Nettuno

Nettuno and Anzio were once the same city: Roman Antium ran from Capo d'Anzio to Capo d'Astura and covered everything that is now two comuni. The Volscian port was called Cenone, and it was an arsenal, a market and a store: from there the pirate raids set out across the Mediterranean. Where exactly it stood nobody knows any longer — some place it right here, at the mouth of the Loricina, under the medieval quarter. Cicero had a villa in these parts, with a library he retreated to whenever the republic distressed him; Maecenas had another at the warm springs.

The medieval quarter of Nettuno is a well-kept secret: a ring of wall-houses on the sea, narrow lanes and small squares that weekending Romans have always known. Beside it, the Sangallo fort of 1503, built for the Borgias, still watches the beach. In 1937, digging beneath the steps of the church of San Giovanni, the memorial stones of the legionaries of the Twelfth Antiate legion came to light: they were taken to the town hall and disappeared during the war. Great history has passed twice: with the Allied landing of January 1944 — the American cemetery of Nettuno, with almost eight thousand dead, is the most moving memorial of the Italian campaign — and with Saint Maria Goretti, whose basilica draws pilgrims from all over the world. Cacchione wine, a marina and the sea at home: Nettuno lives well, all year round.