Italian hilltop stunner

For our entire three weeks in the small Italian village of Montefiascone we were mesmerised by Lake Bolsena as it presented many moods and faces from our apartment at the foot of Rocca dei Papi, once the summer residence of popes.

With the soft early-morning light bathing the fishing town of Marta on its shore and patchwork fields below our apartment, the lake appeared like the quintessential Italian beauty who had flawlessly applied a few brushstrokes of make-up to highlight her splendour.

But come sunset, long after we had called encore following the morning production, one of the largest lakes in Italy often became party to a fire-and-light show before the burning orange ball melted into the hills to the north near the Umbria-Lazio border, producing a crimson afterglow.

And while my wife Leonie and I visited this region of Lazio, just below Tuscany and Umbria, in summer, storms sometimes rolled across the lake, often leaving gaping holes in the menacing clouds to allow shards of light to shimmer on the surface.

Being drawn to Lake Bolsena, like old Italian men to benches in Piazza Montefiascone, is one of the attractions of spending time in the hilltop town with welcoming people who have no airs and graces but who enjoy a robust approach to life and a genuine willingness to embrace tourists.

The lake, which has 43km of shoreline and is 150m at its deepest point, is the lifeblood of the area where fishermen set out every day, mainly from Marta, in search of coregone and sea bass to service the many local restaurants whose seafood, especially the exceptional gnocchi with clams and mussels at Miralago in Montefiascone, is generally outstanding.

As Europe’s biggest lake formed from a volcano, Lake Bolsena has very clear water and coarse black sand along its shores with a crunch but no sludge underfoot.

And the locals love it with a passion, with thousands of people gathering on warm weekends, on the sand with makeshift shelters to shade bottomless eskies where mothers reach in and magically provide endless supplies of food, and on the grassy banks where kids play soccer or older women sit around on deckchairs and talk.

They come in all shapes and sizes at the lake; glamour girls with bathers squeezed up bum cheeks, older men and women whose cozzies are under constant strain, joggers and walkers and dogs, fishers, water skiers, especially on a Sunday, and the sun worshippers who, like sunflowers, move three or four times a day to maximise their exposure.

It is fitting that one-third of the lake was donated to the Catholic Church by the noble family Alberici of Orvieto because, while Montefiascone has a superb duomo with one of the largest domes in Italy, the lake offers an alternative style of worship.

Very few Italians — there were mainly locals during our time there — actually swim, preferring to stand around in waist-deep water and natter away or muck around with balls and plastic floats.

The water is as refreshing as it is clean and it was a joy to get back to the flat without our bodies coated in salt.

While Lake Bolsena is the lifeblood of the region, it is far from the sole attraction in the area from which Rome can be reached by train from the Montefiascone station for $18 return in a trip taking about 90 minutes.

Popping down to Rome for a day was a treat but so, too, was a drive to Orvieto (30 minutes), a beautiful tourist magnet perched high on the flat summit of a large volcanic tuff with steep vertical sides which made it an almost impenetrable stronghold over the ages.

Orvieto, too, has a wonderful church and offers good-value clothes and ceramic shopping in summer with some fine restaurants. It is one of the iconic tourist towns in Italy, let alone in this area, though Montefiascone is gathering momentum as a tourism destination rather than an afterthought. If you are after something bigger, Rome is just down the road while Siena is 130km north.

Marta has its charm, with long, wide boulevards along the shore of Lake Bolsena, and so too does the town which bears its name, Bolsena, with its up-market hotels and wide avenues with footpaths lined with hydrangeas of all colours.

Invariably, there are some left-field gems in and around small Italian villages and Montefiascone was no exception; two of the more notable were a Punjabi Sikh tending a herd of 300 buffalo on a farm on the outskirts of town, and less than 20 minutes by car, a tiny settlement perched high on a pinnacle which looks for all the world that it might just topple into the Tiber Valley.

For some reason Leonie always has liked buffalo and, when we discovered a herd of them were being milked for mozzarella cheese within walking distance of town, it became a mandatory stop. After ducking down to the milking sheds to meet the Sikh with the nervous smile, we entered a retail outlet which sells the cheese in the size of cricket balls — great pulpous globs which ooze white lava when sliced open, putting lovers of the cheese in a euphoric state.

Not far along the road from Montefiascone to Orvieto, there is a turnoff to Bagnoregio and, more importantly, Civita di Bagnoregio, a tiny town making a bold visual statement as it stands precariously on a friable uprising of volcanic rock.

The sole access to the village, which numbers little more than 100 in summer and far fewer in winter, is on a pedestrian walkway where mopeds are used to carry goods and supplies to the town which features several restaurants and bars.

Of course, the Est! Est!! Est!!! wine region of Montefiascone is a major attraction in itself but, alas, the unusual name has more appeal than some of the wine we tasted. Est! wasn’t necessarily best!

Legend has it that during the 12th century a German bishop, who liked a slurp or two with his roast venison, was on his way to Rome for a meeting with the pope when he sent ahead a scouting party to find inns with the best wine. The bishop’s man scribbled the words “est” (it is) on an inn’s door when he believed he had found wine of sufficient quality to satisfy his bishop.

Time is the major hindrance for most people touring Europe, so while a three-day stay in the area would allow you to scratch the surface, to get a snapshot of Italy and to feel immersed into a lifestyle, a 10-day to two-week stay in Montefiascone would do the area justice.

And be sure to pack the cozzies because a trip to the region without a swim in Lake Bolsena would be sacrilegious.