Sea or bay
Lacus N.N.
Lagoni oder Lago Sulfureo? (Miller)
Listen to the story
Lacus, simply Latin for 'lake', is all this round patch of water can be called, for if a name was ever written beside it, no trace survives. It sits in Tuscany between two spa buildings, the Waters of Volterra and the Waters of Populonia, and unlike the lakes drawn in northern Italy it is linked to no river. It probably stands for the lagoni of Larderello, muddy pools kept boiling by steam, perhaps the Lago Sulfureo among them. Much as a lone cluster of peaks on the map marks a whole mountainous region, the lake seems to signal an entire landscape of hot springs.