What Do Houseboats on Kentuckys Lake Cumberland Share in Common With the Roman Emperor Caligula?
Kentucky’s scenic Lake Cumberland, with its 1,255 miles of shoreline, is one of the houseboating vacation capitals of the modern world. Surrounded by picturesque rolling hills, deep forests and waterfalls, over 1,500 houseboats cruise the quiet waters and explore the intimate nooks and coves of the hundred-mile-long lake. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Lake Nemi, a small, volcanic lake near Rome, Italy, was the houseboating capital of the Holy Roman Empire and home to two lavish, recreational pleasure boats belonging to the notorious Roman Emperor Caligula. Even though the ships were deliberately pillaged and sunk soon after the unpopular emperor’s assassination, their existence subsequently captured the imagination of historians, archaeologists and, in particular, a 15th century Catholic cardinal during the Renaissance and a 20th century Italian dictator named Benito Mussolini. Digging up the truth Through the centuries, Emperor Caligula’s floating palaces were the stuff of legends and burie
