Heading Inland in search of the Romans!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Ciao!

I’ll start with dinner last night, which, I’d like to point out, included absolutely NO fish whatsoever (for me)! We headed back to Sperlonga – only a couple of miles away, and parked on the main street. Lots of folks – passagiata – just walking back and forth; many places closed, I’m sure, for the season, but enough to keep folks busy (including a soccer game on TV in the local bar), as well as a take-away pizza place. We wandered into a grocery store in search of munchies, as the restaurant where we had lunch on Friday wasn’t open until 8!! Finally open! And we were the only folks there for most of the evening! Started with an insalada caprese (tomatoes and wonderful buffalo mozzarella) for me, and a bowl of mussels for R. For dinner, we both ordered the same thing – filleto of beef in cognac sauce and vegetables of the season – turned out to be a plate of grilled zucchini, carrots, with roasted red peppers and incredible eggplant grilled with garlic and onion. Just delicious! The steak was cooked rare and was perfect! We were both so stuffed, absolutely NO room for dessert! Headed back to the hotel and were warmly ensconced in minutes.

Up about 7, gathered our things together and had breakfast at 8. They make the BEST hot chocolate here! Checked out and were on the road about 9.

Back to Terracina, and wound our way up and to the HUGE Temple of Jupiter; wonderful view that seems to go on forever! Again, had the place to ourselves! Had a good look around; lots to see! Then drove down the hill to find the Pisco Montana, the mountain from whence stone for the Temple and the Appian Way had been quarried. What makes this place particularly interesting is that someone in antiquity carved the heights of the various stone removed (in Roman numerals, of course!).

We then headed out of town, following the Appian Way as we headed southeast away from the coast. Various gates and roadblocks came next – between the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal states, for example.

We then hit a part of what may someday be a national park built around the Appian Way. Stretch of road next to the highway that goes on for several miles and includes a very ancient temple. There were good examples of the three periods of the Appian – the ancient Roman, a restoration in the 1500’s by the Papal States, and a national restoration in the 1700’s – we, obviously, like the oldest!

From there, headed to Minturnae, the ancient settlement of Minturno. Wonderful aquaduct – 150 arches! – leading to the old settlement. Lovely museum, restored arena and temples. This time, there was one other family to share the site with!

We then headed on to our stop for the next to nights, Capua. We had had a very difficult time getting 1) a hotel name, and 2) a confirmed reservation, as I could never get their fax to work, so I was a bit worried about what we’d find. But, we pulled into Capua, and voila, first thing, Hotel Capys. Well…interesting…had never thought I would suffer from hypothermia in a hotel before! Halls are very wide, and VERY, very cold! Found our room – very nice, second floor; lovely balcony in the back overlooking a garden with citrus trees. And there is a smattering of English, but not too much! Will see what happens today with our laundry!! Headed out to Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and their coliseum – second only to Rome in size (but definitely not in as good a condition!). Very good museum as well. Then drove around Capua, and finally back to our very cold hotel! Crawled under the covers for a nap…went down at 8 for dinner. I was having a touch of Turista, so only wanted some pasta; mine was with tomato sauce; R’s was cannelloni stuffed with ricotta and spinach; both very good! However, it’s definitely hard to enjoy your dinner when you can’t stop shaking from cold! And I had on the heaviest clothes I brought! (A shopping trip may definitely be in our future!) (Turns out, a VERY cold front is moving into Europe, with snow everywhere, including in Northern Italy – at least (so far) we haven’t had to deal with that!) And – soccer! The Sunday night game – AC Milan vs. Torino – and this place has SkySports! So, gathered with the rest of the family and it seems the entire fire department, in the lobby – 2-2 tie; very good game!

Back upstairs, and a frenzied changing to get under the covers! R had had the heat on high while we were at dinner, and of course, somewhere in the middle of the night, the room actually got WARM – then HOT! Whew! It’s either one way or the other! Up now around 7, as I want to finish and post the blog – and the place does have wireless internet, but for the first time, we have to pay for the time. Oh well! R says the shower is fine – off in a few minutes for breakfast and then out in search of more Romans!!

Take care; more later!
Much love,
m