Anywhere Italy
00 Nettuno
Stemma di Nettuno

Lazio · Roma

Nettuno

A Tyrrhenian town 60 km south of Rome, with a walled medieval borgo above the sea, a Borgia fortress and the 1944 landing beaches.

Best time
May–Sep
By car
1 h 16 min from Rome
By train
Station in the comune
Population
48,033

Known for

  • 22 JANUARY 1944

    The Allied landing at Anzio and Nettuno, Operation Shingle, with the US 3rd Division ashore between Nettuno and Torre Astura; four months of fighting followed on the beachhead.

  • BASEBALL

    Taught by American soldiers after the landing, it became the town's game, and Nettuno Baseball has won the Italian championship many times over.

  • CACCHIONE

    The local name for Bellone, the white grape of the Nettuno DOC, grown on the coastal plain behind the town.

When to visit

Best · May–Sep

  • J13°
  • F15°
  • M16°
  • A18°
  • M23°
  • J28°
  • J32°
  • A31°
  • S27°
  • O22°
  • N18°
  • D15°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 27° and coldest in February at 15°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

The festa: Rocco, 16 August

Why come

Nettuno is the half of the old Antium coast that kept its walls. The Borgo Medievale stands on a low spur above the beach, ringed by round towers from the 1300s, its lanes and small squares still lived in. A short walk along the shore, Antonio da Sangallo the Elder built the Forte Sangallo for the Borgia between 1501 and 1503, when Nettuno was the fortified granary of the Lazio coast; it now holds the town's Antiquarium and the Museo dello Sbarco Alleato.

That museum is here because of 22 January 1944, when Allied troops came ashore at Anzio and on the beaches running south from Nettuno to Torre Astura. More than 7,800 American soldiers lie in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery at the edge of town, and the baseball the troops taught afterwards stayed: the Steno Borghese is the largest baseball stadium in Italy. In summer the town fills from Rome for the beaches and the long evening walk on the lungomare, and the local white is Cacchione, from Bellone grapes.

The Sunday letter

Nettuno is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Nettuno comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.

Subscribe

The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter

Read on

Nettuno in our articles

How to get there

From Rome (FCO), about 1h 34m by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 2h 42m away.

By car from the centre of Naples 2h 46m or Perugia 3h 10m.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Rome?

Coming by train into Latina? Nettuno is about 36 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Rome airport.

Nettuno, photo 1
Nettuno, photo 2

What to see

  • Borgo Medievale

    The walled old town on a spur above the beach, ringed by round towers from the 1300s, with the Palazzo Baronale and the church of San Giovanni among its lanes and small squares.

  • Forte Sangallo

    Square fortress with four corner bastions, built between 1501 and 1503 by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder to guard the coast. It houses the Antiquarium and the Museo dello Sbarco Alleato.

  • Santuario di Nostra Signora delle Grazie e Santa Maria Goretti

    Passionist sanctuary at the end of the lungomare, rebuilt in 1914. The crypt holds Maria Goretti, who died in Nettuno in 1902, and the church keeps the wooden Madonna delle Grazie.

  • Sicily-Rome American Cemetery

    The memorial at the north edge of town where more than 7,800 American soldiers of the Sicily and Anzio campaigns are buried, with a chapel and maps of the landings.

  • Torre Astura

    Medieval sea tower built over the fish pond of a Roman villa, 7 km south of town. It stands inside a military firing range, so it can be visited only on open days.

  • Stadio Steno Borghese

    Italy's largest baseball ground, with about 8,000 seats, home of Nettuno Baseball; the game arrived with the American troops of 1944.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Nettuno fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

We recommend

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

  • La Taverna di BaccoRistorante

    La Taverna di Bacco holds two Gambero Rosso forks (80/100) and a spot in the Michelin Guide.

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

  • Mercatino sul maremarket

    usually held in October. TrovaSagre

Living here

  • Population 48,033, up 2.2% since 2015
  • Commuter belti
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest public hospital Anzio, 8 km as the crow flies
  • Full fibre reaches 70% of homes
  • Primary school in the comune
  • Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
  • Nearest airport Rome, 1 h 34 min drive
  • Regional capital Roma, 1 h 16 min drive

Could you live here?

Nettuno meets 1 of our 2 rules for a small town.

  • 48,033 people, above our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: big enough that it can split into neighbourhoods.
  • Anzio, a city of 58,949, is 18 minutes by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
  • A station of its own. Trains are the overlooked way to get around Italy: no parking, straight into the centre.

The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City. The rest of the series, and the best towns to move to, arrive in the Sunday letter.

Subscribe

The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter

Common questions

What is Nettuno known for?
Nettuno is a Tyrrhenian town 60 km south of Rome, with a walled medieval borgo above the sea, a Borgia fortress and the 1944 landing beaches.
Where is Nettuno?
Nettuno is a comune in the province of Roma, in Lazio, at 11 meters above sea level.
What is the nearest airport to Nettuno?
Rome (FCO), about 1h 34m by car.
Can you get to Nettuno without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Naples to Nettuno?
About 2h 46m by car.
When is the best time to visit Nettuno?
Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Nettuno?
Yes. Mercatino sul mare. October is when the first of them falls.
Which other towns are like Nettuno?
Fondi, Gaeta and Minturno.
How many people live in Nettuno?
48,033 at the 2023 count.
Is Nettuno a good place to live?
By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Nettuno is a small town that meets 1 of our 2 rules. The nearest city, Anzio, is 18 minutes away by car. The nearest public hospital is in Anzio, 8 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 70% of homes.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 11 m
  • Population: 48,033
  • Surface area: 71.64 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Similar

Towns like Nettuno