Parco Regionale del Lago Trasimeno

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Environment
The Parco Regionale del Lago Trasimeno supports an abundance of typically freshwater plants and wildlife, with the surrounding slopes occupied by farmland and deciduous trees. The bird life on the lake is particularly rich, since this is a favourite stopping point for rare migratory species to and from northern Europe. Ornithologists from all over Italy have been studying and monitoring this passage for years, classifying the birds by applying rings on their passage to Africa in the autumn months. This practice has provided valuable information regarding their migratory patterns and habits.

Oasi La Valle
This marshy area on the southern shores of Lake Trasimene, near San Savino, is one of the lake’s most important habitats. The exceptional ecosystem of this small area is a precious example of a perfectly balanced environment, with plants and wildlife living in a harmony unaltered by human interference. Extensive reeds offer the perfect shelter and nesting ground for a broad variety of migratory and endemic bird species, including flocks coots that come here during the winter months, couples of grebes with their elaborate mating dances, ospreys, herons, little bitterns and little egrets.

The reeds
The mainstay of the lakeside vegetation, reeds encircle the stretch of water on all its sides and have grown particularly thick to the south and east. Those that grow in the Oasi La Valle are composed chiefly of three varieties: phragmites, stinca and typha angustifolia, as well as juncus.

The Islands
Isola Polvese. The largest of the islands on Lake Trasimene, Polvese houses an aquatic plants garden as well as scientific and environmental laboratories for observing local flora and fauna, complete with a series of lecture rooms. Other sights on the island are the Olivetani monastery and the Medieval castle.
Isola Maggiore. This island is still fully inhabited, with a hamlet that dates back to the 15th century, a number of interesting churches and the Guglielmi Castle.
Isola Minore or “Isoletta”. The property of the Province of Perugia, this is the smallest of the islands on the lake.

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"Umbria...Cuore verde d’Italia. Umbria delle acque e dei Parchi, Agenzia di Promozione turistica dell'Umbria, Perugia, pg. 72, by kind permission.