Frosinone and Anzio

Frosinone

Yesterday (Monday), I was feeling better but Dom now seems to be suffering from my cold. So, we spent a rather quiet day catching up on business, doing a little grocery shopping and going for a short excursion to the area north of the Vatican. The latter was really a matter of catching a bus, taking a walk, having a drink, people watching and heading back to our apartment.

Today we set off fairly early to drive to Frosinone, a town about an hour south of Rome. Dom’s mother’s family came from the area so we wanted to check it out.

After stepping out for a cappuccino and pastry we came back to get the car and found someone parked in front of the gate to our parking place. We have noticed that this is rather common in Rome (double parking is rampant) and the accepted behavior seems to be to honk one’s car horn until the offender comes and moves his vehicle. The little white car was unlocked so Dom opened the door and laid on the horn. Although the owner did not show up, a number of other people stuck their heads out apartment windows to see what was happening. This included our landlord and his wife. She soon ran down and peered in the car.

Dom had already noticed that the owner’s wallet was lying on the floor of the front seat. When he mentioned that my first thought was someone came home late the night before completely plastered and just left the car in the first available spot. Our landlady hopped in the driver side, grabbed the wallet and started going through it. It did not seem to surprise her that it belonged to the doctor who has an office in the building we are in. She rolled her eyes and commented that he is not a very good doctor, as if this accounted for why he was double parked. She ran over to his ground floor office window and gave him the wallet and asked him to move the car. However, he was on the telephone so he gave his keys to a patient who was waiting outside. The patient moved the car.

As all this was happening I was hard pressed not to laugh out loud, especially when our landlord kept saying “This happens all the time in Rome.” With the way clear we got our car out. In the rear view mirror Dom could see the patient moving the doctor’s car back where it had been as we drove away. Luckily nothing was blocking the gate when we returned this evening.

The drive to Frosinone took us out of Rome past Tivoli to the east and then south through rolling hills and farmland. The look is very different than in Tuscany, more arid terrain and more modern architecture. There is also quite a bit of industry along the A1 autostrada in this area. However we arrived at Frosinone to find the core of it a classic Italian hill town.

The hill dominates the surrounding plain and because of this the town has existed since prehistoric times. We learned this after driving most of the way to the top of the hill, parking and walking up into the old medieval streets. One of the first things we saw as we began walking was a sign with the name Cestra on it. This was Dom’s mother’s maiden name!

At the top of the hill the main church in town, Santa Maria, was open so we went in and looked around. It and the surrounding streets are a bit schizophrenic being a combination of old architecture and modern. The exterior of the church looked old but most of the interior decoration is post WWII. A nice gentleman answered our questions about the age of the church and told us that the town was bombed during WWII. He also pointed us to the local archeological museum and another church in town. When we mentioned Dom had relatives from the area and the name Cestra, he told us it is a common name and there are lots of Cestras in the local phone book.

We visited the museum, a second church and then looked for a restaurant for lunch. The only one we found, when we had just about decided to look for one in the car, was excellent. It had a set menu of pasta, meat, vegetable, water and coffee for €10 each that was excellent, probably the best meal we have had since we arrived in Rome.

Old town gate

Santa Maria interior

Modern mosaic in apse

Black Madonna--one of the few older pieces

Santa Maria exterior

 

Santa Maria bell tower



Old street in Frosinone

This storefront reminded me of the remains of shops in Pompeii

Interior of second church in Frosinone--this one did not get bombed

 

Second church in Frosinone with Santa Maria bell tower behind

After lunch we decided to head to Anzio where there is a museum about the Allies landing during WWII. It was a nice drive through the hills towards the sea. Once through the hills the land was flat as a pancake the final 15 kilometers to the beach. It was easy to see why it was picked for the invasion.

The first thing we happened upon, in the town of Nettuno, was the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial. It is a beautiful facility, excellently maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission and very moving. We walked through up to the chapel and museum where there are large maps and clear explanations of the Allied campaigns in Sicily and mainland Italy.

Entrance to American Cemetery



Map explaining invasion at Anzio and related events



View of chapel/museum building from entrance



Graves



Chapel/museum building

One of two memorial gardens

Afterwards we went to Anzio and found the Beachhead Museum. It is interesting with lots of uniforms, equipment, news clippings and photographs. However, it is does not explain clearly what actually happened. I was glad we had been to the cemetery first so that we had a bit of an idea of the events in Anzio.

I drove back to Rome and the GPS took us an interesting route. It was rush hour in Rome so the driving was exciting. Romans seem to view the lane markings as suggestions and it is not uncommon to find two small cars side by side in a single lane. Then there are the motorcycles and scooters that dart around like hummingbirds. One never knows from which side they will approach and it can be particularly interesting if a scooter is coming up from behind on the right as one starts to make a right turn. I actually find Roman traffic challenging and a lot of fun.