Wednesday 23rd April 2008
It often seems to happen that when I know I’ve got to get up early, I actually wake up before the alarm goes off. This happened again today as I woke up shortly before four o’clock, leaving plenty of time to prepare before setting out at five. That’s just as well, as these things always take a bit longer than you expect. Before I left, I took a couple of photos of myself in my walking gear, thinking ahead to photos I could sent in for the diocesan web site. As I stood on the path outside Palazzola, waiting for the sat-nav to ‘warm up’, I looked across the lake. The sky was quite clear and I could see the stars. The weather forecast had predicted cloudy weather, but it was looking as if it would be better than that. I’d not only avoid rain but I’d also get some sunshine.
I had a minor setback early on. I’d just got to the top of the drive and walked through a short stretch of woodland to arrive at the main road, when I realised I’d forgotten my sandwiches. My first impulse to leave them there, where I’d left them in the cloister, but somehow it just seemed such a sloppy thing to do that I had to go back and retrieve them. It’s funny; forgetting my sandwiches is in danger of becoming a habit. Before Mass yesterday I’d made up some sandwiches using some turkey slices I’d bought at Morrison’s, but in the rush to get away after Mass, I’d left them behind in the kitchen.
It was a very pleasant walk through the woods to Rocca di Papa. I was doing a sound recording as I went along and I stopped for a moment to comment on the very noticeable ‘dawn chorus’. There were different sounds when I got to Rocca, as the dustmen were doing their round. The square was full of the sounds of the operation of the dust-truck and the jovial conversation of the workmen standing outside the bars having their early-morning cup of coffee.
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The biggest uncertainty in my route concerned the stage from Rocca di Papa to Rocca Priora, as this depended on finding a footpath through the woods, based on my recollections of twenty years ago. In planning the route, I’d looked at satellite photos as well as the maps and I’d marked out a path as best I could, but that still left quite a lot of uncertainty. As I walked down the road the other side of Rocca di Papa, I saw a large bend in the road, just past the ‘Campo Santo’ (the town cemetery), with a path going off to the right. This was the point I’d marked on my map, so I set off along the path. From the start it looked rather narrower and more overgrown than I remembered it, which was not encouraging. One thing I hadn’t realised was that there’s a large hill between Rocca di Papa and Rocca Priora — and this path seemed to go very close in to the side of the hill, which didn’t look right. Before long the path started winding around, following the contours. I continued for half a mile or so, but it became clear that this was definitely not the path I was looking for.
I went back to the road, rather discouraged. It didn’t help that there was a lot of grass on the path, heavy with dew. By the time I got back to the road my shoes were very wet and the dampness was seeping through to my socks. That’s not good, because keeping your feet dry and comfortable is very important on a long walk — if you don’t want it to be prematurely cut short! I was encouraged, though, to find a much wider path around the next bend in the road — and in fact I even had a vague recollection come to mind, that the path was after the second bend in the road. This was confirmed shortly afterwards when I looked at the Tom Tom to find that it actually showed this path as a road. It had even worked out a route for me all the way to Rocca Priora, without my having noticed!
A little later on I came within sight of the hill known as Tusculum (below, left). This was encouraging because this part of the Castelli Walk takes the route we used to use when we walked to Tusculum from Palazzola (an annual event at the English College). You get almost to Tusculum before turning off to Rocca Priora, so seeing the hill clearly in front of me was quite reassuring. Tusculum is the site of a pre-Roman settlement. It was not far from the site of the English College’s former summer house at Monte Porzio. In the days when students stayed in the Rome area all the year round, they used to walk to Tusculum and say Mass there on the feast of the Transfiguration. Though the present villa is a lot further away and although we aren’t there any more in August for the feast of the Transfiguration, the tradition has continued. The walk and the Mass are (or were in my time) a feature of the ‘Villegiatura’, that period of a fortnight or so after the exams and before we went home for the summer.
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It was about half past eight by the time I got to Rocca Priora, so I felt it was high time for a rest and a cup of coffee. It had been quite a long slog up the hill — a lot further than I remembered it. The next stage on to Montecompatri was much easier, a gentle downward gradient along a winding road that gave occasional views through the trees to the town at which I was aiming (above, right). I hadn’t particularly noticed Montecompatri when I did the walk as a student, but it struck me today as rather a charming little town, which went out of its way to attract visitors and to make great play on its being part of the Castelli Regional Park and a ‘D.O.C.’ wine-making area. (See photos below).
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Going on towards Colonna, I had a view over the plain (below, left) that lies to the north of the Castelli, with the mountains in the distance that include Subiaco (the place where St Benedict for many years) and Palestrina (the birthplace of the composer of that name). Colonna is a sort of northernmost outpost of the Castelli, somewhat detached by being some way out on the plain. I remembered it as being rather a long haul out to Colonna and back to Monteporzio, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered. It’s also quite a pleasant walk, with the road going past vineyards and olive groves. I looked across to the left at one point and saw a cluster of umbrella pines around a farmhouse. For me, there’s something rather evocative about an umbrella pine (below, right). It makes me think of the landscape backgrounds of renaissance portraits and the sort of Mediterranean scenes that feature in eighteenth-century landscape painters doing the Grand Tour.
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It was another steep climb up into Monteporzio and I was glad that we’d changed our route after the first year I did the Castelli Walk. That first time we went straight to Colonna from Rocca Priora and then came back to go to Montecompatri and Monteporzio (which are relatively near to each other). A more experienced walker pointed out to us that it’s slightly shorter going to Montecompatri first, so we did it that way on subsequent occasions. I also noticed, looking across from Colonna, that Montecompatri is noticeably higher up than Monteporzio. Going the recommended route means taking in Montecompatri on the way down from Rocca Priora — and then you don’t have so much height to make up in going on to Monteporzio.
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It was about midday when I got to Monteporzio. I went up to what appeared to be the main square, with a pleasant little viewpoint area shaded with trees (above, left), looking back across the plain to Colonna and beyond (above, right). I’d have liked to stop for a drink there, but I needed to find a toilet and there wasn’t anywhere obvious in that area. I pressed on, therefore, to Frascati. Here I made another mistake, not noticing a turning that the sat-nav was pointing out to me. This lost me another half-mile or so — and a tedious trudge back up a rather steep slope. It was quite a long stretch before I got to Frascati, where I stopped at a little road-side bar for a beer and a very nice Parma ham panino. I made a slight detour in order to get to a fairly central part of Frascati (it being difficult to know what counts as the centre in some of the towns). In leaving Frascati I walked up a long flight of stairs to get to the promenade that goes along the front of the Villa d’Este (below, left). I remember going in there with Mum and Dad when they came out to Rome for my diaconate ordination.
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It didn’t seem all that far to Grottaferrata. When doing this walk as a student, I don’t remember seeing anywhere that looked like a proper town centre. I’d got the impression of Grottaferrata as more of an area than a town — but to my surprise today I just happened to stumble across the real town centre (above, right). It’s not going to rival Montecompatri or Castelgandolfo, but there’s quite a pleasant town square with a fountain and trees — and a rather quaint line in post-boxes (below, left). A little further on there’s the abbey of St Nilo (below, right) — founded, as a nearby sign said, in 1004.
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From Grottaferrata the sat-nav suggested a route that took me off the main road, down into a valley and up again — extra effort on that account but it appeared to cut off a sizeable corner in the route. I took this path mainly because the route we used to take was along some very boring suburban residential streets, which seemed to go on forever. The alternative route went up hill and down vale, across a river and between fields, approaching Marino, as it were, from the back. It probably didn’t save any time but it was a lot more interesting. It also meant I saw more of Marino than I had previously done — and it made me realise that it’s probably one of the largest Castelli towns and might well be worth a longer visit if the opportunity ever occurs. For now, though, I pressed on until, on the far side of town on the road to Castelgandolfo, I found a little bar where I could sit at a table and have another glass of beer and a panino.
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The walk to Castelgandolfo was uphill all the way and it was a bit of a struggle, but you do get some beautiful views across Lake Albano at some points (above, left). Once I arrived I thought it would be a shame not to go that bit further up to the square outside the Papal Palace (above, right). The square was quite busy, with groups of children (presumably just having finished school for the day) playing football on the street, tourist wandering around, locals sitting at bars having a drink, and so on. It reminded me what a social lot the Italians are — whereas in England most of these people would have been straight off home and social contact would have been at a minimum! It’s something that struck me when I was a student in Rome and, although I’m not exactly extrovert myself, it made me think that the Italians have been more successful than we are in getting their priorities right.
Walking through Albano, I found the streets very busy, both with traffic and with early-evening shoppers walking along the pavement. The road is naturally a busy one, as the ‘Appia Nuova’ is a major route out of Rome. I suppose that time of day, about six o’clock, it’s not surprising a lot of people would be out on the streets, shopping after work, students on their way back from school or college, young people gathering for an evening out together, and so on. As it was so busy, though, I had no temptation to linger. I just pressed on till I got to Ariccia, though on my way out of the town I did pass by a rather interesting-looking old church (below, left).
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Arriving at Ariccia, I was very impressed by the huge bridge that connects it with Albano on the one side and Genzano on the other (above, right). Ariccia itself is built on a spur of the hills that juts out to the west, from the side of the crater of the extinct volcano in which Lake Albano sits. If it weren’t for this bridge, which looks quite old, the only way between these three towns would have been by awkward winding paths which follow the contours of the hills — and the slopes are so steep I’m not sure how easy even this would have been. From the bridge you can look down on the roads and houses of what I suppose might be called the lower part of town, several hundred feet below. There’s a great view, too, of the plain that stretches from the Castelli out towards the sea (below, left).
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It was about half past seven by the time I got to Genzano. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of their ‘welcome to Genzano’ sign, noticing that I was about to enter a Free Nuclear Zone (above, right). I resisted the temptation to stop and ask for my free ‘nuclears’ — but I did stop and phone Palazzola to say that I was OK but I’d be late getting back. Then, taking the turning towards Nemi (below, right), I came to a place where I could look out across the lake and see both the town and the flat area of land where they grow the famous Nemi strawberries (below, left). It was to increase the area of land for cultivation that they drained the lake some time about a hundred years ago — and, in so doing, uncovered the remains of a Roman three-decked war galley. In the time of some of the more extravagant Roman emperors they had mock sea-battles on the lake — not so ‘mock’ I suppose if you were one of the slaves, chained to the deck in a boat that sank. The story as I heard it was that they built a sort of large shed over the boat that they’d excavated, but it all got destroyed by the Germans during their retreat through that area towards the end of the Second World War.
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It was definitely dark by the time I got to Nemi, so there was no question of my going through the woods. I had to follow the road, which the sat-nav showed as a route of just over three miles. Even if I could have found the path, I doubt that the route through the woods would have been much shorter, though it was a nuisance to have to walk this major road and to keep stepping off the road into the ditch every time a car came past on my side of the road. Still, I just had to press on and I arrived back at Palazzola about a quarter past ten.
I was quite pleased that the stiffness and general aches and pains weren’t too bad at all. The thing that will take longer to wear off is the effect of a day in the sun — which (given the forecast) took me rather by surprise. I’m normally rather careful about exposure to the sun, as I’m someone who burns rather than tans. I’d thought of bringing some sun-cream just in case, but I only had a large bottle and I was trying to keep the weight of the suitcase below the maximum for hand baggage. I thought of getting some sun-cream as I went along on my walk today, but in the end I didn’t get around to it. I don’t think it’s going to be too bad, though I do feel a little sore at the back of my neck.
I sent a text to family and friends back home. Feeling a little peckish, I poured myself a bowl of cereal (they had some in the tea room) and made myself a cup of coffee. Then off to my room for a shower before going to bed.