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| Sophia - photo explanation below |
Arizona State
University historian friends of ours asked us to lay out an auto itinerary for
them… outside Rome, à la the second time.
We asked what they liked – small towns (we’re okay at that), beaches
(hmmm, we’re not so good at that).
We came
up with an itinerary mainly to the south of Rome that includes the Castelli
Romani, Norma/Norba, the Mussolini-created town of Latina (near the beaches),
Anzio (more beaches + WWII), Ostia (more beaches), and Ostia Antica. The itinerary is a full and interesting one,
developed mostly by Bill. We’ve included Bill's original itinerary at the end of this post; for those RSTers who want to go farther afield.
Brian and
Cathy amended the trip somewhat, as we hoped they would. They went off in a convertible with an
unusual June rainstorm looming and added more religious sites – the latter makes
sense since Catherine – of the Loren car scarf - is a specialist in Catholic
church history.
Brian dutifully
wrote us a report of their trip – which we found interesting and funny and fun. And he included photos. We asked him if we could use his text and
photos as a guest blog post. In a weak
moment, he said “yes” – and so it follows (again, with Bill’s original
itinerary and a map at the end):
I will send in a moment a link
to a set of photographs that will bore you [included
rather than linked here, and photos of Italy never bore us], but they do
demonstrate a high level of compliance to your commands. Obedience paid nice
dividends, thank you very much. Our getaway into the Castelli Romani was
smooth, and the temperature dropped 10 degrees—on the road trip the front
brought in rain, but not all the time, hence Marcello and Sophia
(pictured) looked really sharp with the ragtop down, RayBans on.
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| Norma - and to the left, Norba |
I freaked out over Norma, its
precarious position alone quite stimulating save when drunk.
I provide
photographic evidence of the scholastic role the Mussolini family played there, but the best part were the chistes [Brian, being Arizonan, prefers Spanish to Italian;
apparently this means “jokes”] between the old men and the old ladies in
the piazza. The old ladies won.
Meanwhile, Cathy danced in the street, flipping
her Loren car scarf at the pious inhabitants of the tortured dank
alleyways.
We dropped down onto the malarial plane [the Agro Pontino] and found it a place not unlike
Phoenix…agriculture being king as it once was in that American desert
city. And, like that city, there are some pretty conservative views
there, as a photo of a sign on the gate to a “pilgrim’s way” suggests.
Near Latina, we found an inexpensive luxury beach hotel, and you will see the
proof of that.
Someone with an engineering sense had laid out these weird, for
Italy, straight roads called migliara [ok,
Brian – that refers to “miles”]. Once we found these we were
set. Primarily to head back to the hills and examine monasteries that my
perfect spouse insists on visiting. I think she prays in them, god
forbid. Indeed, it was claimed we stood in the very cell in which Thomas of
Aquinas died, joining in that moment the natural law with the divine one.
I attach a shot of me standing around while Loren recited the rosary, and of
the cool Solomon’s riddle that the Cistercian monks had placed in the chapter
room of their truly beautiful abbey.
I failed in my search for porchetta. Sophia kept insisting I
could get it in the next town, waving her scarf “adelante,” until we ended up
in another monastery town, Sermoneta, in a torrential rain. The waiter, hearing the word as I pronounced
it and seeing as I pointed to the trattoria sign that said they had it,
motioned us to sit down at a soaking table under a suspect umbrella, napkins
drenched, water dripping on our heads, and Italians in doorways barely
suppressing their laughter at these Yanks, too slow to come in out of the rain.
I did prevail upon the man to seat us inside. He presented us with
bending plates of excellent cheeses and first-rate olives and scrumptious red
peppers, the display heavy with delicious meats, all of the porcine variety but
well cured and lacking a trace of porchetta. [Hey, Brian – note we said porchetta in Ariccia – in the Castelli Romani. Local means local in Italy.]
We surmised that, desperate for customers, he had decided that the
Americans were going to get a “big pig feast” all right, just not the one we
indicated. It was grand, as was the cool castle at the top of the town
where we listened, with some comprehension, to the tale of the Castiglione,
dukes of the town and of the pestilential plain, one of whom, at the battle of
Lepanto, met a fetching Aragonesa and married her, bringing Spanish ducados
into the ducato.
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| Sermoneta |
As we returned we visited Anzio, a sad thing really, all those
young, slender boys with smiles on their faces and guns in their hands. Going
along the road to Ostia Antica, with its mosaics and its Roman playwright’s
coffin carved in honor of the muse, we encountered what Bill once did, a sign
for a bar named Tom and Jerry, a reminder of my purpose in life, which is, it
appears, to give a TnJ party every year.
Ciao!
PS… threw in your picture again, as a sign of thanks for being so
kind to us. We offer sincere congratulations for finishing the f*!@#g
wall. [You may surmise that Brian accompanied us on one of our “wall walks” of
Rome. That section was posted on the blog in early November. From his comment,
you may – or may not – want to replicate that section of the wall, esp. in
blistering Rome heat.]
The itinerary as offered by us:
Hi Brian and Cathy,
"Small towns, a beach" isn't much to go on.
But with those guidelines, here's something you might like:
1. First
day. Drive into the Alban Hills (Colli Albani/Castelli Romani)
on highway 7, catching towns of Castel Gandolfo (Pope's summer
residence, town just OK, not so fascinating; view spectacular), Albano
(great cistern there, better town), Genzano (famous for Pane (bread) Genzano);
Ariccia (home of porchetta, and a Bernini church, castle, etc., one of our
favorite towns). There are two lakes up there, Albano and Nemi (smaller),
though if you choose to explore them you likely won't be able to reach your
"destination" (Norma), archeological sites, etc. Then through
Velletri (site of 5th army breakthrough; mostly rebuilt after the war) and
onto an area on the fringe of the Monte Lepini that's pretty cool.
Latter includes Ninfa (an amazing park-like area, sometimes open to the
public - on the flats before Norma/Norba) and, on the bluff, Norma
(where's there's a hotel - and it's decent). Norma is paired with
"Norba" - an ancient Roman site, mostly buried now and the land used
for grazing - but Norba/Norma is spectacular area for views and
distinctive tiny town.
2. Day 2
Drive southwest off the bluff and (back) onto the flat plain of the Agro
Pontino, once famous for mosquitos, then for eradicating them, to the town of
Latina, one of several in this area constructed by the Mussolini regime.
Nifty Fascist-era modernism. Don't miss the "M" building. From
there, over to Nettuno/Anzio, where the allies landed and where I assume you
can find a beach. Good (if idiosyncratic; run by an individual) World War
II museum and, of course, cemeteries. OR from Latina you can head to the
coast and go SOUTH, cruising along a spectacular beach /Lido, spending some
time in another of the Fascist cities, Sabaudia, and finding your way (not far)
to Monte Circeo, which you can hike--it's not hard and there's a great view from
the top up the coast. There are hotels in Circeo and wine (labeled
Circeo) is made there. If you stop short of Circeo, there's another very
small fascist town, Pontinia, which has one (good) hotel. Note that the
hotels often have the best dinners. It's sometimes not easy to find good
dinner eating (lunch, yes - including full meal lunches) in small towns.
3. Day 3
(assuming you don't head south on Day 2).
From Anzio you can either shoot straight north to Aprilia, then left to Pomezia
(both Mussolini towns) or putter along the coast going northwest til you find a
good beach. Lido di Ostia is a great large beach town and has some
wonderful modernist architecture. From there, head toward Rome to Ostia
Antica, the 2000 year old port city, the remains of which are quite
something. Then to Rome. OR if you're into the Etruscan scene,
continue NW to Cerveteri for some quality time with tombs. Another good
beach town, instead of the more crowded Ostia, is Fregene. You can get access
to public beaches in all these places (though many beaches are private), and
there's a good public one in Fregene. Then to Rome. You can also
do Ostia and Ostia Antica by train from Rome. Fregene no.
Nota bene: though we've seen everything mentioned above, we
have never done this as a three day itinerary, and we don't know your habits,
whether you're into 3-hour lunches, etc. Some of the roads are very curvy
and slow, others straight and fast. Traffic and curvy mountain roads will
slow you down, maybe significantly. So it's hard to know if this sequence
will work for you.
You'll need a Lazio map to get a sense of distances and to plan in
detail.
Hope this helps!
Bill (and Dianne)
Ariccia may be our favorite town in the Colli Albani. The entrance to it is simply spectacular: over 
The tranquil main square, with a bar and exterior seating, is the perfect place for a morning coffee.
Then there's a whole "other" Ariccia, just through the town and down left: a spilling semicircle with perhaps a dozen restaurants and cafes, all featuring some version of pork, most with some sort of pig logo out front. (The bridge to the right of the photo on the right is the same one pictured in the older photo, below.)
One time we chose Osteria del Borgo and pappardelle with...pork (wild boar)! And a plateful of porchetta (photos above and left). All pork all the time (we first wrote about Ariccia's porchetta in 2011). On another visit we discovered a street of restaurants heading up the hill alongside the Parco dei Chigi. Men and women hawking their restaurants even crossed the street to accost us. Nonetheless, we chose one - Osteria da Angelo (da 1920, "hand made pasta" - those factors attracted us), and had a terrific porchetta "starter" followed by that pasta. We've now discovered the difference between dry and moist porchetta. You definitely want the latter. And, you need to eat it with some of the crispy skin and fat for flavor. Just do it.
