A Few Life Lessons in Castelli Romani
Our good luck with the weather came to a grinding halt for the next leg of our journey. We wanted to break up the journey between Civita and the Amalfi Coast as it's quite the drive, so we found a lovely little boutique hotel in Labico, just outside Rome, which is run by a famous Italian chef called Antonello Colonna. He’s had a family restaurant in Labico since the 1980s, but in 2012 he opened a 12 room resort in the natural park near Labico, which is a gem of a place. It’s way too trendy for Mr T and I (ok me really as Mr T is way trendier than me), but we had friends staying with us who are the epitome of cool. Incredible artist and magazine producer JC and communications guru Maria would be our special guest stars for the week, so we had to seriously up our game!
No one relishes the thought of bad weather when they are on holiday, but the resort is a pretty perfect place to be if the weather is bad. Between the lovely spa, the incredible food, the great wine and lots of common space to kick back and relax, it was very easy to put up with the pouring rain. The reception area, dining room and art spaces are beautifully decorated with cute vespas, an antique type writer, unique artwork, colourful chairs and as you would expect, lots of great food to peruse. On the first day our lazy lunch was followed by our own little happy hour on the roof, then a delicious dinner from the kitchen of Chef Colonna. When we first arrived, I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough to keep us busy. And yet time seems to melt away at this place, and little by little you relax so much, before long you feel totally at home.
The next day, after a breakfast of champions including pizza, five types of cake AND a cream bun (I’m never leaving) we went for a vigorous walk in the natural park. I’m not sure many local folks tread this way, let alone tourists, as evidenced by the fact that we came across a downed forest of trees that put an end to our path. But thanks to Mr T, our resident navigator and all round Bear Grylls type, we found a new trail to loop back to the car. God love him, I’d still be looking for the car now.
The resort has also adopted two very sweet little dogs who hang out on the property and announce the arrival of guests. Shadow took quite a shine to the younger one which I named Goldie Hawn, and had a great time racing around with her. I wanted to take them both home of course, and took to leaving the resort with pockets full of treats just so I could give them a snack when we arrived back. I’m a sucker, can’t help it, always have been.
So before we go any further, I have two pieces of advice for you in this post, and both are of a delicate nature. So I’m going to do my best to make sure you’re prepared if you ever come this way, without offending anyone. This is going to be a difficult needle to thread but let’s give it a go.
Advice number 1: As you drive though the natural park, and around the Castelli Romani area in general, you may see little plastic chairs by the side of the road. In those chairs sit ladies, and you’ll soon notice they don’t seem to be wearing a whole lot. They are not, as Mr T thought, waiting for a bus (bless him). It wasn’t until we saw a lady, naked from the waist down, shaking what her mamma gave her at every passing car, that he finally conceded they may not be waiting for the number 30 to come by. This was 12.45pm on a Tuesday mind you, so I understand the confusion. I make no moral or ethical statement here, I don’t know why, I don’t know how, and I wouldn't google it if I were you (trust me). I simply tell you what to expect if you head this way, because it can come as something of a surprise when you round a corner and have a bare arse waving at you.
Advice number 2: This is no way related to the above, other than it too can come as something of a surprise. If you decide to get a massage in Italy, you might be in for a bit of an eye opener. I don’t need to go into detail here, but if you fancy a massage (and let me tell you, the massage at Antonello’s resort was outstanding) maybe read this article first, just so you know what you’re in for. Lucky for Maria, I went first and could forewarn her as what was to come - cue hushed locker room chatter and a fit of the snorty giggles on my part. But at least she knew what was coming.
So now we’ve gotten that out of the way (you’re welcome, folks, all part of the service), let me get on with telling you about this area. Castelli Romani, or Roman Castles, is a group of 17 villages about 20kms outside of Rome. It’s a bit of a misnomer really because there aren’t actually any castles, but a series of villages and towns that sit atop the hillsides, some are tiny and fairly empty, some are bustling towns. You have one town known for it’s little strawberries (Nemi) one for it’s wine (Frascati), one still uses mules to get goods up and down the hill into town so be careful where you tread (Artena) and another for it’s archeological significance (Palestrina).
Most of the Castelli towns are famous for “fraschette” which are rather rustic, spit and sawdust trattorias, who specializing in traditional dishes and porchetta, a type of spit roasted herbed pork that is absolutely delicious. Apparently Ariccia is the fraschette capital of the area, so that’s where we headed in search of a porchetta sandwich and a glass of wine. What we got was an insane amount of food because we fell into the tourist trap of saying yes to the question “shall I just bring you a selection of things?” Five minutes later were staring down the barrel of an endless supply of antipasti that eight people would have had a hard job finishing, let alone four.
Of all of the Castelli Romani, I think Frascati was our favourite. They have some great restaurants there, two that we really liked were Raro and Ara Anu, both had great local cuisine, great wine lists and very friendly staff. Both restaurants do really amazing steak and Raro has this rosemary focaccia type bread which is out of this world. The steak at Ara Anu comes with three different types of salt and was cooked to perfection.
Frascati is the biggest wine region in this part of the world, and it gets a bit of a bad rap for one reason or another. One review likened it to three day old urine which I think is jolly unfair. True, most of the unkind words are reserved for the very sweet wine that's produced here, but we had more than a few bottles of great Frascati. One place to go wine tasting that we highly recommend is De Sanctis. The winery has been around since 1816 and is still a family run business. It is 100 percent organic winery and the wines are delicious. You’ll find the prices very reasonable, we bought quite a few bottles and the price ranged from 7-12 euro per bottle and we've already drunk them all. They also have a wonderful cellar and a very (very) friendly Great Dane so it’s really the complete package, well worth a visit.
So in the blink of an eye, we were already onto our last day and as it was pouring with rain, we did a quick field trip and it was back home to play the world's best game Dobble, try and play Colombian Rummy (my head's still spinning) and drink great wine by the fire. We finished off our stay with some epic pizza from wonderchef Antonello, as well as a number of other truly delightful treats from the kitchen. It was time to say cheerio to our trendy, ever-so-cool-and-amazing friends JC and Maria at the train station, as they headed off to Rome and we made the trek down to the Amalfi Coast. We’ve done well to avoid tourists up until this point but I feel like that’s all about to change at our next stop. Look out Positano, we’re coming for ya!
