Capodimonte

Amy is fond of saying that in Italy we don’t just have a life, we have a lifestyle. Part of that is the hot baths we frequent outside of town which I have blogged about before. Another big slice of that this summer has been the beach.

Italians just LOVE going to the beach. The Mediterranean coastline is very obliging, with miles of sand. Some of it is not all that far away from us. During the months of July and August and especially during the middle four weeks of that span, Italians migrate to the coast to bake themselves into a stupor and court skin cancer. Amy and I long ago decided that wasn’t our type of scene: unremitting glaring sun, salt glazed skin, sand in every body opening and stinging jellyfish thrown into the mix.

When we returned from our Norwegian expedition, we took guidance from some of the locals and made our way to Capodimonte, on the southern edge of Lago di Bolsena. Lake Bolsena is an old volcanic caldera. The town itself sits on a short peninsular jutting out in to the lake.

To the west of town along more than a kilometer of lakefront, is a public beach. Parking is quite reasonable, 2 euros for 6 hours on a weekday and only double that on the weekend. The edge of the water is lined with a row of mature trees providing shade almost to the water’s edge.

The bottom of the lake is black volcanic sand and you can wade out almost 100 meters before the water goes above head deep. Sometimes little bubbles (and little fish) percolate from the bottom and tickle you. This is proof that the lake is volcanic. One recent day when the mercury topped 97 in Viterbo, we found shade and a stiff breeze that made it seem downright pleasant. From the beach you get a nice view of the surroundings and especially of one of the two islands in the lake.

According to the web, you can take a boat from Capodimonte to the island, but we haven’t explored that yet, choosing instead to lounge and picnic by the beautifully clear, fresh water.