Sirmione

Sirmione needs 1 day: Scaligero Castle, a 13th-century medieval fortress surrounded by a navigable moat on Lake Garda, on one, and the Grottoes of Catullus, ruins of a Roman villa at the tip of the peninsula, on the other. April-September is best. It's mid-to-high priced, very crowded in summer due to its proximity to Milan and Verona. It sits on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Garda, Italy's largest lake, and its castle, with its water courtyard unique in Europe where medieval galley moorings are still preserved, is one of the best-preserved examples of medieval lakeside military architecture on the continent.