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Bolsena and its surrondings
The city has Etruscan origin, founded in 265 BC, maybe as a result of the conquest of the Romans on Orvieto, who's survivors were deported to the lakeshores. Bolsena gives its name to Europe's biggest vulcanic basin. Its interesting formation is illustrated in detail in the Territorial Museum of the lake.
The area has been inhabited in the times of the 'villanoviane' civilization, there are still underwater witnesses of the lake dwelling south of Bolsena to proof so, and even before in the palaeolithic era, which is demonstrated by discoveries on the northside of the town.
Situated along the antique pilgrimspath 'via Francigena' towards Rome, the city has taken on the shape which we still see today; there are the visible Renaissance constructions, like the church dedicated to S. Cristina, the martyr, celebrated saint born in Bolsena who's hagiography tells of 10 different consecutive tortures. Or the church of the Eucharistic Miracle - 18th century - which honours the event that is remembered every year in the celebration of Corpus Domini.
The island of Bisentina, the biggest one of the two islands, is a reffined secret garden with a splendid convent of '400, too isolated in winter for the dangerous atmospheric conditions, to the point where the monks decide at the end of '500 to move to the mainland and build S. Maria del Giglio.
Also the villages around the lake deserve a visit: Montefiascone, Marta,
Capodimonte or Gradoli. And at short distance there are more interesting things
to be seen: Viterbo (30 km),
Orvieto (14 km), Civita di Bagnoregio (10 km), Tarquinia (40 km), Tuscanica
(40 km) and Vulci (50 km).