Trasimeno - km 100

With 2000 years of history, lake Trasimeno features early as the theatre of a crushing defeat of the Romans in the second Punic War, when the Carthaginians under Hannibal defeated the army of the consul Gaius Flaminius in 217 B.C. at the Battle of Trasimeno. Some 15,000 Romans were lost in battle and another 10,000 fled across the countryside.
Trasimeno today is a paradise for lovers of botany. Over its blue water and amid every hue of green all kinds of birds fly and the rare white water lily grows. For these natural treasures and more, in 1995 the Region of Umbria established it as a National Park.
The lake has three suggestive islands - Maggiore, Minore and Polvese - and a string of pretty town running around its banks: Panicale, Castiglione del Lago, Magione, Tuoro, to name but a few.