidarium, a tepidarium, and a caldarium, as well as a number of other rooms and features that were typical of Roman bathhouses. Today, the Grottoes of Catullus are a popular tourist attraction and are open to visitors year-round. The site offers beautiful views of Lake Garda and the surrounding landscape and is a must-visit destination for anyone interested in Roman history and architecture.