The Spas of Italy’s Lake Garda
Romans Basked in Natural Hot Springs, the Sources of Today’s Spas
Two thousand years ago, wealthy Romans left the cities to bask in the thermal waters. Those same springs feed today's soothing modern spas at Sirmione and Lazise.
Romans, noticing the hot springs that poured out of the ground on the long point of land extending into Lake Garda from its southern shore, founded Sirmione two millennia ago. They built baths there, and the privileged built villas near them. Today, Sirmione still attracts the well-heeled and the luxury traveler with its pricey designer boutiques and restaurants – and with the classy modern spa complexes of Aquarius, Virgilio and Catulo, all part of the Terme di Sirmione.
Sirmione’s Thermal Springs
Water that originates high in the summit of Monte Baldo, east of the lake, drops more than 6,000 feet below sea level before rising again to pour from Sirmione’s Boiola Spring about 20 years later. By then it has picked up considerable mineral content – sulphur, sodium, bromine, iodine, potassium and iron among them -- and its temperature has risen to 162 degrees. Modern pipes carry the bacteriologically pure water to a pair of wells, from which it is used in a variety of spa facilities and treatments.
Terme di Sirmione offers mud baths, hydro-massage, current swimming and a variety of wellness programs, in addition to bathing in the sulphurous warm water. A day ticket includes thermal and thalassotherapy pools, hydrotherapy massages, vascular treatment and fragrance and colour showers, plus a “Wellness Cocktail” and salads, bathrobe, towel and bathing cap.
Thermal Park in Lazise
Not far away, near Bardolino, is the newer Parco Thermale del Garda, set in the 18th-century Villa Cedri’s 13 hectares of wooded grounds. Among the gardens is a large thermal lake with a thermal grotto. A modern spa offers covered swimming pools, thermal pools for hydromassage and swimming against the current, and thermal fountains. The park’s very long opening hours – until 1 am or 2:30 am, depending on the day) allow travelers to sightsee or take the kids to the nearby Gardaland theme park all day and still enjoy the spa at night.
Sirmione’s Roman past is still one of its main attractions, along with a perfect little castle that guards the drawbridge entrance to the town. Grotte de Catullo was built in the 1st century, a very large villa surrounded by olive groves, at the very tip of the peninsula. Today you can tour the ruined of arches, a hall, a swimming pool and a pergola overlooking the lake. A museum displays the artifacts found in the archaological digs of the site.
A Medieval Castle
The powerful Scaligeri family of Verona defended the entrance to the town with a castle, Rocca Scaligeri, more than a millennia later, and it’s still in excellent condition. A moat and enclosed marina, where village fishing boats and the Scaligeri's own fleet were safely harbored,make the end of the point into an island. Inside the castle, a museum has more local Roman finds, as well as Medieval displays from its own history. Climb to the top ramparts for the good views.
Don’t plan to visit Sirmione for sightseeing on Monday, when both the castle and Grotte de Catullo are closed.
