The first thing that strikes you, arriving in Piediluco, is the sense of disorientation. You expect the Umbria of golden hills and olive groves, but instead you find yourself in front of a body of water nestled between wooded hills, with the reflection of Mount Terminillo on the surface and a silence that smells more like an alpine lake than central Italy. Yet we are a few kilometers from Terni, 375 meters above sea level, and what you see is the second largest natural lake in Umbria after Trasimeno.
A story that begins 2300 years ago
In 271 BC the Roman consul Manius Curio Dentatus had a practical problem: the Rieti plain, a little further east, was a permanent marsh. The Lacus Velinus, a large alluvial basin formed in the Quaternary of which Lake Piediluco is today one of the remains, periodically flooded the agricultural land, making that area essentially unusable.
The solution was radical: digging an open-air canal of about two kilometers into the rock, the Cava Curiana, to bring the waters of the lake to the edge of Marmore and make them fall into the Nera river below. Thus, as a collateral effect of a reclamation work, the Marmore Waterfall was born, with a 165 meter drop, the highest in Europe, and Lacus Velinus was progressively redesigned into what we now call Lake Piediluco.
In the following centuries the canal became blocked and the plain became swampy again. In 1601 a new emissary was opened, the Cava Clementina, still active today. Then, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Terni Company built two other artificial canals for hydroelectric production, one 400 meters long, one 42 kilometers almost entirely in tunnels, which conveyed the waters of the Nera into the lake. What seems like a natural lake is actually the result of two thousand years of overlapping human interventions, each with its reasons and consequences.
A place that artists knew well
Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Piediluco was a stop on the Grand Tour, that long cultural journey that European aristocrats and intellectuals made through Italy. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot arrived there in 1826 and was so impressed that he dedicated several oil paintings to it. Galileo Galilei, according to local tradition, sailed on the lake in 1624 to carry out physics experiments. In the Sixties, at the time of the Dolce Vita, Brigitte Bardot escaped from the Roman sets and came to take refuge on its banks – immortalized in those years by the Terni photographer Valentini.
The town has never become famous in the modern tourist sense of the term, and perhaps this is precisely its strong point. The bank opposite the village is still almost completely devoid of buildings. You can glimpse some distant roofs and the profile of Terminillo, but near the lake nature still does everything on its own.
By bike: the lake, the river and beyond
Piediluco is one of the reference points for Umbrian cycling tourism and the ideal base for those who want to explore the Ternano area on horseback. For those who want to stay close to the water there are simple routes around the lake, suitable for everyone. But the area offers much more ambitious itineraries.
The Nera Greenway is a dirt path that runs along the Nera river, making it accessible on foot or by bicycle, with almost no impact on the landscape. It is part of a larger system that connects the Benedictine itineraries, the Via di Francesco and the route of the former Spoleto-Norcia railway, forming a signposted ring of approximately 180 kilometers through the heart of the Ternano area.
For those who prefer racing bikes, Piediluco is the starting point of three cycling tours: the tour of the lakes, the tour of the Franciscan sanctuaries and the climb to Terminillo. The town is also one of the rando points of the Grand Tour Rando, Umbria’s permanent cycling touring patent: 320 kilometers on low-traffic secondary roads that connect the main points of interest in the region, to be covered slowly and without haste.
Those who want to organize their excursions with structured support can rely on Umbria&Bike, the regional consortium that manages guided and self-guided tours throughout the region, with bike and e-bike rental, transfers and certified guides.
Where to sleep
For those who choose to stay at least one night, and there are many reasons to do so, the Hotel del Lago is one of the most interesting options in the area. The structure is located on a hill overlooking Piediluco, in a strategic position with respect to the lake, the Marmore Falls and the main cycle and pedestrian routes in the area.
The history of the building alone is worth a curiosity: opened in 1934 as a summer camp, it became a sanatorium after the war thanks to the quality of the air, and then a hotel. In 2001 it was taken over by the entrepreneur Susanna Sabatini and recently renovated with attention to ecological solutions, including photocatalytic paints that purify the air of internal environments. The “Il Bosco nel Bosco” concept focuses on total immersion in nature, with a view of the village and Terminillo. The panoramic SPA with lake view is the reason why it is best to arrive with some free time.
The legends of the lake
Every self-respecting body of water has its stories, and Piediluco is no exception. The most fascinating concerns the Echo Mountain. Legend has it that a druid, to forever preserve the words of an impossible love, cast a spell on the hills surrounding the lake. Since then, anyone who turns to the mountain can hear their words repeated in the air, a whisper that the place still retains today, and that visitors can put to the test.
Another popular myth tells of an ancient dragon that inhabited the marshes of the area, poisoning them with its breath. The creature represents, in a symbolic key, the centuries-old struggle of local populations to reclaim the territory, the same struggle that led the Romans to dig the Cava Curiana in 271 BC and to create, almost by chance, the highest waterfall in Europe.
The very name of the place holds a pagan echo. Piediluco derives from Latin lucussacred forest: a term that in ancient times indicated the woods consecrated to divinities, places of worship and mystery. The forests that still surround the lake today seem to remember it.
