Barabbata folk festival boat full of bread

the town and up to the church at the top of the hill. What sets it apart from thousands of other religious festivals is the enthusiasm with which the townsfolk construct their highly elaborate floats each year.

Women observe from balconies

These have got so big over the years that most of them can no longer manage the narrow lanes of the old town and have to be paraded along the main thoroughfare. Despite its devotion to the Madonna it’s an all male affair, the woman are restricted to casting flowers from their balconies. The ‘modern’ festival dates back to 1563 though it probably has its origins in pagan Etruscan festivities.

The trades involved are the fishermen; the shepherds; the ‘butteri’, the cowboys of the Maremma on their fine horses; the herdsmen with their oxen and the villani, the villains or peasants, all dressed in their traditional costume.

Ave Maria!

Everything is accompanied by loud cheering of “Evviva Maria, evviva il santisimo sacramento, Evviva la Madonna!” and there is also a noisy local band led, rather incongruously given the  antiquity of the festival, by majorettes twirling their batons.

The festival starts at 4.00 AM with a drummer beating round the town awakening all the participants to put the finishing touches to their floats.

Aftermath: petals by the thousand

They then start forming up along the lake shore from about 8 AM which is when we aim to be there, and the procession heads off through the town from 9 o’clock arriving at the church of the Madonna del Monte above the town at around noon where everyone then indulges in a well deserved wine swilling picnic surrounded by their on-looking animals. The Barabbata is a wonderful way to herald in the summer.

Journey’s end, plenty of “vino”

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hoary fisherfolk

CAMERA ETRUSCA will take you all around its shores. Bolsena is still a working lake, the fishing industry thrives in the village of Marta which is one of favourite places with its brightly coloured fishing boats, narrow cobbled streets and ancient buildings.The fisherman come in every morning with their catch of perch, pike, eel and coregone the local speciality – it’s quite delicious and not at all like a freshwater fish and you’ll find it all the lakeside restaurants.  The fishermen with their weather lined faces and air of bonhomie are happy to be photographed with their nets and paraphernalia. This is an excellent place to practice portraiture.

Lake Bolsena is an extinct volcano 13km long by 11 wide with two islands, both containing old villas, churches and ruined castles, but now uninhabited.

Bizentina Island

On occasions we hire a boat to visit the islands which, with their high cliffs surmounted by chapels and ruins, are like something from a gothic novel. The rock is honey coloured tufa, the sand is volcanic and black. Occasionally around the islands it is possible to spot a flamingo, while grey herons, egrets and the gorgeously coloured bee-eater are common.

High on the ruins of Visentium

Legend has it that the Etruscans migrated from drought stricken Lydia in Asia Minor  around 900 BC. When they first saw the vast expanse of fresh water that is Bolsena it must have seemed like an earthly paradise to the parched navigators. Not surprising that they made the lake the centre of their cult, and it was somewhere here on its shores that the gathering of the clans took place every year, the mysterious Fanum Voltumnae  the exact location of which is still wrapped in mystery.

Willow patterns

 Bolsena is a lake of  miracles. St  Christina was mercilessly tossed into the lake by her pagan father, who thoughtfully tied a rock round her ankles, this may well refer to the Christian vanquishment of the pagan Voltumna.

Santa Cristina's footprints

The rock tied around Christina’s feet to sink her, and on which she miraculously floated back to the surface, is the prized relic of Bolsena’s beautiful miracle church, and whatever its origins the stone has two small footprints clearly visible.

A photographic  excursion to Lake Bolsena can easily last all day there is so much to see, do, and photograph. This is one of the great landscapes of Italy, or perhaps we should say lakescape.

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