D41 Rome to Palestrina

Well finally tore myself away from the endless fascinating distractions of the eternal city having educated myself on the interrelationships between Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (with a brief discussion into the Egyptians) for good measure. No better place to understand the layer upon layer of cultural appropriation reinterpretation and repackaging that us humans have been doing once we had learned enough to generate surplus production around 8000 years ago on the fringes of the Eastern Mediterranean. The seven villages that came together as Rome learnt much from the Etruscans to their North and the Greek Colonies to the South. But it was Julius Caesar's nephew Octavian once he had seen off Mark Anthony (and republicanism) at the sea battle of Actium significantly off the Greek coast who consciously cloaked himself in all things Greek to legitimise his imperial regime including a temple to his protecting God Apollo on the Palatine.

However it was the Vatican where I discovered the evidence of transmission into the modern era as pope after pope commissioned renaissance giants to decorate their palaces using the surrounding statues of antiquity as their models. I  was feeling somewhat chastened during evening tai chi at 60 years of age on my clinical retirement 'grand tour's by the fact that Michaelangelo started work on the dome of St Peter's at 74 years of age! Maybe my own masterpiece lies ahead!

The route onwards towards Bari presented somewhat of a dilemma! The old Roman route the via Appia clearly presented the most authentic option heading through what used to be swampy ground South towards Naples before swinging East and has a modern route documented the via appia antica but seemed sketchy at best after the first notable 20km through a protected linear Appian park to the Roma ringroad. I downloaded what purported to be a  GPX file for my Garmin and set out but not before downloading a more detailed reconnaissance route map for Eurovelo 5 which seeks to cover much the same journey but choosing a more cycle friendly route heading eastwards of the via Appi a bit with no equivalent solution for getting out of the city.

For anyone who stumbles upon this blog looking for a scenic route out of Rome I would highly recommend my solution (if you don't mind a wee climb (300m or so). Take the Via Appi a Heading South from the circus maximus and give yourself a long morning to admire the many sites that line the path and hear those  legionnaires, pellegrinos, slaves and maybe the odd tourist like us marching alongside along the millenia. Cycling on the Roman pacing is ok once you follow the  worn ruts of 2 000 years of cartwheels! On reaching the end of the park at Frattoche where the modern dual carriageway takes the logical straight path up to Castel Gondolfo in the Albani Hills zig zag on the much quieter and more gentle approach via Pavona. If like me you then decide that the via appia antica is not for you there is a wonderful ride contouring through the Albany Hills past the popes' weekend place overlooking the spectacular crater lake of Lago di Albani via Frascati and a stop for refreshments! The best glass of white i have enjoyed since Burgundy!

The run into Palestrina is a little circuitous to avoid major   roads but rewards with a dramatic hilltop town on the other side of the Sacco valley which houses a massive classical terraced shrine to Fortune (the resident female adept free lots as she foretold what lay ahead!), Taken in by the Barberrini family (massively successful papal hangers on)  as a Palazzo on which all terraced grand house p.s. Have subsequently been modelled and where Thomas Mann and hisbrother hung out and wrote. Layer upon layer as I said before!