Lake Bolsena & Montefiascone

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After a couple more days of relaxing, catching up on our reading and generally enjoying the warm (30c here) weather and peaceful surroundings at our accommodation here in Acquapendente - it's time to venture out again. We have planned to do a circumnavigation of Lake Bolsena with just one hilltop town - Montefiascone - to be included along the route.

Apparently, Bolsena is the largest volcanic lake in Europe - and it is somewhat reassuring to know that the volcano responsible for its creation has been dormant since 104 BC. The lake has a surface area of 113 square klms and holds 9.2 cubic klms of water - so big enough for a swim!

Being just an hour away from Rome - the shoreline is dotted with expensive holiday homes and boutique hotels.


Brenda enjoying the view

A drone shot of the marina with the town of Bolsena in the background. 

The cost of real estate along the shoreline, while probably not rivaling that of Lake Como in the north of Italy, must still be pretty high. The roads and walkways around the lake are dotted with massive plane trees that look like they were planted 50-100 years ago. We have two plane trees planted in our garden at home - so this is what they might look like in 50+ years time....

 

Brenda has always been a bit of a tree-hugger!

After a morning coffee stop - "due cappuccini per favore?" it's time for another hilltop town!

The Lazio region is not as hilly as Tuscany and Umbria - but it still has some impressive hilltops that have been been built upon for their defensive capabilities many centuries ago.  Montefiascone is a beautiful town that is off the tourist trail. So it's easy to park in and you only hear Italian being spoken - no tourists (apart from us)!


Generally the church (or cathedral) will dominate the high ground so we head there first - but we gotta climb!

The Basilica di Santa Margherita (for which we must thank (Pope Urban V) is imposing, and invites us in....

With no other tourists around - we can marvel at this marvelous place - all to ourselves!

The cathedral also has a crypt - with some classic iconography

The town square in Montefiascone is quiet - just locals going about their daily routine

Perhaps the most impressive things about Montefiascone - are the fantastic views from all sides of the town - this one looking north over Lake Bolsena....


After an afternoon stop at a gelateria, in the lakeside town of Marta (just visible on the far left in the photo above), we head on around the lake to complete our circumnavigation and return to our Airbnb.

We have just two more days chillaxing in Acquapendente before we head further south to our next destination - Castel San Pietro Romano - about 50 klms east of Rome.

Comments

  1. Veronica Lund13 September 2023 at 02:07

    You will be gelato connoisseurs by the time you get back to NZ!

    ReplyDelete

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