Lago Trasimeno

During one of our weekend excursions, Christine and two of our students, Cherice and Natalia ventured off to explore what Lago Trasimeno had to offer a few sun deprived Americans. Having taken the train from Perugia to the lake, once we arrived at our stop, Passignano sul Trasimeno (also coined “The Pearl of Trasimeno”), we set out to find the rumored beach we had heard so much about.

Lago Trasimeno’s claim to fame is that it is the largest lake on the Italian peninsula, and fortunately for us, was only about a 30-minute train ride away from Perugia. There are eight towns and three islands all connected to and encompassing the lake; Castiglione del Lago, Panicale, Paciano, Citta della Pieve, Magione, Passagnano sul Trasimeno, Piegaro, Tuoro sul Trasimeno, Isola Maggiore, Isola Minore and Isola Polvese. Aside from a beautiful view, our location at Passagnano sul Trasimeno also has some tourist attractions including seven famous monuments. These monuments include several churches, a fortress, a villa and a hill and are named La Rocca, Pieve San Cristoforo, San Bernardino, Santuario Della Madonna dei Miracoli, Villa Romana, Villa del Pischiello and Madonna dell’Oliveto.

Though seemingly beautiful from afar, my fellow sun-deprived friends and I were uninterested in the historical side of Passagnano sul Trasimeno and had far more important objectives. We needed to find the sun, a spot to lay our towels down, apply some sun block and soak up all of the Vitamin D and endorphins we could obtain for the afternoon. After about a twenty-minute search, we stumbled across Suazo Beach, with a patch of beach chairs, umbrellas and imported sand. It was perfect and just what we needed to end our “girls weekend”.