Riserva Naturale Lago di Nemi, Castelli Romani, Lazio
Forty kilometres south of Rome, a perfectly circular lake sits inside the caldera of an ancient volcano, ringed by dense forest and overlooked by the medieval hilltop town of Nemi — famous across Italy for its wild strawberries. The Lago di Nemi is part of the Castelli Romani regional park, and on a weekday it feels like a world away from the capital's crowds.
The lake, the town and the strawberries
Nemi town perches on the crater rim 300 metres above the lake surface, its lanes so narrow that cars cannot pass. The walk down to the lake shore takes about 25 minutes on a well-marked path through chestnut and oak forest, and the lake itself is calm enough for kayaking — a local operator rents boats from the small pier on the northern shore from spring through early autumn.
The town is nationally famous for its fragoline di bosco — tiny, intensely perfumed wild strawberries that ripen from May to July. Every restaurant in town serves them with cream, in tarts, or soaked in white wine, and the weekly strawberry festival (Sagra delle Fragole) takes place on the first Sunday of June with stalls, folk music and free tastings.
How to combine with a day in the Castelli Romani
The Castelli Romani — a cluster of volcanic hilltowns including Frascati, Castel Gandolfo and Grottaferrata — make a logical day trip from Rome. Frascati is the most accessible by train (30 minutes from Termini) and is the source of the crisp, straw-coloured Frascati DOC white wine that Romans have been drinking since antiquity. The town has several cantinas where you can taste directly from the barrel for a few euros.
Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence, sits on the rim of the adjacent Lago Albano and has a lovely lakeside lido open in summer. Combine Nemi in the morning with Castel Gandolfo in the afternoon for a full day of volcanic lakes, hilltowns and very good local wine.
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