Lake Nemi

Don't miss

The lake dresses up in festive garb on several occasions throughout the year. Warm Christmas lights are followed by Valentine's Day, with the enchanting view of the lake made even more special by romantic decorations dedicated to lovers. In June the annual Strawberry Festival in Nemi, will enrich the visit with tasty tastings and folkloric events, and finally one cannot forget the summer night torchlight procession organized in August, a real enchantment!

A bit of history

Numerous finds attest to human presence since the time of Neanderthal man. For the ancient Romans it was a vacation spot a short distance from, a sacred forest. For centuries the bottom of the lake jealously guarded two large Roman ships built by Emperor Caligula and sunk upon his death. Recovered after several attempts, the ships were displayed in the specially built, but a fire destroyed them in 1944. A 1:5 scale reconstruction of the original ships can now be seen in the museum located on the shores of the lake.

Trivia

In the enclosure of the Nemi shrine near the Lake, there grew a tree from which it was not permissible to break any branches. Only a runaway slave, if he succeeded, could break one. In this case, he had the right to fight with the priest and, if he killed him, reigned in his stead with the title of king of the forest, rex nemorensis. According to the view of the ancients, this fatal branch was identified with that golden branch that Aeneas seized at the invitation of the Sibyl before he set out on his journey to the realm of the dead.