Tour of Marta & Montefiascone

Marta, the main and active port of Lake Bolsena, is a characteristic fishing village. It rises to m 314 s.l.m. on the southern shore of the largest volcanic lake in Italy, 23 km NW from the capital Viterbo. The visitor offers a discreet medieval village with alleys and squares, perched around the Clock Tower, a quiet lakefront shaded by plane trees, ideal for relaxing walks, a long beach and a small harbor that shelters small boats as well as the characteristic fishing boats .It is known for its excellent cuisine, the DOC Cannaiola wine and for the “Barabbata”, a beautiful and evocative popular festival. A whole that makes Marta a pleasant place to discover and visit. The origin of this village, in the absence of established evidence, is controversial. According to tradition it derives from an ancient Etruscan settlement, according to other theses its name derives from the Phoenician Marath. The first millennium lacunoso of history tells us the tragic story of 534 AD, which has as its protagonist the queen of the Ostrogoths Amalasunta, daughter of Theodoric, segregated and killed on the Martana Island. The established history of the country begins instead in 726 d.C. when his name appears for the first time in an act of donation for the constitution of the “Patrimony of S. Pietro in Tuscia”. In the 13th century the Rocca was built by Pope Urban IV, built according to legend, with the remains of the ancient Bisenzio, of which only the octagonal Tower, today symbol of Marta, remains. In the early Middle Ages it was fiercely contested between the Church and the Lords; was subjected to the Prefects of Vico, the Lords of Bisenzio, Angelo Tartaglia, the Orsini and finally from 1537 to the Duchy of Castro, ruled by the Farnese until their decline, which occurred with the destruction of Castro in 1649. Following this event, Marta he returned to the dominion of the Church which maintained it until the Unification of Italy.

The city of Montefiascone is located on the Volsino crater belt, between the Bolsena lake and the Cassia state road, at an altitude of 640 m. From this privileged position there is a vision of an incomparable landscape that goes from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Maremma, to the lake with its beautiful islands Martana and Bisentina, the latter famous because it houses in addition to the Farnese tombs, also several works by Antonio da Sangallo Giovane and Vignola. For this position Montefiascone is characterized, from the beginning, both as an important strategic place for political and religious reasons. The Etruscans considered it a sacred area, perhaps the seat of the legendary Fanum Voltumnae. The main testimonies of the Roman period are the conspicuous and in good condition of the consular Cassia. The story is linked to some popes, including Urban V, considered the greatest benefactor of Montefiascone: to him we owe the radical transformation of the fortress to accommodate the papal court and the title of diocese. Honors also to Pius IX, to whom the inhabitants of the place, on the occasion of his visit in September 1857, dedicated the construction of a door (Porta Pia). The two plagues of 1527 and 1657, together with a ruinous earthquake in 1695, marked the decline of Montefiascone as a papal residence: the Fortress was abandoned and used as a quarry of material.

The lake of Bolsena, in the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, is the fifth largest lake in Italy, in the caldera of the Vulsinio volcanic complex, but it is the largest lake basin in Lazio. It lies in an environment of great beauty, a land of tufa, of ancient craters like the one that welcomes it and of dark rocks that form the cliffs on which emerge villages and castles. The chain of the Volsini mountains crown the lake, between slopes planted with vines and olive trees, woods, archaeological memories (the Tuscia was the heart of the Etruscan civilization), historical centers of great interest. Our full day tour will give you the opportunity to discover a corner of Italy out of the touristic routes beaten by the mass tourism.