Hello !! Thank you all for following along. We've been so busy on the road there hasn't been time for writing, but we're collecting many stories to share with you soon. Here's one about the first stop on our journey... enjoy :)
Lake Nemi sits in the vessel of a volcanic crater, within the embrace of a still wild wood, perfumed with fig, kiwi, and wild boars. Walking along the path, our guides’ trained noses point out the origin of each passing scent, their own knowledge of the land apparent in the very movement of their bodies in response to the environment.
Looking out over the lake, certain groves of trees stand out, forming columns much like the original temples must have been, before people brought in stone to mark their prayers, and from a certain perspective, we can clearly see the relaxed body of a goddess, her belly formed by Monte Calvo, Jove’s Mountain, descending down into her legs open to the lake, Diana’s Mirror.
Stepping through the trees and stone, visions come of a time long-gone, where you would have to carry a bow and arrow on the way to the temple, encountering bears and mountain lions, wild boars and deer. And a reverence sets in for the millennia of people, indigenous Italics, Romans, and visitors from all over the world, making pilgrimage to this sacred forest and offerings to the great Diana, the crescent moon healer so deeply connected into the pulse of the earth.
Only a small portion of the ancient temple still remains, original red on the base of columns still peeking out, and a modern altar overflowing with pomegranates, candles, letters, and prayers of all sorts. Our guide tells us that there is a rebirth occurring here, a reawakening of understanding of the power and magic still held in the footsteps of Diana and her devotees.
Across the lake from the temple, a large building takes great precedence, the ship museum. This lake held a special importance for Caligula as well, who had large ships on the lake during his reign, the context of which is still debated. It is known that as a worshipper of Isis, Caligula did in fact bring Isis to Lake Nemi from Egypt, two great goddesses encountering one another in the shadow of a volcano.
After his reign, the Roman Empire wanted to forget Caligula completely, and worked diligently to sink his ships so they would never return, lost in time and space. But the legends persisted. Fisherman could see something in the water, would occasionally pull up pieces of wood carved out for the shape of these same ships. And beginning in the 1500’s explorers made attempts to find the treasures beneath the mirror of the lake, albeit mostly in vain.
Finally, under Mussolini’s tutelage, in an attempt to bring back the greatness of the Roman Empire, the recovery of the ships became a great priority. Using an ancient tunnel system meant to keep the level of the water from flooding the temple, they set to work draining the lake using pumps, eventually draining 21 meters of depth and around 50 million cubic meters total. They were able to recover the first ship relatively unharmed, and then the land gave way. The earth slid into the lake, trees toppling, and causing the water level to rise again, dashing their hopes of recovering the second ship. But as if by a miracle, the second ship began to float, and for a moment, the workers were able to see her the way she would have been so long ago, motivating the final push to bring her to shore.
The ship museum was built to house the two ships, starting with one plane hangar for the first ship donated by the military, and then nothing to house the second for a full year. When the call went out to Italians for help with housing the second ship, the response was immediate and enthusiastic, and so the second ship found a suitable home as well. And finally, after years of work, an environmental disaster that saw the loss of two species of water life and a great number of trees, the museum was inaugurated and opened. And a few days later, a great fire consumed both ships, lost once again, and this time forever.
Walking through these woods, in the footsteps of great power and great humility, I couldn’t help but wonder about the intentions of the Roman Empire to destroy these ships, and the disinterest a goddess might show in whether or not the ships remain when they are just one brief moment in the many centuries of worship in this place. Perhaps the legend of the ships can serve as a point of interest to bring people back to this place, to enter the woods without assumption in search of history, and instead find something deeper, a connection to the land, and a connection to our ancestors who held these lands in such reverence. I know that for myself, coming here with curiosity, without expectation, I found a profound and pulsing life I didn’t know before, one that has laid dormant within me, and which was reawakened in the realm of Diana Nemorensis.
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