Day Trip to Bracciano

 

The view from the castle ramparts.

It took us decades of living for months each year in Rome finally to get to Bracciano, the lovely town with its astounding castle overlooking the lake of the same name - Lago di Bracciano. Over the decades, we've hiked all around the lake, dallied in the lovely town of Anguillara (named for the ubiquitous native eels that have clogged some of the aqueducts over time) at its southeastern end, scootered around it, including on its windy volcanic lip. But visited the town? Never until last year. Maybe it was its attraction to celebrities that made us stay away so long (among those married in the castle were Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti and Swiss model Michelle Hunziker, and Martin Scorsese and Isabella Rossellini).

Now without scooter, we figured out the train timetables and took the almost 2-hour-long ride - stopping almost 20 times along the less than 50-mile route. Worth it?  Definitely! (It's the F3 interurban train that can be accessed at Stazioni Tiburtina, Ostiense, Trastevere, etc.)

Right, our first view, from the narrow streets of the old town, of the Orsini-Odelscalchi castle.

The castle is in wonderful condition and you are allowed to roam all over it.

Built in the 15th century by the wealthy Orsini family, the Orsini bear sightings are many. ("Orsini" means "little bears"). The family crest sports both the bear peaking over the top, and a rose.

The town and castle were also the focal points of many conflicts between wealthy families, some connected to Popes. The Colonna, Medici, and Torlonia were involved. In 1948 the castle was purchased by a prince of the Odescalchi line. Hence the full name: Castello Orsini-Odescalchi. (See photo of map below of the extent of the Orsini family rule when they started the project.)

The armaments room (photo above) is particularly impressive, as is the painting showing the various comings and goings of the families controlling Bracciano (close-up below). In case you are not into weapons, you'll also see the kitchens, bedrooms, frescoed ceilings, courtyards, and rooftops. You won't go away wanting for much. The website also features private tours of many varieties, including a kids' tour with a "princess" and re-enactments.  Website here. We couldn't get the English version of the web site to work, but you'll get the idea, or use an online translator.

A few more photos are at the end of the post. (We haven't included too many so you can enjoy the sight first-hand.) We don't want to leave out our trek down to the beach (a path for locals will get you there fairly easily), and some great seafood pastas. We also strolled along a beach area clearly designed for night-life, with one place even called "Movida" (the Italian word for the crowds that move among the hot spots in the late evening, the bane of residents' existences in some Roman neighborhoods like Trastevere and San Lorenzo).

The lake and beach from the castle grounds.

A few families ventured out on this sunny May weekday (right).

The "Movida" club, photo at left.  Near here was also a boat scheduled to take people across the lake. Some Brits were waiting for it, but it clearly was not going to show. Advice: don't depend on it.

Dianne

Above, map of Orsini holdings. Lake Bracciano is the small light blue spot towards the lower left. They had property in and out of the Papal states. Virginio Orsini lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The castle has many explanatory panels in both Italian and English.

A New Stadium for A.S. Roma: a Walking Adventure in Rome's near-in Countryside

Rome's A.S. Roma football club has been looking to build a new stadium for years. One effort collapsed when it became clear that the location--Tor di Valle, to the southwest of the city--would produce traffic chaos whenever there was a game. The latest idea (and at this writing it seems more likely to come to fruition) is to place the new stadium in an area of (more or less) unused land, at the intersection of Tiburtino and Pietralata--and across some railroad tracks and a highway from Piazza Bologna. Here's a map, with the location of the proposed stadium at center left (inserted as if it's there, below the road, just above the red Metro sign and to the right of the large P).

In early May, we set out to have a look at the area--not a place we had ever been. We parked our scooter on via dei Durantini (to the best of my recollection) and it didn't take long to come across a "Centro Revisioni" (for getting your vehicle its yearly test), located in a shack-like building at via del Casale Quintiliani, 115.

Not far beyond, we discovered the isolated Quintiliani Metro station (and bus turnaround). Heading down into the station, we didn't see a single person. Nor did the bus, which turned around while we were there, drop anyone off or pick anyone up. If and when the stadium arrives, the station will be busier--at least during soccer season. See the map above for the location of the Metro station. 

Plenty of graffiti, but no passengers

Up a hill, there's a carrozzeria (a car repair place), in as remote a location as the Metro station. If you can get your car there, it doesn't need repair.

Then, more run-down buildings.

We found lots of open land, sprinkled with roads (some of them of fairly recent origin) that are no longer in use--a project or projects that never panned out.

Some nice views of the nearby "city" (Piazza Bologna in the distance)?

And lots of poppies on the roadsides.

A rusted sign that I later converted into "accidental art." Ala Georges Braque (I know: "he's no Braque")

A few more businesses, including this small iron and aluminum foundry, not far from the Tiburtina Metro and train station:

A tunnel in use, but to where?

Off via dei Monti Tiburtini, a path into the future stadium site (we did not take it). This is a not a street for pedestrians--no sidewalks; we had to run now and then to avoid being on the street. 

Turning off via dei Monti Tiburtini, we found a nice coffee shop, chatted with the owner about the prospect of a stadium nearby, and returned to our scooter. A grand adventure!

Bill 

New Life in the Tiburtina Station - shopping, education, even high speed trains

Tiburtina train station - now inhabited - for comparison, see the 2013 photo at the end of this post - virtually the same shot.

We wrote about the Tiburtina train station 3 years ago, 6 months after it opened, when it seemed like an empty movie set (see photo at end of this post), and we predicted it wouldn't find life in the near future.  We were wrong.  The station may not be chock full, but it's certainly found life.  For those who want to travel without the stress of Termini (made even worse this year with construction and new security procedures), try Tiburtina!

Finally there are coffee bars, in fact several of them.  And, you can sit down for free, you can get your own water, the barristas are nice, the place is efficient, the coffee and cornetti decent.  The arrivals and departures are clearly displayed right there.  What more can one ask?

There's even some shopping at the station - bright, clean, modern stores.  And, we found. a terrific, small exhibit on - mainly - Roman artifacts relating to food.  "Le Vie del Cibo"  - The Roads of Food - from Ancient Rome to Modern Europe -that was up through mid-June.  Hopefully another exhibit will soon go into this space.

The show was a good, fairly simple primer on Roman and Etruscan history, with lovely examples explained in both Italian and English.  And, it was free.

The Tiburtina station is the home station for some of the fast trains, and for a lot of connecting trains. Don't dismay if you find yourself routed through there.  It's also a remarkable piece of architecture.

Dianne

Tibrurtina Station 2013

Hiking near Rome: Tivoli, Train to Trail

Hard work to get here, but great views.  Tivoli at left.  Colli Albani in the background.

We're hikers, and until now we've used our scooter almost exclusively to get to trailheads outside Rome.  But recently, we've been taking the train to destinations that promised too long a scooter ride--Carsoli among them. Having gotten used to trains, a short while ago we took one to Tivoli for a hike we thought would be ordinary.  It wasn't.

In the morning, trains for Tivoli leave from the station at Tiburtina every 20 minutes or so.  You can purchase round-trip tickets at the station, at kiosks, and in some stations, like Trastevere, at the newsstand.  The train we caught was a milk run--it stopped everywhere--and even then only took an hour and ten minutes to reach the famous hill town.  About 3 Euro each way per person.  Hard to beat that price.

At Tivoli we exited south from track 1 (past the cool eagle fountain), turned right on the street, had a coffee a couple of blocks down at a bar (where we also bought a sandwich for lunch), kept going down to the traffic circle, turned 90 degrees right with Villa Gregoriana on the left (the road to Marcellina), and followed the road--the most dangerous part of the whole exercise (no shoulders)--about 3/4 of a mile, past the bridge and around two other curves to the other side of the gorge.  The road then curves sharply right, goes around still another left curve, and there, on the right side of the road, you'll find the trailhead.  It looks like a small stone driveway that ascends in the direction you're traveling. There should be a sign put up by CAI (Club Alpino Italiano) naming the trail for "Paolo Fantini."  Have a drink of water and begin the climb, following the new, and very frequent, red and white marks on trees and rocks. This may be the best-marked trail we've ever been on.

This section of the map contains the start and finish of the hike.  The train station is very near the "T" in TIVOLI.  The trailhead is just beyond this section of the map, on the blue line (the road), upper left.  If you can get your hands on this map,
- "Riserva naturale Monte Catillo" - it's excellent.  It features, of course, the long-horned white bovine on the cover.

After a brief standoff with us, this long-horned bull
bailed out and took off down the hill.  

Trail "C" (see map below) ascends through a lovely forest of pine and scrub, turns right (east) after about 20 minutes, crosses some more or less open ground, turns a bit toward the northwest, then east again and down into a wooded fosso (a small valley or gulley) where we encountered, and skirted, bulls and horned cows on the trail as well as some "new age" orchestrations, including a set of wind chimes strung near the trail (below).

Wind chimes, upper left/center.

The trail then turns sharply west and, in a few minutes, begins a rather difficult, very rocky traverse/ascent of Monte Sterparo.  You'll use your hands here to climb some of the rocky pitches.  At the end of the ascent there's a lovely spot--a cross, a madonna, and a superb view of Tivoli and the valley in which Rome resides (photo at top of post).  You may see a white sail-shaped structure in the distance; it's an unfinished swimming pool designed by the world-famous architect Calatrava.

This map contains the entire course of the trek (C to F to E to A)

From here you'll take a DIFFERENT trail, just to the north of the one you came up.  Follow it for a minute or two, where it forks.  Take the LEFT fork ("F" on the map), to and through the nondescript actual top of Monte Sterparo (you won't know you've been there, although there's a good pile of stones at one point - not the highest point), and beyond for about 20/30 minutes to Colle Lecinone, where you'll find an abandoned building on your right and a barbed-wire boundary fence for the

Easy walking through nice forest.  Here, the trail markers are all on trees.  

"reserve" on your left.  The trail ("E") turns east and downhill from here, abandons the rocks, enters a sublime forest planted perhaps 60 years ago, and emerges--another 20 minutes later--into an intersection with trail signs galore.  The road to your right goes downhill and spills out at the bridge you walked a couple of hours ago; you can take this if your need to get back is urgent.  Instead, we recommend the trail to the east--the sign says something about a picnic area (i.e., "Area Pic-Nic") - it's still marked "E" on the map.  It goes through the woods, emerges on the east side of the mountain (great views to the East!), traverses the side of the hill for a few minutes, then heads downhill, more or less toward Tivoli.

The center portion of hike, including Monte Sterpara (middle left), up to Colle Lecinone (top left) on the F trail, and across on the E trail to lower right, until it meets up with trail A, which you follow.  

Through the cork oak forest.

And here it gets a little tricky.  As you come downhill and the countryside opens up, it is important that you follow the red and white markers, for there are several unmarked and tempting trails, mostly trampled out by cows and horses, we think.  Descending, you'll enter a divine forest of cork oak trees--the bark is special.

Near the end.  Tivoli center left, Monte Catillo, with
cross, in distance at right

Soon thereafter you'll come upon a lone tree, just to your right.  The correct trail is just to the right of the tree. Follow it, and it will take you down, past an athletic field on your right and around the small but iconic mountain above Tivoli--Monte Catillo, with the cross on its peak--onto a road (turn left, downhill) and then onto the road on which your hike began.  Turn left, and you're about 20 minutes from the train station.

Should you want to ascend Monte Catillo on the way down, you'll find a path on the southeast side of the mountain that will take you to the top, about 10 minutes away.

If you're eager to have a meal on your return, we recommend crossing the bridge at the circle, toward Tivoli proper.  About a hundred yards beyond, on the right, is L'Ape 50°, with tables inside and outside.  The kind and informed waiter explained the name to us (that little 3-wheel truck one sees rarely now, and usually only in the countryside, is called "l'ape" (the bee), and he revealed that travel guru Rick Steves had eaten there and lists the restaurant in one of his travel guides.  We're not Steves fans, but in this case he offers good advice. We especially enjoyed the weekly off-menu artichoke lasagna and the artisanal beers, a specialty of the house.  Keep in mind that L'Ape 50° keeps typical restaurant hours; so it's unlikely to be open between 3 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.

We are fans of the two great gardens of Tivoli - the 16th century Villa d'Este and the 19th century Villa Gregoriana (#6 on RST's Top 40).  You might want to take in one or both of these as well. They are not open on Mondays.

Total ascent, a modest (for true hikers) 1650 feet.  Time: about 4 1/2 hours from and to the Tivoli station.  Hiking boots a must, and at least one hiking pole is highly recommended.  Bring one large bottle of water for each hiker and (assuming there are two of you) a knife to divide the sandwich or cut the cheese. Sometimes we buy a bottle of wine (at a bar, where they'll open it for you and provide plastic cups) to drink on the train, but the ride's a short one, and on this occasion we did not.  Trains back to Rome in the late afternoon and evening run about every hour, and the last one is about 10 p.m.

Bill, with Dianne's help. 

Rome the Second Time features a Tivoli hike and the marvelous duo: villa/gardens of Tivoli - Villa d'Este and Villa Gregoriana.  The hike we did this day incorporates part of RST's hike, which goes up the more famous Monte Catillo with its cross.  The hike described in this post is much more interesting in its terrain and flora, and also more difficult.

At right and beyond the buildings, that's Monte Sterpara, as seen from Villa D'Este, looking rather ordinary from this distance and angle.    

Paolo Desideri joins Rome's Starchitects: Stazione Tiburtina

Mayor Alemanno (left), President
Napolitano at microphone.

We're embarrassed.  Not because we're a bit late in presenting the Tiburtina High Speed Railway Station (familiarly known as the new Stazione Tiburtina) to our readers.  The station was dedicated on November 28, 2011, with considerable fanfare: Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano, lent his gravitas to the occasion, and Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno attended, as usual sporting a colorful sash.  No, we're embarrassed because we have not only failed to appreciate the extraordinary qualities of the building--at one point deriding it as "Battlestar Galactica," based on the view from the tracks--but failed to recognize the emergence of its architect, Paolo Desideri, as a major figure in Rome's 21st-century built environment.  Today, we welcome him to the elite roster of Rome "starchitects."

Beam me up, Scotty!

Our original critique of the new Tiburtina Station was not entirely bone-headed.  The "Battlestar" insult reflected our belief that the building was simply too large for its purpose, even considering the addition of high-speed rail to the services it provided, and our increasing familiarity with it has not changed our minds.  But we were also, perhaps, guilty of nostalgia for the scruffy but simple structure that was razed.  It had served our needs for many years; we knew where to buy tickets and the tracks were close.  More important, the demolition of the old station erased the memory of the deportation of Rome's Jews to the Nazi concentration camps from that station in 1944.  The plaque that recorded that tragic event, and to which we directed the readers of Rome the Second Time, is gone.

The Sant'Angese-Annibaliano Station on the B-1 line

Based on a recent walk-through of the station, particularly its main gallery, we are prepared to embrace the building.  We haven't entirely shed our "Battlestar" perspective, but we are ready for the voyage.  More on that later.  Just as significant, we were shocked to learn that Desideri and his firm, ABDR Architetti Associati, were responsible for five other new and compelling Rome buildings: four stations on the new B-1 Metro line, which runs northeast out of Piazza Bologna: Libia, Conca d'Oro, Sant'Angese-Annibaliano, and Gondar; and a recent addition to the Palazzo delle Esposizione.

The restaurant/wine bar Open Colonna, at the
Palazzo delle Esposizioni 

The modernist grace of the Sant'Agnese-Annibaliano Station had taken us by surprise (we did not yet know its architect), and we were ready to take our usual surfeit of photos when a guard waved us off with a wag of the finger.  We have enjoyed a break for wine in the striking all-glass addition to the Palazzo, again unaware of the identity of the architect.  Desideri's structure occupies the space once held by a conservatory designed by famed architect Pio Piacentini in the 1880s and demolished in 1931 when the Mussolini regime redid the building for a 1932 exhibition celebrating Fascism's first decade.

Desideri's Florence auditorium

Desideri's other projects include an auditorium in Florence (right) and the restoration of the National Museum in Calabria.

Annalaura Spalla's Cavour installation

Where the old station was about division--the plaque rekindling memories of the German occupation and the transporting of Rome's Jews--the new one is about unity, in two ways.  Because the station straddles the tracks, it unites two neighborhoods historically separated: Nomentana (which includes Piazza Bologna) and Pietralata, across the railroad yard to the northeast.  Dedicated to Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, a leading figure in the movement for Italian unification, the station celebrates (and with its high-speed trains, enhances) 150 years of Italian unity.  The station's Nomentano atrium (left) features a 20-meter high installation, designed by architect Annalaura Spalla, cut with the words of Cavour's discourse on "Roma Capitale," given to the Italian Chamber of Deputies on March 25, 1861.

The station has two architectural features of note.  One is the green block (right), housing the atrium (if we remember correctly) and set at an angle to the main concourse.  We always liked this element, if only because it seemed to wink playfully at the imposing structure looming behind it.




The other, above the tracks, is the main concourse, the grand gallery.  It has some notable "green" features: it's equipped to handle photovoltaic units (in the future); and rather than air-conditioned, it is oriented to take advantage of the movement of the sun.

June, 2012, 6 months after the opening ceremonies

The Pompidou Center, Metz, France.  More pods,
but Ban's, not Desideri's.  

But it's the "pods" ("volumi," or volumes, in Italian) that make the building.  They're huge, and they're suspended from the ceiling, apparently in an effort to eliminate vibration from the movement of trains, below.  Laminated in Brazil and first deployed in the Tiburtina Station, they are technically complex: a base of aluminum, covered with a shell of the plastic Alicrite.  When we toured the gallery in the summer of 2012, the sci-fi quality of the pods--curiously retro, as in "back to the futuristic"--was enhanced by the virtual absence of people.  We're told they'll eventually house restaurants, private offices, and internet services.  When we climbed the stairs to have a good look inside, a young woman shooed us away.  The jury's out on whether they'll prove useful or just wonderfully suggestive.  We don't know what inspired the pods, but they bear some similarity to the exterior projections featured in Zaha Hadid's Rome MAXXI gallery and Shigeru Ban's Pompidou Center in Metz, France (above right).

Paolo Desideri

And who is the fellow responsible for these architectural theatrics?  Like actor Alberti Sordi and soccer icon Francesco Totti, but unlike all but one (Paolo Portoghesi) of the other stars of modern Rome architecture, he's Roman through and through.  Paolo Desideri was born in Rome in 1953 and graduated from the School of Architecture of the University of Rome (La Sapienza) in 1980.  With three other architects, he co-founded Studio ABDR in 1982.  The firm specializes in large infrastructure projects and won a concorso (competition) for the Tiburtina Station in 2001.  Since 2007 he has been Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at Roma3.  

Welcome to the pantheon, Paolo.

Bill

A high-speed train, about to leave the Tiburtina Station.  In the center background, a "pod" protruding
from the grand gallery.