Category: Lazio

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Parco degli Acquedotti

This is a long park that goes between the important roads of Appia (arrives in Puglia the heel of Italy) and Tuscolana (arrives in Castelli Romani). The park starts just outside the old wall of Rome and ends at the bottom of the hills of Castelli Romani. Still standing here are two important ancient aqueducts: Acquedotto di Acqua Marcia and Acquedotto di Claudio. The second still works today and brings water to Piazza della Republica near Termini Station.

After we went by Parco della Cervelletta, next to Daniele’s parent’s house. Like many Italian parks, this is the ancient country home of a noble family. In the case of this villa, some people actually live in a few of the property buildings. The main castle is state owned and there are events held there.

Pictures of the Aqueducts:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110325Aqueducts#

A few pictures of Parco della Cervelletta are in my Rome album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110225RomaAndMonterotondo#

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Fara Sabina

First we went to the town of Fara Sabina. This is a classical walled medieval town with big door to enter. On top there is an ancient church and square that was closed for repair, but kids were still inside playing soccer. There were a few people around. Nice view of countryside. Lots of cats. One followed me for a while.

Then we went to the Abbazia di Farfa. Farfa is the town of the abbey. We took a tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and has written “the book”, but was not one of those Italians who are very easy for me to understand their Italian. There were shops with natural soaps, chocolate, and other things; all made by the monks. Also an oil tasting of Sabina Olive Oil. Naturally, there was a church. Like most of Italy, they are constantly restoring everything. As pointed out by the guide, this is actually making it less beautiful. My favorite part was the library with all of the hand written books.

Pictures of Sabina, combined with another trip there, scroll about half way to get to these.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110311Sabina

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150 Years of Italy

Today is the 150th birthday of Italy. It has been one nation under one flag that long. In celebration, Rome had a “white night” last night. Everything was open until 2 AM and all the museums were free as well as some things being open to the public that normally are not, like the senate and some special ruins.

Daniele, his brother Emanuele, and I went into the center together to celebrate. Many of the monuments were lit up in the tre-colore. We made it inside Musei Capitolini and Museo del Mercato di Traiano.

Then we went to the senate, which I was excited about, but the line moved so slowly that we had to give up to catch the metro back home. We were pretty tired by then anyway, so it was for the best.

Meanwhile, all over Italy everything from billboards to the “tre-colore” lettuce I bought today is celebrating the 150 year landmark. Since who knows where I’ll be for “200 Years” and I probably won’t be up for running around all night at the age of 75, I’m glad I got to partake. Happy Birthday, Italy! Tanti Aguri!

All the pictures from this night:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110316150YrsOfItaly#

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Castelli Romani

Daniele, his brother Emanuele, and I spent the day visiting places in the Castelli Romani area. Castelli Romani literally means Roman Castles. It is a collection of about 10 medieval cities atop a volcanic hills; each centered around the old town square, church, and (you guessed it) castle.

We first stopped by Monte Porzio Catone. This little old town was surprisingly alive. There was a market on market street. A crowd of old people gathered in a small square. I think the active “new” town just outside the “old” town walls might be helping keep it alive. Or it could be the other way around. Naturally we saw all of the expected landmarks, like the church and clock tower. There also seemed to be a local cat gang.

We stopped next at Parco Archeologico Culturale di Tuscolo / Archeological Culture Park of Tuscolo. Besides being a beautiful park, it was full of Ancient Roman ruins. Unlike the ruins in the center, that are somewhat closed off, these were open for anyone to look around as you pleased.

Next we went to Grottaferrata where there is the Abbazia di San Nilo / Abbey of St Nilo, Chiesa di Santa Maria / Church of St Mary, founded in 1004. After walking around the ancient castle-like abbey for a while we had lunch outside at a porchetta and panini place.

After lunch we went to Castel Gondolfo, the Pope’s summer vacation house. Besides this lovely palace the city had lots of Italian flags in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Interesting, 150 years ago, it was from the Pope that this city (and the rest of the providence of Rome) was liberated.

As one last stop at the end of our day we quickly visited the city of Frascati. This place was bigger, busier, and more of a “city” than any of the other towns or “ancient cities” we had visited. We saw the standard sights, church, square, view of Rome. What I actually found most interesting about this place was the landscaping. One of the first things I saw entering the city was a row of square trees. Their leaves had been pruned with exact edges to form what looked like a perfect hedge lifted up by tree trunks. Also the main Villa used a similar technique to form a enclosed walkway to their palace.

All pictures from this day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110315CastelliRomani#

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Montelibretti and Nerola

Today we visited the nearby towns of Montelibretti and Nerola in the Sabina region. Sabina is famous for olive oil (Olio di Sabina) and indeed the countryside was covered with olive trees. Monterotondo, where I’m living, is actually the first town of Sabina (and the first town outside the city of Rome).

Montelibretti was another old medieval walled city. This city was more alive than the lakeside ones we visited. Those seem to only be summer homes at this point. All the young people have moved closer to Rome. Montelibretti, on the other hand had kids playing soccer in the main square and cars parked in every little corner. The old wall was being repaired and you could see the before and after. Pic.

We raced to Nerola just before the sun set. We mostly came here because there is a castle, and I love that. It’s a hotel now but we couldn’t go inside. One thing we noticed here was an area all the residents are supposed to collect in case of disaster. In these ancient hill towns, avalanche is a major concern. If there was an earthquake, all the old stone houses on top of this hill would come crumbling down.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Sabina album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110311Sabina#

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Terme del Bagnaccio and Lake Bolsena

Today we went up to the region of Viterbo. We went first to the towns of Capodimonte and Marta on Bolsena Lake. Both walled medieval hill towns. Then we spent most the afternoon at the Terme del Bagnaccio.

Capodimonte was really cute. There were lots of cats by the main fountain. A coworker recommended a restaurant, but it was closed, so we ate some pizza on the lake.

Marta I liked a lot. At the top of the town, by the clock tower, there was a large square with a 360 view of the lake, countryside, and town.

The Terme del Bagnaccio is why we came there. These natural hot springs are still active. There are a few all over Italy. Boiling water comes up from the ground and is piped to different pools. The pools are dug out of natural stone and are different temperatures. The temperature appears to be controlled by how far it is piped from the source. Everyone was in the two hottest– it was sunny but still not swimming pool weather. Fresh hot water is constantly being pored in, and drains out the other side keeping it clean. Also, each morning residents scrub it when the water level is low. There were “regulars” who clearly come everyday or nearly everyday. We will probably come back to take advantage of being able to take some sun even when it’s cold.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Viterbo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110310Viterbo#

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Carnevale di Monterotondo

Sunday is the typical day to do the big Carnevale festival in these towns. There is also Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday– it is actually a whole week of Carnevale / Mardi Gras but we just did Sunday. Daniele got home from work about when these things typically start, so we went to the one in our town instead of driving somewhere else and risk missing it altogether. Monterotondo is a reasonably big town of 40,000 residents, but somehow the smaller towns but on bigger festivals.

It was basically a big parade of people in costumes. I guess for Latin cultures Carnevale is more their costume holiday than Halloween. Groups organize themes. There was everything from “Beauty and the Beast” to Traditional Farmers to a group of old ladies in black-face that I really couldn’t figure out what they were going for. I explained to Daniele how it was really politically incorrect to wear black-face in the US anymore and he didn’t get it at all. There were also performing groups like a marching band with baton girls and a group of Venetian-style masked dancers.

Everyone had bags of paper confetti or “coriandoli”. Confetti is actually the Italian word for the almond candies typically given at weddings.

The parade finished in one of the town squares, where everyone stayed together in a bit of chaos; playing music, dancing, kids re-gathering the confetti to throw again.

After we had seen most of what there was to see of Carnevale, we went in to the historical center of Monterotundo. It is a bigger than the other old towns we have visited.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Monterotondo / Rome album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110225RomaAndMonterotondo#

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Anguillara and Bracciano

Today Daniele and I went to the lake Bracciano and to the towns of Anguillara and Bracciano. The weather was not too cold, but on and off light rain. It’s about 25 miles northwest from here. Both towns are on hills surrounded by walls. They have a small historical center and a newer part or second city below. This is actually pretty typical all over Lazio and Italy. Even Monterotundo is the same.

We first stopped at Anguillara, Daniele’s favorite. It is really small and cute, but still has a supermarket and things in the new/downhill city. The historical center is a walled hill city, but it is right on the lake. It is just a few steps down to the port and the road along the water. There was almost no one there, now, in February; but in the summer the place gets packed. The place we wanted to have lunch was closed for renovations, so we ate at a place called Harvey’s instead.

After lunch we went to the next town on the lake, Bracciano. This town is a little bigger and a little farther up from the water. What I loved about it was that there is a castle. A big one. Historically belonged to the Orsini family and still does. Never sold or anything, a woman just lives in there. Incredible! We covered the tiny historical center then went outside the walls looking for a nice view. There were old paths from the city to the lake going through the countryside. We passed sheep (pecore), horses (cavalli) and a donkey (asino pronounced ass-ee-no) who came right to the fence to say hi and pose for some pictures.

In this area there is also a spring of naturally carbonated water. People go with their own bottles and take as much as they want. The carbonation has something to do with passing under the volcanic ground. I don’t understand 100%. We didn’t have any bottles so we didn’t go.

Speaking of bottles of water. In Anguillara, there were all these bottles of water on the ground. Apparently is is common knowledge in Italy that cats are freaked out by water; even the sight of it. So they put bottles of water in places to keep cats from peeing there. They were practically in every corner. I am fascinated by this theory and eager to test it on American cats.

[Edit] Link to pictures from this day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110305LakeBracciano#

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Leaving Rome

I traveled for September, seeing new places (Cinque Terre, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, Volterra, Florence, Berlin, Munich, Neuschwanstein, and Milan). For October and November I have been a part-time student, part-time tourist, part-time resident in Rome. I could immediately feel the difference between traveling and living in Italy, just like I remember from four years ago. I’m glad I spent a longer period in Rome opposed to continuing to travel. Besides that it is exhausting to travel, it is a completely different experience.

Now I am on the train from Rome to Milan. I’ll spend two nights there before I take off for my long trip back to the USA. I’m sad to leave Italy, especially sad to leave Daniele– but very excited to come back to the US. These past few weeks I have been constantly sick with a cough (so I can’t sleep), scabies, and more often than not a light fever. It’s really taking it’s toll on me. I’m actually a big of a wreck between it all.

[Edit] Link to Rome photo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20101001Roma#

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Halloween

For Halloween Danielle and I went to Old Calcata with another couple, Gerlando and Valentina (I’m probably not spelling those right). Calcata has a pretty interesting history. “In the 1930s, the hill towns’s fortified historic center was condemned by the government for fear that the volcanic cliffs the ancient community was built upon would collapse. Local residents moved to nearby Calcata Nuova. In the 1960s, the emptied historical centre began to be repopulated by artists and hippies who squatted in its medieval stone and masonry structures. Many of the squatters eventually purchased their homes, the government reversed its condemnation order, and the residents of what had become an artistic community began restoring the ancient town.” –Wikipedia

Just as advertised, it was a medieval hill town full of artists and hippies. It’s a popular destination for Halloween with all of its condemned medieval goodness. The art shops were open late to peak into. The whole town was decorated with fake spider webs. There were also lots of jack-o’-lanterns and a few monsters. The little town museum was open and free. They even had a live band and a fire in the town square. It was pretty good.

I was happy to see a lot of people in costume and even more with a hat or some type of half-effort costume. Almost everyone had the “typical” costumes. For example more than half of the women were dressed as witches. I think we left near midnight, and people were still pouring in, some with more interesting costumes.

After Calcata we went to Gerlando’s for dessert. Valentina had made a bunt cake. We also had limoncello made by her mom from their lemon tree and booze soaked cherries (recommended!). It was all really good, but it was really late at night by then, and the clocks had changed the night before, so it felt even later. But only to me. Apparently the three of them have learned to overcome the need for sleep at normal hours from years of working as nurses. I had to be the party pooper.

[Edit] Link to Rome photo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20101001Roma#