THE COAST BETWEEN POMEZIA AND NEPTUNE
Discover the southern part of the Lazio coast
The coast between Pomezia and Nettuno . From Pomezia (about 30 km south of Rome). About 5 km from Pomezia, the Via Laurentina branches off heading to Àrdea and the coast. The state road 601 touches in succession Anzio (14 km), Nettuno. Pomezia and surroundings Born in 1939 from a small settlement intended for the workers engaged in the reclamation of the Agro Pontino, the city (108 m, pop. approx. 56,000) is today one of the industrial poles of the region. About 3 km to the west, towards the sea, the modern town of Pràtica di Mare is the heir of Lavinium, a religious center of the Latins linked to the origins of Rome: tradition, and the verses of Virgil's Aeneid , want it to be founded by Aeneas at the end of the wanderings of the Trojan exiles. The Lavinium Museum exhibits finds from the 10th century BC to the Roman age from religious complexes – including the so-called heroon of Aeneas, intended for hero worship, and the sanctuary of the Thirteen Ares –, from the urban area and from the necropolis of ancient city, at its maximum expansion in the 6th century BC The solemn Minerva Tritonia and other statues from the urban sanctuary dedicated to the goddess stand out. Alongside the objects, vases and sculptures of the funerary objects and votive offerings, animations, projections and multimedia installations reconstruct the events of Aeneas' journey and the long history of the sacred place, the destination, it is hypothesized, of pilgrimages from Rome and the world Greek. Free guided tours (reservation required) lead from the museum to the archaeological area. Àrdea Town in considerable demographic development (37 m, pop. about 44,000), ancient capital of the rùtuli, extends its historic center on the site of the acropolis, isolated by rock leaps and a tufa wall, with a view of the sea. The church of S. Pietro, built in the 13th century on Roman ruins from the 1st century BC, has a portal with marble jambs and inside the baptismal font, the ciborium and the lamp designed by Giacomo Manzù; opposite, some remains of walls mark the perimeter of the temple of Juno. The aedicule of S. Marina, adjacent to the cemetery, from the end of the 12th century, remodeled, has a crypt carved into the rock. In the garden and in the rooms of the Manzù Collection*, in the villa where the sculptor lived, about 90 of his works are exhibited, including small and large bronzes: from the youthful bas-relief of Adam and Eve (1929) to the famous Cardinals, to the sketches for the doors of churches in Salzburg, Rotterdam, Rome.
Anzio At the base of a low promontory that interrupts the continuity of the sandy coast, the city (about 50,000 inhabitants) is a seaside resort with beaches divided into the Riviera di Ponente and the Riviera di Levante from the pier of the tourist port, terminus for the ferries to the islands Pontiane. In ancient times it was the center of the Volscians and then, from 338 BC, a Roman colony and port . Cicero and above all Nero (who was born in Anzio in 37) held villas there. Many centuries later, medieval documents speak of a Port of Anzio disputed between the Pisans and the Genoese at war for supremacy over the Tyrrhenian Sea. The new port wanted by Innocent XII at the end of the 1600s caused the old to be buried. In January 1944, Anglo-American troops landed at Anzio and Nettuno to establish a bridgehead behind the front. Nero's Villa and Caves . Between the coast road (on the route of the Via Severiana opened in 193) and the beach, the ruins of Nero's villa include remains of walls in opus reticulatum, terraces of thermal facilities, cryptoporticos, an exedra (where famous statues were found, including the Apollo del Belvedere in the Vatican Museums ), the so-called Library of Domitian. The subsequent caves of Nero, beyond the lighthouse, are actually the remains of brick warehouses. Villa Adele. In a wooded park, the seventeenth-century building of the villa houses the Civic Archaeological Museum, which illustrates the events of ancient Antium with finds and information notes, and the Museum of the Landing and the Battle of Anzio , in which the military operations of 22 and 23 January 1944 are recalled through uniforms, weapons, decorations, battle plans, documents, photographs, everyday objects.
Tor Caldara regional nature reserve. Along the coast between Anzio and Lavinio, the urbanized expanse is interrupted by the green rectangle of this reserve established to protect a residual strip of Mediterranean forest, with fossil dunes, a sixteenth-century watchtower and the structures of a Roman seaside villa. An easy path (about 1.5 km) crosses it perpendicularly to the coast, from holm oak woods to scrub bushes. Nettuno and its surroundings By now linked to Anzio, also in its seaside vocation, Nettuno (pop. about 45,000) refers in its name to the temple dedicated to the god of the sea on the remains of which, in the beautiful medieval village, the church of S. Giovanni was erected, rebuilt in 1738-48; on the same piazza Marconi stands the baronial palace of the Colonna family (from 1650, in its current form), who held the feud throughout the 16th century. Between the port and the beach stands the Sangallo fort , built for Alexander VI by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder between 1501 and 1503. There are the municipal Antiquarium and the Allied Landing Museum, with documents and relics. On the coast, 12 km from Nettuno, is Torre Astura, an isolated castle overlooking the sea, with a drawbridge, made up of a pentagonal tower with solid walls and another tower guarding the access. The remains of a fishpond and the small port of a Roman villa from the Republican age emerge from the water. On the site, on the right bank of the Astura river, a village was formed from the end of the 10th century to defend which a watchtower was erected, which the Frangipane enclosed in 1193 with a wall founded on the Roman remains, giving shape to the castle. In 1268 Corradino di Svevia was stopped and held prisoner there while he was trying to embark for Sicily, after the defeat of Tagliacozzo.
For further information our staff is available. For reservations, use the form below.
[FORM_REQUEST_INFORMATION]
Anzio At the base of a low promontory that interrupts the continuity of the sandy coast, the city (about 50,000 inhabitants) is a seaside resort with beaches divided into the Riviera di Ponente and the Riviera di Levante from the pier of the tourist port, terminus for the ferries to the islands Pontiane. In ancient times it was the center of the Volscians and then, from 338 BC, a Roman colony and port . Cicero and above all Nero (who was born in Anzio in 37) held villas there. Many centuries later, medieval documents speak of a Port of Anzio disputed between the Pisans and the Genoese at war for supremacy over the Tyrrhenian Sea. The new port wanted by Innocent XII at the end of the 1600s caused the old to be buried. In January 1944, Anglo-American troops landed at Anzio and Nettuno to establish a bridgehead behind the front. Nero's Villa and Caves . Between the coast road (on the route of the Via Severiana opened in 193) and the beach, the ruins of Nero's villa include remains of walls in opus reticulatum, terraces of thermal facilities, cryptoporticos, an exedra (where famous statues were found, including the Apollo del Belvedere in the Vatican Museums ), the so-called Library of Domitian. The subsequent caves of Nero, beyond the lighthouse, are actually the remains of brick warehouses. Villa Adele. In a wooded park, the seventeenth-century building of the villa houses the Civic Archaeological Museum, which illustrates the events of ancient Antium with finds and information notes, and the Museum of the Landing and the Battle of Anzio , in which the military operations of 22 and 23 January 1944 are recalled through uniforms, weapons, decorations, battle plans, documents, photographs, everyday objects.
Tor Caldara regional nature reserve. Along the coast between Anzio and Lavinio, the urbanized expanse is interrupted by the green rectangle of this reserve established to protect a residual strip of Mediterranean forest, with fossil dunes, a sixteenth-century watchtower and the structures of a Roman seaside villa. An easy path (about 1.5 km) crosses it perpendicularly to the coast, from holm oak woods to scrub bushes. Nettuno and its surroundings By now linked to Anzio, also in its seaside vocation, Nettuno (pop. about 45,000) refers in its name to the temple dedicated to the god of the sea on the remains of which, in the beautiful medieval village, the church of S. Giovanni was erected, rebuilt in 1738-48; on the same piazza Marconi stands the baronial palace of the Colonna family (from 1650, in its current form), who held the feud throughout the 16th century. Between the port and the beach stands the Sangallo fort , built for Alexander VI by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder between 1501 and 1503. There are the municipal Antiquarium and the Allied Landing Museum, with documents and relics. On the coast, 12 km from Nettuno, is Torre Astura, an isolated castle overlooking the sea, with a drawbridge, made up of a pentagonal tower with solid walls and another tower guarding the access. The remains of a fishpond and the small port of a Roman villa from the Republican age emerge from the water. On the site, on the right bank of the Astura river, a village was formed from the end of the 10th century to defend which a watchtower was erected, which the Frangipane enclosed in 1193 with a wall founded on the Roman remains, giving shape to the castle. In 1268 Corradino di Svevia was stopped and held prisoner there while he was trying to embark for Sicily, after the defeat of Tagliacozzo.
For further information our staff is available. For reservations, use the form below.
[FORM_REQUEST_INFORMATION]