Here’s that “short days in November” conundrum again. Brescia always projected to take more than half of a day to see, and there was no reasonable way for me to fit something significant in the remaining couple of hours of daylight. All I could attempt at best was a walk around a pretty village. Since I have never been to Lake Garda before, I considered a couple of such villages on its shores, and in the end chose Sirmione, both because of a relatively short ride from Brescia and because my own brother recommended it to me after his recent family trip around Italy.
If you look at the map, you will see Sirmione occupying a tiny, narrow peninsula jutting into the lake from the southern shore. In fact, the core part of the village is on an island, largely off-limits to vehicular traffic, and connected to the rest of the promontory via a small bridge overlooked by the imposing Castello Scaligero di Sirmione.
The 14th-century castle was only recently reopened to the public after nearly a century of phased renovations. I rarely pass up an opportunity to visit a history museum of this kind, but that short remaining sunlight dictated that I’d only look at the castle from outside.
Piazza Castello is the entry point to the heart of Sirmione beyond the castle.
I made a small circuit around the village center.
As is my custom, when a church appeared on my route, I stepped in for a few minutes. Santa Maria Maggiore offers quite a few eye-catching features, including brilliant fresco fragments.
One other church caught my attention when I was about to leave Sirmione, the little Chiesa di Sant’Anna della Rocca, with its amazing sanctuary.
A few Lake Garda views: somewhat choppy waters on the western edge in the late afternoon, and then significantly more tranquil perspectives from the eastern side around sunset time.
A blue-hour perspective of the main piazza…
… and a couple of farewell after-sundown pictures roughly repeating the opening perspectives of this set.
As you may know from the majority of entries on this blog, I first and foremost value an opportunity for pleasant perambulation, married to an opportunity to put a “visited” pin on my personal travel history map. The walk around Sirmione was nice enough, and I can now say that I’ve been on Lake Garda. Win-win.