The Castelli Romani

Just south of Rome, in the Alban Hills, lies a string of hilltowns, villages, and vineyards called the Castelli Romani

For more info:
www.stradavinicastelli.it
www.castellionline.it

Viator.com tours
• Castelli Romani's Medieval Villages Half-Day Trip from Rome
• Frascati Wine Tasting Tour from Rome
• Papal Blessing at Castelgandolfo Day Trip from Rome

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Monte Compatri, Castelli RomaniThe "Roman Castles" of the Alban Hills are like Tuscany in miniature, a baker's dozen of medieval hill towns nestled among the vineyards ringing a pair of teacup lakes that all starts just 13 miles south of downtown Rome.

Start with the largest of them all, Frascati (www.comune.frascati.rm.it), just 21km down Via Tuscolana (SS215) from Rome. If you're lucky, the fountains in the fabulous gardens of Frascati's 16th-century Villa Aldobrandini will be running. If not, console yourself with lunch in a typical cantina (cellar), where you bring the food—stalls on Piazza del Mercato sell scrumptious porchetta (herbed pork) sandwiches—and they provide wine by the liter.

Past the 11th-century abbey at Grottaferrata (www.comune.grottaferrata.roma.it), the road (SS216) reaches volcanic Lake Albano at Marino, famous for its wines, which flow from the town's fountains on the first Sunday in October.

Castelgandolfo overlooking Lago di Albano
Castelgandolfo overlooking Lake Albano

For centuries popes have summered on the lake's western shore in the baroque papal palace of Castelgandolfo (www.comune.frascati.rm.it)—and, in summer, you can receive a papal blessing here from the Pope himself.

A few miles south, Albano Laziale (www.comune.albanolaziale.roma.it) is laced with the ancient ruins of a bath, amphitheater, and a villa that once belonged to Pompey, Julius Caesar's greatest rival in the dying days of the Republic.

Continue skirting the lake on SS218 to the eastern shore and Rocca di Papa, the highest and prettiest of the Castelli, a terrace of medieval streets amid chestnut groves.

Diana's Mirror
Lake Nemi was called "Diana's Mirror" in ancient times, when only a runaway slave who snapped a branch off a particular tree in the lake's sacred grove and bested the sitting Rex Nemorensis in mortal combat could become the lake's next priest-king. If that sounds cloyingly familiar to any literature majors out there, it's because the ancient rite served as the basis for Sir James' Frazer's The Golden Bough.

Tiny Lake Nemi, surrounded by more timeless vineyards and villages, is famed throughout Italy for its violets and wild strawberries (with their own festival; www.sagrafragole.it). It is also steeped in myth and history (see the "Diana's Mirror" box to the right.)

On Nemi's southern shore sits quiet little Genzano (www.comune.genzanodiroma.roma.it), the streets of which come to life each June during L'Infiorata when the locals cover the cobblestones with exquisitely elaborate mosaics made entirely from fresh flower petals, then crush it all underfoot during an ecclesiastical parade.

The wine town of Velletri (www.comune.velletri.rm.it) and its baroque cathedral mark the southern end of the Castelli.

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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