Lake Trasimeno

Trasimeno is the fourth largest Italian lake and the biggest in central Italy, but it does not resemble the northern lakes: there are no mountains around it, it is shallow, the shores are planted with olives and the water is green. It is a basin lake, with no important inflow and an artificial outlet dug by the Romans, and so its level depends on the winter rain.

Around it are the villages that live off the lake: Passignano, with its old centre on the water and the ferries; Tuoro, near the field where Hannibal destroyed a Roman army in 217 BC; Castiglione del Lago, with the Rocca del Leone and the palace of the della Corgna; Magione and San Feliciano, which is the fishermen's village.

The islands

Maggiore is the only inhabited one, with some thirty residents, and is reached by ferry from Passignano and Tuoro in a quarter of an hour: it has one street, a thirteenth century church and the lace that the local women have embroidered for a century. Polvese, the largest, is a science and teaching park and is reached from San Feliciano. Minore is private.

The camping and the rest

Nearly all the region's campsites are here, on the north and west shores, with a shingle beach and a jetty. You can swim from June to September, the water is warm and shallow, and for children it is easy. A cycle path of some fifty kilometres, mostly flat, runs around the lake linking the villages.

Lake fish is a cuisine of its own: regina in porchetta, that is carp baked with herbs, tegamaccio, a soup of several fish, eel and perch. They are eaten in the trattorias of San Feliciano and Passignano, and they are worth the detour.