Lago di Bolsena - where the Maremma meets Tuscia
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Somehow Lazio carved out for itself a piece of territory that bulges up between Tuscany and Umbria and which seems to me to be too far north to really belong to Lazio, but it does. This is where the south-eastern Tuscan Maremma bleeds into an area known as Tuscia or Etruria in the province of Viterbo and it includes the entirety of Lago di Bolsena.
The lake here holds center stage but around the perimeter are interesting towns like Montefiascone and Bolsena as well as smaller fishing villages such as Marta and also nearby is the very famous abandoned town of Civita di Bagnoregio.
Away from the lake the countryside of Tuscia has little appeal for me as it is mostly flat and featureless but the old Etruscan towns of Tarquinia and Viterbo both have well preserved medieval centers and are well worth visiting.
Montefiascone
Very little it would seem ever escaped Dante’s attention and so when Pope Martin IV developed a habit of greedily feasting on large quantities of Bolsena lake eels when staying in his sumptuous palace at the Rocca, Dante assigned him a place in Purgatory in his Divine Comedy as the perfect example of gluttony.
As the last French Pope in Italy Martin was never welcome in Rome so he had to content himself with Montefiascone and nearby Orvieto.
The Rocca dei Papi during this period of the Middle Ages was a large powerful fortress that became a summer home for many Popes after the papal seat was brought back from Avignon to Rome in 1367.
But by the end of the 15th century it had lost its prestige and fell into a long decline that never really ended. It is worth walking up to the Rocca from the town because standing at 2,000 feet of elevation it affords a fabulous view of the entire lake.
The lake itself is an ancient volcanic caldera that subsequently filled up with water and as with many other areas of volcanic soils in Italy the viticulture around Montefiascone favors white wines and here the famous wine of Est! Est! Est! takes center stage. Often dismissed because of its gimmicky marketing slogan, the wine can be a very pleasant summer drink and is typically a blend of several well-known grape varieties.
Marta
Marta is a very small fishing village close to Montefiascone that is right on the lake and retains its medieval character. Famous for its 12th century clock tower it offers a nice lakefront walk which on clear winter days gives the best opportunities for photographs, but out of season it is a very sleepy place with few signs of life.
Bolsena
The town of Bolsena itself, which sits at the northern end of the lake, almost on the border with Umbria, has all the characteristics of a resort town in summer. Though the population swells during the season, Bolsena is much like all the other towns around the lake where the number of year-round inhabitants has hardly changed for the best part of 100 years.
Bolsena has its own Rocca on a hill overlooking the lake as well as a medieval centro storico but the reason people come here is the lake itself and all the recreational activities it offers. It remains quite an elegant summer resort and a bit old-fashioned, in a good way, which probably reflects the type of visitors it attracts.
It’s a well-looked after town and visually very attractive with flower displays and avenues of mature trees and there’s a more balanced atmosphere to the town in summer that is quite different to the typical Italian seaside resort.
Civita di Bagnoregio
No need for population statistics for this town because it’s already close to zero residents, but you can blame the Etruscans for the eventual abandonment of this town 2,500 years later because they chose a very poor site. Civita is surrounded by calanchi that are typical of both this area and also around Atri in Abruzzo.
The Civita calanchi are basically water eroded tuff and clay soils that form unstable sandy ridges and gullies that run down the steep hillsides and are very distinctive in appearance. Both the Etruscans and then the Romans worked hard at channeling rainwater to contain the erosion but then for centuries this work was neglected and inevitably Civita became an island sitting above hollowed out cliffs with now only a modern pedestrian causeway providing access.
However the town is now much more famous and popular in death than in life and there are steady streams of people every day who walk across to visit Civita as well as it now becoming an obvious filming location. Having walked across myself I would say that the town itself is not as impressive as the view of the town that you see from a distance because once you get into the town it is inevitably just full of tourists and lacks the authenticity that only comes from inhabitants and the daily rhythm of ordinary life. The view from afar on the other hand is impressive and gives context to the history of Civita.