The harmonious coexistence of the green hills typical of the Umbrian-Tuscan environment, with the suggestive panorama of the lake and with the ancient towns rich in history, art and culture, make this area a place of particular charm. Great civilizations and illustrious characters have animated this land and its villages.
Starting from the city of Chiusi, southwest of Trasimeno, we come across the Etruscan civilization, which from the 10th to the 8th century BC. he settled in central Italy. Towards the end of the fifth century. BC, the Etruscan king Porsenna reigned here, known for the siege with which he encircled the already powerful city of Rome. Many Etruscan-Roman finds are collected in the city archaeological museum. It is also possible to visit the suggestive Labyrinth of Porsenna. Leaving for the Trasimeno, on the traces of pre-Roman civilization, we go up north to Perugia, one of the first cities of the Etruscan dodecapolis. The monumental remains are present in several parts of the walls. Of extraordinary charm are the Etruscan Arch, the Porta Marzia and the Etruscan Well. Outside the city it is then possible to visit the Hypogeum of the Volumni, in Ponte San Giovanni, the largest and most important of the extra-urban necropolis of Perugia.
From Perugia we return towards the Trasimeno towards Corciano, Magione, Passignano and Tuoro. On the hills around the lake the Etruscans marked an important presence, testified by the discovery of many finds associated with sanctuaries and places of worship: a considerable collection is kept in the archaeological museums of Perugia and Corciano. The Trasimeno for the Etruscans is a hinge place between the great dodecapolis of Cortona, Perugia and Chiusi, and is characterized by scattered settlements of which a testimony remains in the cinerary urns, in the country houses and in some churches which probably arose directly nearby of Etruscan sanctuaries, such as Santa Maria di Ancaelle in Sant´Arcangelo di Magione. The flat and fertile area around Castiglione del Lago is the place of the greatest finds.
It is with the Romans, however, that Trasimeno, with flourishing agriculture and the wealth produced by the lake not only through fishing, became a territory of great economic and military interest. In this period observation towers were erected in Passignano (the original nucleus of the castle of Monte Ruffiano), fortifications and residential villas, as evidenced by the remains of a rustic Roman villa, recently brought to light in the locality of Quarantaia. And it is in Tuoro, at the northernmost point of the lake, that the history of Rome had one of its crucial stages, with “The Battle of Trasimeno”: one of the most extraordinary victories obtained by the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal during the descent in Italy in the II Punic War.
