La Bella Vita del Bostics: Sirmione

Whenever we talk to "locals," we always ask what they recommend we do during our time here. After a while, we began to notice that the suggestion we heard most often and most enthusiastically was to go to Sirmione, a town on a peninsula at the southern point of Lake Garda. Obviously, we had to see for ourselves.

Since no cars are allowed in the old city, we parked a ways out, closer to the base of the peninsula. As our destination was about a mile away, we walked along the shore of the lake to get to the city walls.

We've begun to notice a great abundance of castles in Italy and wonder what we're going to do after we move back and no longer see them up in the hills on every drive we take. Sirmione definitely did not disappoint in this category. A giant castle met us at the entrance of the city, requiring us to walk over the moat and through its arches to enter.

First things first: lunch and a fine bottle of Italian vino in a little restaurant alongside the castle.

Has anyone else noticed that for some reason, wine always tastes better when you're drinking it next to a castle?

The city of Sirmione itself was very cute with beautiful flowers and architecture at every turn.

But what we really wanted to see was the ancient ruins at the very tip of the peninsula. We set out to find them, wandering through an olive grove or two along the way. At one point, we noticed a freshness in the smell of our surroundings and realized we had walked straight into a patch of wild mint.

Some of the ruins on the tip of Sirmione date back to 50 B.C. which was absolutely mind-boggling. The craziest part, however, was that after you get in, you're basically free to wander them as you please. Seeing Roman ruins is one thing - being able to walk around in them was another entirely.

Lounging upon ancient Roman ruins is also encouraged.

The water of Lake Garda was beautiful, and I couldn't get over the rocks along the shore. They had this amazing reddish color, and added such a beautiful texture to the scenery.

Of course, as the Spartans were playing Wisconsin (the first time) on this fine day, Luke was showing his love from across the globe. It worked.

The ruins were surrounded by olive groves, which just added to the aura of the place. On the way out, Luke saw an old Italian man pick an olive straight off the tree and pop it in his mouth. Now this was something I had been wanting to do for a long time, and upon hearing that an Italian did it, I ran with it... Big mistake. Olives straight off the tree have the consistency of an avocado, are ridiculously bitter and taste absolutely awful. Lesson learned: do not do as the old Italian men do. Ever.

On our way out, we visited the castle and walked around its grounds for a bit. The views from its tower were incredible and gave us a great panoramic of our surroundings.