The shadow of the castles. The Alban Hills

filled by Giulia

If you are in Rome during the summer, and you have a weekend available, we suggest a trip to the Alban Hills, among the thousands of Romans on Sunday. The Castelli can be reached by car from Rome by the Appia Tuscolana roads and lakes, or from the highway.
Taverns, restaurants, fraschette (the place where you buy the wine but the food is brought from home), and lot more. The Castelli offer many other things. You can reach the volcanic hills of Monte Cavo at twenty miles from Rome, and the two lakes (Albano and Nemi), forests of chestnut and oak trees, a wide panorama can be appreciated from the peaks of the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian coast up to the Circeo .
The Parco dei Castelli is based in “Rocca di Papa”. Among the most suitable walking areas there are the banks of Lake Albano, Artemisia woods and the Via Sacra. You can go canoeing on Lake Albano and bird watching at Doganella.
Beside these lakes and the scenery is the history. Separated from the Appian Way “the Castelli” (or Colli Albani) host of Roman monuments such as the Cistern of Albano, the Theatre and the Tomb of Tusculum, the Via Sacra of Monte Cavo, the Temple of Juno and Lanuvio.
Centers closer to Rome, are Frascati and Albano, modern building has partially buried the elegant architecture of the past. But all is not lost. The Park of the Castelli Romani, established in 1984, has begun to protect what remains of the nature of these hills created by the eruptions of 5000 years ago. Today exploring the Colli Albani must be made in a zig zag, avoiding the areas invaded by concrete and focusing on places that retain the charm of the past. Among these, stand the palaces and villas built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for large families of the Roman nobility. The exploration of villas and palaces can take weeks. Those who have less time available can start at the white villa of Ariccia Chigi, which dominates the town and the viaduct was built between 1847 and 1854 by Pius IX. Designed by Bernini, the building includes the round church of St. Mary of the Assumption. Villa Ferrajoli and Villa Albano are also opened, which houses the archaeological museum and the Palazzo Borghese in Monte Porzio Catone, which overlooks the village and its vineyards. The Castle of Rocca Priora Savelli houses the Town Hall.
Villa Torlonia at Frascati and the park of Villa Aldobrandiniis opened to the public. The famous building of the “Castelli” cannot be visted, which has taken the place of the villa of the Emperor Diocletian. Dated back to 1624 by Maderno at the behest of Uranus VIII, the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo was completed forty years later by Bernini commissioned by Pope Alexander VII. Today, the Pope spends much of summer in this locality.
Do not miss: the Abbey of San Nilo Grottaferrata, with the portico of San Gallo and the Church of Santa Maria, the ruins of Tusculum and the temple of Diana on Lake Nemi, Albano's Civic Museum, here the guardians will accompany the tourists to the visit of the cistern and the early Christian catacombs of San Senatore.