From a US framework, the Castelli Romani might be thought of as suburbs of Rome. Indeed, you can hop a quick train from many of the small towns in the Castelli Romani that come as often as every ten minutes in peak hours and gets into Rome’s center in as short as eleven minutes. There are commuters, but there are also a sizable number of locals in these small towns who don’t venture to the big city much, preferring to both live and die in situ.
A tourist might try to take trains to Castelli Romani too. You will be hard pressed though to get from point A to point B without a car. Bringing a rental car has the downside of making it difficult to enjoy wines of the area, on hilly roads that are said to be especially dangerous at night, even for locals who know the dimly lit roads well.
Walk around a small town like Nemi for just a bit and you realize it is relatively under populated. Hungry real estate investors take note. We’re told that it is not unlike Miami, where older people die and their children then sell their homes for a relative song. In a different location and in a US urban context, these towns might have long ago been taken over by artists, and set on a path for update and gentrification.
Because that has not happened yet—nor likely will in the foreseeable future—a half-day or day trip to Castelli Romani promises a break from museum feet and brain overload taking in the equivalent of semester long college courses crammed into each day as you hop from one stellar Roman museum or historic site to another.
You will not be the first to find R&R in the Castelli Romani. Nobility came here regularly to get away from it all, as did the likes of Lord Byron, Goethe and more. Think of all those Victorian novels of Brits making a winter escape to the more congenial clime of Italy—this is a likely spot they were referencing.
You will see the large papal complex Castel Gandolfo overlooking Lake Albano, one of the area’s volcanic lakes. This is still a summer retreat for the Pope today. You can in fact continue your touring looking at related sites and museums, but the better bet for the time-pressed visitor to Rome is just to think of this, as the papal retinue does, as clean air quick getaway from the big city for a change of venue.
