South Lazio is not our dream home so it is on to Arezzo and Lucca!

View from behind Cathedral at Gaeta

We just returned from 5 days in South Lazio (between Rome and Naples) which we were checking out as a possible site for our next home.  Looked good on paper--Formia has a beach, a train station, and is well located for exploring southern Italy, which we hope to do as we haven't seen much of it.  However, Formia is a southern Italy version of highway 99 with unbelievably bad traffic and little, if any, charm.  Thus we will keep on looking (but the looking is a lot of fun).  There are a lot of beautiful places in the area, and the weather was unbelievably nice, but we just didn't feel like we found 'the one.'

We followed Via Appia (the Appian Way) most of the way there.  Flashbacks to 5th grade world history--it doesn't seem like you should be able to drive on the Appian Way!

It was pouring rain and Tom Tom (the GPS, not the person) led us sadly astray in Formia (which has the WORST traffic, makes Seattle at rush hour look like nothing) we ended up on tiny narrow streets in the centro storico, very perplexed and unable to find the apartment.  Then it turned out it wasn't really Tom Tom, it was me--I put in Via Sant' Angelo Abbate instead of Via Santo Angelo Abbate--turns out we were in the wrong town, we needed to be in Manarolo, a borgo in the hills above Formia.  Manarolo, only 3 km from Formia, is a different world.  It is a medieval hill town, very small, with beautiful views and a lovely piazza where the residents gather morning and afternoon.  Southern Lazio was heavily bombed during WW II but Manaarolo was not hit and looks pretty much the same as it did 800 years ago (with the exception of the numerous satellite dishes on every roof).

Our apartment was great, huge bedroom with french doors leading to a balcony overlooking the piazza and a view of the Tyrrhenian sea in the distance.

View from kitchen window

The apartment had beautiful stone floors
and doorways

View from the balcony of the anziani enjoying the sunshine

morning coffee on the balcony--you can see the sea in the distance

The old men gather on the piazza across from the fountain where the old women congregate.  Apparently everyone knew we were staying in the apartment (there aren't any hotels in Manarola) and they asked us about where we were from, what we were doing, etc.  They don't get that many American tourists in the area, mostly Italians and British.  Obama was visiting Italy while we were in Manarola, so they were all discussing him.  Obama's visit got 45 minutes on the news, including detailed coverage of his visit to the pope.  The Queen of England is visiting il Papa this week.  Obama said the Colisseum was "greater than a baseball stadium" which I thought was strange but the Italians liked it.  

Our apartment was in the middle, white building and has a wide  balcony with vines

The sign welcoming visitors to Formia has 2 claims to fame:  the land of Cicerone (Caeser) and 1500 parking places.  Ceasar had a villa in Formia and is buried there.  We drove by the tomba di cicerone (his tomb) but couldn't go in as it wasn't open.   Despite the tomb and the parking places we did not want to move to  Formia so we explored the neighboring towns to see if we might want to move to any of them.  The weather was spectacular after the first day and the air smelled so incredible that I was really  hoping we would find a new home base.  Sperlonga, one of the nearby beach towns, is gorgeous but basically a tourist town, not a good place to settle in more long term.

Public beach at Sperlonga  (above), view of Sperlonga from hilltop (below)

View of Sperlonga from the hill above town

Tom and our trusty fiat punto 500L

 While we decided Sperlonga was not our next home, it is a beautiful town especially now, before tourist season.  The next day we visited Gaeta, about 15 km away and on the same bay as Formia.  Another hill town with lots of climbing.  Our first destination was a castello and tower on the hilltop.

We started the hill climb in the piazza where Tom stopped to make friends
with the cat sleeping on the lion.

view halfway up the hills

When we arrived we learned that the castello is still in use as a military base (for the guarda di finanza), thus no entry allowed.  Although we couldn't go into the castle, we could admire the beautiful views.  This area is called the Riviera of Ulysses because Ulysses supposedly lived here for many years with Circe, the siren, until she died, and his ship took on provisions in Gaeta.

We then headed toward the cathedral, visible on an adjacent hill, and offering more spectacular views.

After all that uphill walking it was time to head back down to sea level for lunch at a waterside cafe.

gnocchetini with shrimp and tomatoes and the local white wine.  ymmy.  Not shown are the
amazingly tender grilled calamari that was our antipasti.  The calamari and shrimp were from the
Bay of Gaeta 50 feet away from the restaurant,  and fresh enough even for us seafood snobs.

The next day we explored the hills around Maranola since it was Sunday and nothing would be open anywhere.  /The roads are wide enough (barely) for one car, with steep curves and no guiderails.  You also encounter goats on the road.

It took a shephard (pastorale) and 4 sheep--or goat--dogs to get this unruly crew down the hill.  We met  three americans goat-watching, one of whom recently bought a house in nearby Minturno.  It sounded great so we went to check it out the next day as a potential home.

Pade Pio piazza in Minturno

One of the few sunny staircases in Minturno

Old city wall with apartments built above the wall

Just a private courtyard that I liked--it is so idyllic

Despite these pictures, Minturno is actually pretty dark, damp and crumbling, so again, not our final destination.  We drove down through Minturno scale (the hill towns often extend to the beach) and along the coast where we found a wimpy burger place in Scauri, next to the beach,and decided to have our first ever hamburgers in Italy,.

As you can see, it is next to the water , there were good views from the deck

The bun is an Italian roll grilled in the paniniu press, and this was actually
a really good burger!  They also had gelatto, it would have been churlish not
to try a scoop or two.

Eventually it was time to head back to Perugia.  We took a different route so we could stop in Narni because the paruchiere (guy who cut my hair) said it is the most beautiful city in Italy (his home town).  It is, in fact, a very pretty little hill town and is also in the exact geographic center of Italy, as well as being the town which inspired C.S. Lewis's fictional Narnia.

We only had a little time to spend in Narnia because we had to return the rental car, but it is an interesting town and well worth a visit.

frieze above town hall

My favorite sign in Italy so far--it means, open today, tomorrow, who
knows?  Sums up the Italian mindset nicely.

Central piazza in Narni

Since we haven't day found our next home away from home yet, we are heading to Arezzo (Tuscany) on Monday for 3 days to see if that is a possibility.  From there, we may go to Lucca, a walled Tuscan town of about 7500 people.  Oh the trouble of choosing a place to stay in Italy--definitely a first world problem!