Archaeological Sites Grotte di Catullo The Caves of Catullus are the remains of an ancient Roman villa that was built between the end of the first century BC and the beginning of the first century AD. Sirmione. The name cave comes from the episode that tells that the first explorers, when they saw it in the fifteenth century, believed it was a cave covered by vegetation. In 1948 the entire area was restored by the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage.