The Sirmione Peninsula on Lake Garda by Bas van der Gronde

This drone photograph shows how the Sirmione peninsula juts out into Lake Garda, with wide limestone slabs at its tip that are largely above water. This suggests that the water level was lower than normal at the time this photograph was taken, making the rocks visible far out into the water. Where the limestone is still submerged, it shimmers through the surface, giving the water that striking turquoise colour, before the lake transitions further out into a deeper blue-green. At that very tip lie the remains of a Roman villa, built sometime between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD. The site is known as the Grotte di Catullo and has traditionally been associated with the poet Catullus, although there is no historical evidence to support this. What is certain is that it was a large and luxurious country retreat, with a view that remains as stunning as ever after two thousand years. The ruins are surrounded by dense greenery of olive trees and cypresses, which forms a stark contrast to the bare, parched limestone. At the base of the peninsula, the buildings of present-day Sirmione can be seen, with Lake Garda stretching out behind them towards the hills in the distance. What makes this photograph so powerful is not only the story of the villa, but the moment itself: a low water level exposing limestone that is normally hidden, captured here exactly as it appears from the air.