Holiday in Rome and South Lazio       Monday 2nd July - Monday 16th July 2012.

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Sperlonga and district

We travelled to Sperlonga on Friday 6th July after visiting Ostia Antica and stayed for 7 nights at the Hotel Moresco Park. This was a fairly new establishment with 14 very comfortable bedrooms. It is situated on a headland overlooking the town and benefits from good views over the bay and any breezes that are about. Each room has a terrace facing the sea.

Hotel Moresco Park Front Gates	Hotel Moresco Park Front of hotel	Hotel Moresco Park Terraces outside bedrooms	Hotel Moresco Park Breakfast Terrace	Hotel Moresco Park View over Sperlonga	Hotel Moresco Park Bedroom

Sperlonga is a small town in two parts. The Old Town covers a Headland, at the end of which is a castle. The new town runs along the beach.

Sperlonga Beach area	Sperlonga Narrow streets and houses of older part of town.

There were plenty of places to see and visit within fairly easy reach. Just down the road was the Archaeology Museum and the villa of Tiberius.

Archaeology Museum Large Statuary piece from the Grotto of the Villa of Tiberius - this is a reconstruction as the original alongside is in pieces, with some missing.	Villa of Tiberius Over view	Villa of Tiberius Painted wall plaster has survived in parts of the villa.	Villa of Tiberius The large cave or 'Grotto' behind the villa. The pools were constructed as part of the grotto.

During the week we were at Sperlonga we travelled around visiting various towns. We visited another grotto - La Grotta di Pastena

La Grotta di Pastena The entrance to the grotto.	La Grotta di Pastena The interior of part of the grotto. There is about 500 metres open to the public.	La Grotta di Pastena One of the larger stalagtites.

We also went the town of Caserta hoping to visit the famous gardens of the Villa. It was closed.

Caserta Front of the enormous villa.	Caserta View of garden through an arch.

We moved on to Monte Cassino and visited the Battle Museum and the Abbey on top of the mountain. We could not photograph in the museum.

Monte Cassino The Abbey on Monte Casino. The abbey was destroyed during 1944 and then rebuilt during the 1950s, exactly as it was originally.	Monte Cassino View of one of the courtyards in the Abbey.	Monte Cassino The Polish Cemetery. There are several other war cemeteries in the valley below the mountain.

We went to visit the lakes of Nemi and Albano and the nearby towns, Frascati among them. Lake Nemi is small and entirely surrounded by hills and buildings. Lake Albano is a little more open and we managed to get a photograph. We also discovered reference to an Archaeological Park at the nearby Roman site of Tusculum, so we visited this site to find it closed whilst archaeological excavations were being conducted.

Lake Albano View of distant Castel Gandolpho	Frascati View up central piazza to Villa Aldobrandino.	Frascati Front gates of Villa Aldobrandino. Note the entrance road underneath and almost completely covered by the trees.	Roman Site of Tusculum Near to Frascati. The Roman road can be seen. The site is closed for the moment and it was not possible to get to see it. There is a theatre and other remains.	Roman Site of Tusculum The Roman road continues down the hill towards the valley.