Bolsena

I began this blog with the intention of showing you some of the places I’ve seen since living in Italy.  I’m still waiting for Vito to take me to Venice and hope he does before it sinks completely, but for a variety of reasons we haven’t travelled very far since we came to live here.  Having said that we have done a fair tour of places, which are more off the beaten track, yet within a few hours (often less) driving distance of Rome.  I thought I’d show you some of these places.  First stop then Bolsena.

Bolsena is a both a town and the name of the Lake it sits on.    Vito took me there for a day out three years ago at the end of February.   The weather as you can see from the photos was absolutely perfect that day.   There are several towns around the lakeside, Bolsena is just one of them.   The town in this picture is called Capodimonte, but it is NOT the Capodimonte where the famous ceramics come from.   I couldn’t believe how clear the water was.

According to Wiki, Bolsena is a volcanic crater lake, but it’s hard to imagine it being the centre of volcanic activity when you look at a photo like this.

This island apparently was the result of an underwater eruption, but I’d never have guessed to look at it!  

We drove round the side of the lake, up through and down Capodimonte and on until we reached Bolsena itself.  Bolsena town is right on the lakeside itself and has a modern part with hotels and a promenade with the usual ice-cream stops.  A bit behind that you can walk through the wall to the medieval Borgo with its castle sitting at the top. Vito, who travels all over for his work was familiar with the area and it was to the Borgo we headed first as it was getting on for lunchtime, and duty called.  In Italy, believe me, lunch is a duty (and on days like this when we go out together, always a pleasure!)

Entering through the arch of the old walls (forgot to snap it as Vito was nagging about food), this was the view that confronted us as we entered the narrow main street.

All the Borghi I’ve seen so far have elements in common, as you’d expect, but it soon became apparent that this one also had its individual quirks.

Can you imagine living there?  And people really do!  To the right of the plant, that square tunnel leads to a front door.  Maybe the people who live there are very small?  Whatever, they must be very fit to have to bend up and down like that on a regular basis.  I’ve often commented that people who live in many borghi must be fit – you’ll see why later. To right and left were turnings like this.

 We actually walked up these stairs and found two front doors at right angles to each other in a small courtyard, filled with even more clean washing!

Further up the road we found a family run restaurant that had been open since the 1920s in what had once been a church. Vito ordered “Coregone” for lunch.  It’s a white freshwater fish that breeds in the lake, and a specialty in the area. The desert he ordered was called “come viene, viene” which means “as it comes it comes”!  Vito said it was delicious; I was being virtuous that day and didn’t have any (although when it arrived I wished I had ordered it.)

After lunch we moved on up the main road towards the square.  How old must that door be????

Can you imagine carrying your shopping up this lot? Now you know why I said you needed to be fit.

The shopping needs to go right up there near where the castle is.  Below a house for very thin people.

Maybe they used to live up near the castle!

This is a pretty typical gateway into a borgo.

Above the old borgo stands the castle, which is now a museum.  You can buy a ticket to go round if you wish. 

From the old castle you can look down on the old borgo

or if you look the other way, there are superb views over the modern part of the town and across the lake.

I'd said to Vito that we hadn't seen many cats about which was pretty unusual, but then we realised they were having a conference in the car park.

The sun by now was getting lower in the sky and the temperature was definitely dropping. It was February after all.  So we decided to call it a day, although we’ve been back several times since.  It truly is beautiful place and well worth a visit if you find yourself in the area.

If you want to know about the town of Bolsena, look here.  If you want to know more about the Lake, look here.  If you want more information on the other towns and round the lake, look here.