Where to take a relaxing autumn break? The little-known Lake Trasimeno Nature Reserve in Umbria offers a perfect relaxing destination to travellers looking for authenticity and full immersion in Nature.
The landscape is straight out of a painting by Perugino, with soft hills and valleys, woodlands and skyward-pointing cypress trees, fields and vineyards. The area has been producing wines since Etruscan times wine that was praised by an expert like Pliny the Elder. So be sure to try the local DOC Colli del Trasimeno wines with your meal, which ideally should include fish from the lake and a special variety of tasty little beans (fagiolina), that grow only here.
The walled medieval hilltop towns surrounding the lake all merit exploring. The Castello di Magione castle was built in the 14th century as a hospice for pilgrims travelling to Rome along the nearby Via Francigena and has belonged ever since to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Castiglione del Lago on the opposite side of the lake is classed among the exclusive Borghi Più Belli d'Italia (Italy's most beautiful historic old towns). The Palazzo dello Corgna has a series of rooms frescoed by Pomarancio and is linked by a walkway to the imposing Rocca del Leone .
Panicale contains its own jewel: the stupendous Martirio di San Sebastiano, a masterpiece of Perugino's. It fills the entire wall behind the altar of the church of the same name with its brilliant colours and graceful composition, its archers posing as gracefully as dancers under the serene, heavenward-gazing martyr. Panicale also hosts a delightful Museo del Tulle, with a collection of transparent, delicate embroidery for infants' clothes and wedding veils from the school of hand embroidery founded in the town in the 1920s.
Tuoro sul Trasimeno, by contrast, owes its chief claim to fame to a battle. Overlooking the gentle landscape that rolls down to the lakeside, it is hard to believe that this was the scene of a particularly cruel conflict on the 21st June 217 BC when the African warriors of the one-eyed Hannibal trapped the Roman legionnaires in an ambush and virtually exterminated them. The Carthaginian general had come over the Alps and swept victorious down through the Italian peninsula, without, however, his elephants, which had almost all died of the cold during the mountain crossing. It is recorded in the Tuoro Documentation Centre that he had an army of 45,000 men, plus more than 20,000 Celtic warriors he had recruited in the Po valley. The Romans were outnumbered and to make matters worse for them, the cunning Hannibal trapped them in a misty pass. 10,000 Roman soldiers were saved because they hadn't yet entered the defile at the time of the attack and made it back to Rome to tell of the humiliating rout, but the dead filled the nearby stream so full of blood that local fishermen could not fish for days afterwards. The story has been told in cartoon form in a book published by the local administration.
According to Lorenzo Borgia, local councillor for tourism and culture, many local names allude to the tragedy, such as Ossaia, Sanguinetto, Sepoltaglia(deriving from the words for Bones, Blood & Burial).The swarthy,dark-haired inhabitants of Tuoro claim that their genes are mixed with those of the Carthiginian soldiers who tarried awhile in the area, enjoying the classic warriors' repose!
Perhaps it was also to exorcise the ghost of the unfortunate Roman commander, Consul Caio Flaminio Nepote, whose head was lopped off during the battle and triumphantly exhibited, dangling from the saddle of Gaulish nobleman Ducario, chief of the Insubri, that contemporary sculptor Pietro Cascella created his unique Campo del Sole at Punta Navaccia, just a few kilometres distant. The park contains 28 carved stone totems by as many different sculptors, arrayed in a serpentine coil that revokes the inner journey of the soul.
The jetty near the Parco del Sole is the starting point for the ferry boats that go to visit the Trasimeno Islands. Only one of the islands, Isola Maggiore (which is not, in fact, the biggest island) can be visited daily. It is a sacred place, as St. Francis of Assisi came to celebrate his Lenten fast in a cave on the shore in 1211. The island, which has a perimeter of 2 km, has many ruined monuments dating between the 12th-16th centuries and five ancient churches. The 13th century monastery and church of the Franciscans, however, is now incorporated in a manor house built by the Marquis Giacinto Guglielmi in the 19th century and is not open to the public. There are still 18 inhabitants living on the island and if you are lucky you may see one of the elderly women sitting outside her house engaged in the almost lost art of making Irish lace. Visiting children will prefer to go and look for Fiocco, (Flake), a solitary mute swan (a newcomer to the area). Fiocco has lost his mate and tries hard, without success, to fraternize with the local geese.
Where to stay and/eat:
Antico Casale di Montegualandro at Tuoro sul Trasimeno.
This historic residence, immersed in an 100,000 sqm park was originally known as the Antica Osteria della Spelonca, a hostelry offering rooms, meals and a change of horses for travellers on the road to Cortona. In 1800 it was transformed into the customs house of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on the border of the papal states. After the unification of Italy, it passed into the hands of the Counts Ranieri di Sorbello, as the administrative centre of their vast wine and olive oil producing estates. It is now a spa hotel, run by the Viterbi family, escapees from city stress and the rat race. It retains many of its old features, such as wooden beams, cotto tiles, stone chimneys and frescoed walls and ceilings. The outdoor swimming pool is a particularly attractive feature, immersed in the midst of olive groves and with a view over the lake and surrounding hills.
The Wellness & Spa centre contains an indoor heated pool, hydro massage, sauna and turkish bath, as well as a gym, herbal tea room and massage and shiatsu facilities.
The resort restaurant, the Antica Posta per Cortona 1745 , serves local traditional Umbria and Tuscan cooking among the original 18th century stone columns.
Info: www.anticocasale.it Tel. (++39)075.8230289
(M. Stenhouse)
