Life on the lake
Herbal perfume floats up from the ground, released from scrubby leaves by my every footfall. A warm breeze rattles the bay leaves dangling overhead, framing views of a grand, dilapidated chapel. To my left, egrets and cormorants wheel round a pale gold cliff that plunges into brilliant blue water. I’m strolling around what’s been described as the most beautiful island on any lake in the world: Isola Bisentina, on Lake Bolsena. It’s the ‘plug’ of a prehistoric volcano – a hardened column of molten rock left standing after a final eruption, lingering for millennia after every other bit of the volcano has vanished.
Gazing across the glittering water to the gentle green slopes beyond it, it’s hard to imagine the prehistoric violence of this place. A million years ago, this scene was a maze of volcanic cones constantly spurting lava. They chucked out so much stuff they emptied the ground beneath them, creating a vast underground hollow that collapsed with a deafening whump to form a gigantic crater. Natural springs slowly filled that crater to make Lake Bolsena – the cleanest lake in Europe (you can drink from it). For all its present-day serenity, reminders of the lake’s explosive past are everywhere – in the million tiny filaments of black volcanic glass that make the beaches, and in the stupendous fertility of the surrounding hills, teeming with fruit and flowers.
The whole town is on the streets, kneeling on the cobbles sketching outlines, hefting boxes of petals and patiently putting the soft blobs in place…
