Legends of love and italian lakes

The legend of love between Agilla and Trasimeno

On the shores of lake Trasimeno whose shape may remind the one of a heart for the most romantic ones the wonderful nymph Agilla used to live. She was madly in love with the prince Trasimeno who was king Tyrrhenian’s son. Once the nymph sang a mellow song which attracted her beloved one to the middle of the lake by the island Polvese. When Trasimeno saw her he fell in love, he could hardly convince his father to give his blessing for the wedding and he was successful in the end although their love was fated to tragedy. After just one day while the beautiful Agilla was looking at him from the shore and Trasimeno disappeared in the lake’s water. Agilla looked for him for days and days, she checked the seabed, the shores and the surface of the huge basin. The desperate nymph has been looking for her beloved Trasimeno since then by singing a mallow song at Summer nights and she hopes she will find him one day.

The legend of Bianca and the birth of lake Monate

Bianca was really beautiful. Her beauty could be compared with her love for a soldier who was fighting at the front. Bianca lived with her old mother near Usmate. Once the local squire saw Bianca and he fell in love with her but the girl didn’t want to hear. Her reaction made him very angry and he communicated his people he would behead whoever tried to give water to Bianca. The brave girl used to reach the source of Monteggia every day to fetch the water for her and for her mum but her mum got sick and the water she could get was not enough. Her mother used to say “I’m thirsty” while she was crying. So Bianca had to beg for mercy but the squire refused and said “your wicked mum can die of thirst”. Bianca was desperate and she made an evel spell against the squire who would be thirsty for all eternity. From that moment on a strong wind caused a terrible storm and a lot of water started to come out from the castle’s pit and the whole manor and its surrounding area were flooded. After the terrible storm the lake of Monate was born. No one dare crossing the lake’s whirlpools…. they say it’s the cursed squire who can’t appease his thirst from the depth of the lake.

The legend of the red lake of Tovel and princess Tresenga

There’s a lake in the Non Valley that used to turn bright red every Summer until 1964. The legend goes that it was the beautiful princess Tresenga’s blood. She was the King of Ragoli’s only daughter. She was really beautiful and everyone longed for her but she used to refuse all marriage proposals in order to avoid the Kingdom to fall in foreign hands. Lavinio was the king of Tuenno, he used to send her precious gifts but she always refused them. He got very angry because of the insult so he declared war against the kingdom of Ragoli to force Tresenga to marry him but the brave princess became the commander

of her little army to face the kingdom’s enemies. It was a really tough fight and the princess resisted until the end, she proved her bravery but she finally died and her blood turned lake Tovel’s water into the red colour. They say that her spirit is still wondering around whispering. Anyway there’s a scientific reason for this phenomenon: the red colour was produced by an alga that used to grow in Summer by giving the lake its red colour.