The 13-km long expanse with one of Europe’s largest barrages where civil engineering surmounted serious challenges has turned the awesome Bifarno river into a dejected ribbon of mind and marsh-plants. The reservoir makes amends by bringing 30,000 hectares of barren land under cultivation. The lake shores attract cave-explorers, anglers, picnickers and lovers of the captivating Molise scenery: wide, meandering valleys shaded by rolling hills where the villages have perversely chosen heights instead of lowlands, and the courses of rivers are deserted and bleak with gravel banks and stagnant pools. Between Guardialfiera and Termoli the new Fondovalle (Valley bed’) highway is another triumph of engineering skills. The longest viaduct in Italy is at the north end of the lake.