Itri to Gaeta

Sunday 31st January
Itri to Gaeta
Winter has gripped Lazio and the hills inland are well dusted with snow. 10 minutes after we set off this morning we had to take shelter under a cork tree for some time as it hailed and sleeted. Countless pickups, vans and trucks went past us and unlike the experiences of our ‘inspirer’ Edward Enfield, not one of them took pity and offered us a ride. Our host had said that it was ‘upstairs’ all the way to Itri and it really felt like it. By the time we arrived I felt as though St Peter might have been waiting for me at the top of the stairs, my heart had been so well exercised! There is a stunning old castle and we wandered up a narrow cobbled alleyway to ‘almost’ the top when we found a charming restaurant built into a cave in the rock wall which was willing to make us a latte. So all of a sudden, being frozen and very wet, we reckoned we had more important things to do.
It was then time to head back to the coast and either Gaeta or Formia. They look to be about the same size only Gaeta has a peninsula, a cathedral, an American warship and currently and exhibition of Raffaello and Tiziano. So Gaeta got it.

Gaeta entering from the Itri road.



Itri castle











Unique garden design and recycling.

Itri and the via Appia on right and remains of a Roman bridge on the hill to left.

View up to the castle










The road from Itri to the coast is very different to the road from Sperlonga to Itri. On the positive side it is ‘downhill all the way’ (To quote Mr Enfield) on the downside it is a racetrack and Sunday seems to be the day the boys come out to see what their cars really can do. It is all okay unless you inadvertently swerve to avoid a dead dog/cat (of which there are many) or pothole at the same time as someone is passing full speed. Entering Gaeta through the dock area is also an experience not to be repeated as there seem to be a lot of people with not enough to do hanging around outside bars and derelict buildings. So we peddled on, had lunch in town at a place venerating the Buffalo Mozzarella and then went to see the exhibition – which was closed!! No, only joking, but it didn’t open until 5pm so we found a hotel, unpacked and went back looking like normal people and not cyclists.
The exhibition was in the cathedral and the pictures all belonged to the Catholic Church. Unexpectedly (how stupid are we) they were therefore almost entirely of religious subjects. However there were a few we liked including one by Rubens of a young boy who had the stroppiest look on his face imaginable and that was in 1500 and something. Does anything change!! A very mournful picture of Mary by Titian and a minute painting of the baby Jesus by Raphael made all the more poignant by our having seen his tomb in the Pantheon last Monday.
The next part of our plan is to visit Monte Cassino, but the snow is making our getting up to the Abbey on the top look increasingly unlikely. My Dad wrote in his war diaries about passing it on their way north, so if possible it’s a must see.