IL COMPRENSORIO - THE TERRITORY

 

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In our society, where globalisation is increasing in every aspect of life, the best achievements can only be attained by modernity, teamwork and profitable collaboration. This will also bring to more and better services.
This major objective directly involves tourism being one of Italy's driving sectors and which can especially be boosted by local organisations' work. In this respect, everyone in our area is called on to do their utmost to meet the increasingly demanding expectations of today's visitor. The towns of Bagnoregio, Bolsena, Capodimonte, Gradoli, Grotte di Castro, Marta, Montefiascone, San Lorenzo Nuovo and Valentano have pooled ideas and resources to pursue the common objective of making local tourism thrive. These towns have started out by granting the Lake Bolsena territory a distinctive "quality label" to help tourists immediately recognize its attractions as unmissable landmarks. This is also to stimulate agencies and local authorities to provide an integrated number of quality services to ensure visitors perfect stays. A wider range of things to see will also cause the tourist influx to be more equally distributed and better assisted.
The Bolsena valley is one of the most beautiful, intact places in Italy. With its naturalistic assets and cultural heritage, it perfectly lends itself to such an important promotion plan as the one the nine towns have unanimously set out to achieve. The area is steeped in history as custodian of archaeological relics of such interest and value that the Regione Lazio is planning to establish here a National Library and an Autonomous Museum Organization.The beauty of these lands is the result of a volcanic activity that lasted half a million years. Continuous lava ejections shaped the landscape, making it so incredibly unique. About 400 years ago, after a long series of eruptions, a huge clod of 270 sq km sank a few hundred metres deep into the earth. This immense chasm, which volcanologists call "the cauldron", slowly began to expand because of rain and spring-water erosions. The Lake of Bolsena was formed this way: 120,000 years ago the two enchanting Martana and Bisentina islands were formed as craters which exploded and then emerged from the depths of the lake, completing the so-called "Volcanic Group of Volsini". What remains of the past eruptions is the numerous thermal springs that dot the district.
Numerous finds of chipped stone tools around Marta's coast, dating from the Upper Palaeolithic (40,000 to 10,000 years ago), are proof of original human settlings present in these areas. The first hamlets, like that of Capriola (in Bolsena municipal district), were built during the Neolithic and the Aeneolithic (10,000 to 4,000 years ago) periods. The population of the territory gradually increased and evolved both in the Bronze and Iron Ages (2,000 years B.C.), as shown by the numerous remains of homes found on the Volsini Mountains and in the lake itself (over 3,000 years the water level had been rising 10 metres and submerged many home sites).
The main Bronze/Iron Age home sites have been brought to light in Casale Marcello, Fondaccio (Montefiascone), Capriola, Civita d'Arlena (Bolsena), Monte Senano, Ragnatoro (Gradoli), Bisenzio, Civita (Bagnoregio) and on the Bisentina (Capodimonte) and Martana (Marta) islands. The territory went through a Roman era since 265 B.C. when Velzna was destroyed and a new town was founded by the survivors on the northeast rises of the lake valley. They gave it the same name as the old one, Volsinii, and christened the lake Volsiniensis. In the Middle Ages the town was called Borseno and finally Bolsena.
The Mysteries of Santa Cristina in Bolsena (23-24 July), Marta's Barabbata (14 May), The Purgatory Dinner in Gradoli (Ash Wednesday), the Parade of Saint Anthony's Horses in Capodimonte (17 January). These are only some of the important religious celebrations which have taken place around the lake for centuries and which signifies a very special blend between things sacred and profane. These feasts mirror feelings of human devotion, a taste for simple pleasures, and seem to bring with them the delicious flavour of the products from the lake and the surrounding lands.
There are medieval, Renaissance and Baroque traces in all the towns around the lake, such as fortresses, churches and palaces evoking clashes of armies, magnificent banquets and the solemnity of Gregorian choirs.
Thanks to the work of the nine towns this artistic, naturalistic heritage has been effectively exploited and promoted. There are no longer sporadic interventions and initiatives, but a general dedication to reviving what is considered to be everyone's invaluable