Day 2: Nettuno

We manage to sleep until after 8 am….this hopefully will take care of any latent jet lag. The weather is warm but overcast and a bit misty–it is hard to see the water past the boat harbor.

After breakfast at the hotel, we get in the car–we were upgraded to a Peugeot 407 station wagon which is very comfortable–and take a drive out of town searching for one of the attractions listed in the guide book…the Torre Astura. The tower is a remnant of the coastal defenses of the Middle Ages and is located in a harbor dating back to pre-Roman times. We find that Nettuno is a larger town than we first supposed as we drive through a long stretch of apartment buildings and stores that extend along the beach to the east of town. The stretch– the area is called Scacciapensieri–is dominated by a large condominium skyscaper–over 20 stories high–which seems quite out of place in this town.

The search for the Torre Astura breaks down a few miles out of town when the tourist directional signs disappear….but we do finally reach the tower–a stubby brick building set in the water inside a tourist camping site.

Back in town, we go to the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. We have visited British cemeteries in Siracusa and Orvieto which we found beautiful and extremely moving. This cemetery is set on a large carefully manicured plot of land on the north edge of Nettuno. In the middle, there is a fountain, an expansive lawn and a memorial that includes a chapel, a garden, and room of maps detailing the campaign.

The gravestones are on either side with neatly lined up rows of crosses (as well as 122 stars of David, according to the brochure).

There are almost 8,000 soldiers buried here….it is much larger than the British cemeteries that we had visited. In addition, the walls of the chapel in the memorial has the list of names of 3,000 soldiers and sailors whose remains were never recovered.

The room with the maps details the military campaigns in the Anzio/ Nettuno landings as well as the entire Italian and European theater movements and they give a clear picture of how the invasion was carried out.

Walking along the paths and seeing the rows and rows of grave markers is a moving experience yet somehow it doesn’t pack the emotional wallop that we had experienced at the British cemeteries. We will visit the British cemetery in Anzio tomorrow.

We have lunch at sandwich place (piadina–a flat bread that is a specialty of Emilia-Romagna) in the “porto turistico” and then go back to the hotel for a rest. I take another scouting trip around Nettuno, past Neptune’s fountain, walking on the beach, under the massive Fortezza Sangallo and through the back streets of the town.

In the late afternoon, we drive to Anzio for a look around. We find a parking place right on the water and stroll down the promenade along the harbor. Anzio’s harbor is much more of a working port than Nettuno’s…we see a lot of fishing boats moored there and watch the crew members cleaning up the equipment.

We sit on a bench and have some excellent gelato before continuing into the center of town. Anzio’s center is a lively, attractive place with tree lined streets and piazzas filled at this hour with people sitting and socializing and children playing.

We check out some possible places to eat and then find the Museum of the Landings (Museo di Sbarco) where we plan to go tomorrow.

Back in Nettuno, we have no particular place in mind for dinner this evening so we choose a place while walking around town. We eat at the Osteria Vecchia Fontana, another pretty little family-run trattoria. Although there is no one eating there when we walk past, we are welcomed warmly by the father who is sitting at a table reading a newspaper. Once we sit down, the family springs into action. The mother brings us bread, one of the sons takes our drink orders. There is no menu and the mother tells us what is available. Even though only one other table of diners shows up during the evening, the place seems lively. The food is very good…we start with a delicious antipasto plate with ham, salami, cheese, etc. I have the paccheri (large tubes of pasta) with a sauce made from broccolo romanesco (which looks like a pointy cauliflower)

and sausage. Diana has a risotto made with pear and taleggio and we split an order of grilled sausage and roasted potatoes. We drink another nice local white….this one called “Cacchione” which is light, crisp and delicious. Everything was very good and the whole experience was the kind you wish to have more frequently. Handshakes all around when we leave and the mother asks us to wait for minute while she gets a present to give us….a picture of the old market square when the big Neptune fountain used to be located there.

We stroll back to the hotel through a quiet Nettuno…tomorrow off to Molise.