Category Archives: Italy

The Badia Castle and Bridge

There is something about castles that appeals to my American sensibility.  In fact, when driving near Vulci (Viterbo), I think I actually said: “Ohhhh! Look! Look! A castle! Can we stop!?” Seriously. Medieval towers and fields of poppies hold plenty of appeal. But the most impressive feature is not the castle at all, but the […]

Strawberry Festival in Nemi, Italy

A sagra is a festival, usually centered around a local delicacy.  You can have sagre for porcini mushrooms, gnocchi, beer, lavender… but the sagra I most wanted to go near Rome is the sagra della fragole- the Nemi strawberry festival. With a fearless (and manual-transmission trained) fellow explorer, we navigated the strange world of Italian car […]

Day Trip from Rome: Calcata, Italy

The spring has been so strange, with thunderstorms and freezing winds marking the first day of June. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say that sometimes when the weather is hot you get a nagging urge to leave Rome for the day. One such place to skip off to is the ancient […]