Sermoneta

Sermoneta sits on a spur of the Monti Lepini, above what was once the Pontine Marshes and is now reclaimed plain. The Annibaldi held the site in the 13th century until 1297, when Pietro Caetani, nephew of Pope Boniface VIII, bought it and made it the seat of one of the great medieval Roman families. The walled village climbs from the Porta Annibaldi up through narrow lanes to the fortress at its head, the two parts of the town, lower gate and upper stronghold, built as one continuous piece of Caetani-era stone.

Below, in the valley, the family later turned an abandoned settlement into a garden, so the plain that emptied of people in the 17th century became, in the 20th, a cultivated ruin looked after by the same family that once ruled the hill above it. The town on the spur and the garden in the plain are the same story told at two elevations: a family that built to hold ground in the medieval centuries, then returned centuries later to plant over what the land had reclaimed.

From Rome (FCO), about 2 hours by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 2h 19m away.

By car from the centre of Naples 2h 23m or Salerno 2h 47m.

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

Coming from Rome or Naples?

Coming by train into Latina? Sermoneta is about 14 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Rome airport.