Ristorante Il Girasole

Top choice in Sirmione


Sirmione’s best dining experience excels in congenial, well-organised service and traditional food skilfully executed. The three-ingredient cacio e pepe (pasta with cheese and pepper) topped with black truffles might be the simplest thing on the menu but it’s also the most sublime, while the extra-crunchy breadsticks could be the best of the 100 or so you bite into in Italy.

Then there are the complementary extras that arrive thick and fast: a chilled glass of prosecco, a mini-appetiser and – just when you think their generosity knows no bounds – a sweet sample of a dessert you never ordered (but wished you had).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Sirmione attractions

1. Rocca Scaligera

0.21 MILES

Expanding their influence northwards, the Scaligeri of Verona built this enormous square-cut castle right at the entrance to old Sirmione. Rising out of…

2. Chiesa San Pietro in Mavino

0.25 MILES

Sirmione's oldest church and its crumbling bell tower date from the 14th century, though it was built on the site of a much older temple. The surprisingly…

3. Grotte di Catullo

0.42 MILES

Occupying 2 hectares at Sirmione's northern tip, this ruined 1st-century-AD Roman villa is a picturesque complex of teetering stone arches and tumbledown…

4. Villa Romana

3.62 MILES

Before the Clooneys and Versaces, wealthy Roman senators and poets had holiday homes on Italy's northern lakes. One survivor is Desenzano’s now-ruined…

5. Parco Archeologico Rocca di Manerba

4.7 MILES

Protected by Unesco, the gorgeous 'rock of Minerva' juts out scenically into the lake just north of Moniga del Garda. The park contains the remaining low…

6. Promenade

6.11 MILES

Paved in waves of marble and brick, Lazise's promenade is the best on this side of Lake Garda. Grab an ice cream, feed the swans and lap up those views.

7. Chiesa di San Nicolò

6.15 MILES

The Romanesque Church of Saint Nick, the patron of fishermen, sits squat by the lapping harbour as it has done since the 11th century. Inside lurk the…

8. Rocca Scaligera

6.2 MILES

The five towers of the privately owned Rocca Scaligera rise to the south of the harbour – look out for the huge hole in the north wall of its main tower,…