Sirmione is a comune in the province of Brescia, on the peninsula of the same name in Lake Garda. The Ancient Roman poet Catullus, whose family owned a villa here, wrote an affectionate poem in praise of Sirmione. The surviving ruins of a magnificent Roman villa are popularly associated with the name of Catullus, though there is no solid evidence that the villa is the same or on the same spot as the one Catullus refers to.