In Fondi's baronial castle, in 1378, a rebel conclave elected the antipope Clement VII and opened the Western Schism: forty years of divided Christendom began here. A century and a half later, Giulia Gonzaga's Renaissance court was so celebrated that the corsair Barbarossa stormed the town in 1534 to kidnap her — she escaped into the night.
Within the square Roman walls, the medieval Jewish quarter and the cathedral of San Pietro complete an unsuspected art town. Around it, the coastal lake, the orange groves and the MOF, among Europe's largest produce markets: Fondi has fed Rome forever.
Near Fondi
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
