Roman Villa #1 : Grotte di Catullo, Sirmione

The Romans came to Lake Garda. And stayed. What else? It was beautiful and an ideal place to build a country villa. This one—called the Grotto of Catullus, though the poet didn’t live there—is the largest and most complete Roman villa in northern Italy. It is huge, as you can see from the aerial shot of the ruins, looking north-east. When it was built in the late 1st century AD, it covered about 20,000 square metres. The site is about 2 hectares (5 acres).

What did the Roman villa look like? It’s difficult to visualise from ruins like these, but the on-site museum has a mockup. It shows not only the huge size but also the luxury of this villa. The unknown Roman owner certainly knew how to impress. It would have been a wonderful place to live and entertain, provided you were a patrician and not a slave, of course. As you can probably see from this artist’s impression, the ground sloped down towards the lake (bottom left of this image), so the arched underpinnings got progressively taller to compensate and to keep the Roman villa level. Those vaults are still there and they are massive. Here they are, from the lake.

By Falk2 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

There is a better view from the lake on the site’s own website, though I don’t think either image gives a real sense of scale. Here is one of my own pictures, taken from what would have been ground floor level of the Roman villa and looking north-east towards the lake. A helpful little family group were posing for me, to give you the scale 😉

This is what you see if you go down under those giant arches and look up.
Impressive, no? And about 2000 years old.

If you’re wondering where this Roman villa is, you’ll find it on the north-eastern tip of the Sirmione peninsula. I blogged about the peninsula, and its medieval guardian castle, last time. Definitely worth a visit, I’d say, if you’re in that neck of the woods.

And if you’re a bit idle and don’t want to walk all the way up the hill to the archaeological site, you can always buy a ticket for the little electric train. Only a few of our group did that, but I was one of them. (And I refuse to hang my head. I’m getting on in years so I was husbanding my energies.)

We train passengers had fun doing the Queen Mother wave as we glided past our toiling fellow enthusiasts on the hill. As you do…

What was inside the Grotte di Catullo?

At the Grotte di Catullo, we didn’t see any mosaic floors or wall paintings or anything like that. Not in situ. But there are a few fragments in the on-site museum to give visitors a sense of how luxurious the villa would have been. It had finely painted walls, with coloured panels and figurative motifs like these:Some wall fragments show figures. The lone figure in the image in the centre is said to be Catullus. The head on the right is the only surviving sculpture from the Roman villa and dates from the 2nd century AD. It is from the Dioscuri cult, of the heavenly twins, Castor and Pollux.
Which twin? No one can say.

But for visitors who want to see mosaic floors, there are loads just a short boat ride away.

Roman villa #2 : Desenzano di Garda

On the western lake shore, a 20 minute boat ride from Sirmione, is Desenzano where there is a sumptuous Roman Villa that dates from the first century BC and was occupied until the 5th century AD. Its sprawling building complex combined a relaxation villa (otium) and a country farm (villa rustica).

The image above shows a plan of the site. The Antiquarium is a museum of finds from the site. What visitors marvel at, however, are the floor mosaics, probably dating from the 4th century. In the public parts of Area A, they are intricate geometric designs in black, white and red:

But in the magnificent 3-apse dining room (triclinium), the mosaic designers went to town, with full colour, hunting scenes, fruit, flowers and general opulence. This is one of the apses (apologies for the angle but I had no choice):

And these are some of the individual mosaic panels from the triclinium floor:

Dining at the Roman villa in Desenzano would have been dining in great style. And it wasn’t only the floors that were decorated. There isn’t much left of the walls, but there are places where visitors can see both mosaic floor and traces of wall painting as shown here. And there were sculptures to admire, too, like this Hercules, dating from the 2nd century AD. (By the way, that bow round his neck is the skin of the Nemean lion, slain in his first labour. Nothing effeminate about him!)

Our guides told us that part of the villa was used for Christian worship, though it’s not clear when it started. It may not be surprising since the villa was occupied until well after the Roman Empire became Christian. One of the finds at the Villa Romana is astonishing, though: it’s a green glass cup from the late 4th century, showing the figure of Christ addressing a cockerel, possibly a reference to Peter’s three denials of Christ. It shows the skill of the craftsman who made it, certainly, and is a remarkable survival.

I find my final Desenzano mosaic irresistible because is reminds me so much of the tumbling blocks pattern beloved of quilters. (Quilting is not my bag. Don’t have the patience for it, I freely admit.)

Nothing new under the sun, of course. The Romans  got there first. And their mosaic workers were really, really good at what they did. Even 2000 years on, we have to marvel.

Since we visited all this in a single day, you’ll now understand (perhaps?) why I chickened out and took the little train up the hill to the Grotte di Catullo? For public consumption, I blamed it on my dodgy knee. Not prepared to talk about anno domini on a trip like that. You won’t shop me, will you?

Joanna

PS Nothing to do with the Romans on Lake Garda, but I thought you might like to know that, following my Amazon KDP problems, I have now successfully published the first two of my ebooks via Draft2Digital. They are The Mystery Mistletoe Bride and the first book of the Feuding Families Trilogy, My Lady Angel. Book 2 of the trilogy, The Solway Bride will be published on 29th April and book 3, Star Crossed at Twllight on 5th May. Both are available for pre-order now.

All four ebooks are on sale at Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and more (but not Amazon). The price per ebook is just 99p. Not a fortune, but all sales will help to support the costs of running this website, so please do go ahead and buy. For those who like their books in tree-form, all four books will soon be available as paperbacks from any bookstore (though not, sadly, at 99p).