Lake Vico Nature Reserve

The Lago di Vico Nature Reserve protects the lake and its encircling hills — one of the best-preserved crater lakes in central Italy. The reserve covers about 3,000 hectares of water and forest, including one of the southernmost beech forests in Europe and extensive chestnut groves that have been harvested for centuries.

Walking trails ring the crater rim and descend to the shore, giving views down through the forest to the water. The lake supports good birdlife: great crested grebes nest on the water, herons fish the shallower margins, and ospreys pass through on migration. Swimming is permitted at a small beach area on the north shore in summer. The reserve is designated a Ramsar wetland for its importance to migratory birds.

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Lake Vico sits in a volcanic caldera — the submerged remnant of a collapsed magma chamber from the Cimini volcanic field, which was active around 100,000 years ago. Monte Venere, the conical peak rising from the northern shore, is a parasitic volcanic cone that formed inside the crater after the main caldera collapsed. The lake has no natural outflow; its water level is regulated by a tunnel cut through the crater rim in the 1930s.

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