About one hour from our house heading toward Rome is the coastal city of Terracina. In July and August this Beach Town is full of tourists from Italy and other European countries looking for long expanse of beach and long sunny days. We too have spent many a day here lounging on sun beds with our toes in the sand under a sun umbrella. But Terracina Is more than a beach town, it has a long history that dates back before Roman times.
The first thing you will notice is the Temple of Jupiter perched high on a cliff overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. This pagan temple is over 2000 years old with its construction beginning in the first century BC. It is open for tours daily from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and costs €6 to get in. I really like their book store because it has many books with great illustrations that explain much about ancient Roman life and ruins. Visiting the temple also helps me to reflect on the fact that the Romans were indeed pagan people who worshipped the “gods” and did not become Christian until many centuries after Christ and after Constantine.
Originally the Appian Way climbed straight up the mountain toward the temple of Jupiter and back down the other side. It wasn’t until the second century CE that they created the road that skirts the mountain along the coast that we use today. If you look closely, you can still see the axe marks that were made by the ancient Romans as they carved into the mountain to create the road.
I was introduced to Terracina one warm summer evening when friends walked us through the old streets and across the canals that cut across the coastal town. Terracina’s canals evoke a feeling of Venice and strolls in the moonlight when the lights reflect off the water. There is a fancy restaurant on the beach called White Beach that fulfills every Mediterranean dream of white canopied tables on the beach, dining with your toes in the sand.
The Terracina canals are more than just visually pleasing, they were built to drain the swamp land and assist the standing water that plagued this land for centuries to flow down to the sea. The problem since the times of the Ceasars was this swamp that stretched across the Pontina Valley of Lazio. This was an important piece of land flanking the coastal cities of Anzio, Nettuno, Sabaudia, San Felice and Terracina. The Appia way stretched through here and the malaria infested mosquitos plagued those trying to travel from Naples to Rome as Paul did.
it wasn’t until Mussolini that the water were successfully drained through these canals and a a series of pumps and trees that finally made the land useable. Mussolini awarded those in his military for their help in draining the land by giving them a piece of land and a home. Most of these workers were from Venice, thus transporting many Venetians to Latina here in the Valley of Pontina.
Take a walk in the old part of Terracina and you will find the San Cesareo Cathedral built on the Pagan temples that were dedicated to Roma and Augustus. The columns with the lions at their base that were used in the Pagan Temples still support the church today. Look up and see the Roman tub on the porch of the church.
In this same square you will find the crumbling ruins of the Roman Forum. It was new to me that there were more “Roman Forums” than the one we know in Rome. I guess it makes sense, every modern town today has a City Hall so I guess every Roman town would have had their own local government as well. Walk around these old ruins and read the information signs, you will discover many hidden Roman treasures.
Often throughout Italy I see that the bombings that took place in WWII, though destructive and damaging, often revealed hidden Roman ruins that were covered over and built on top of by the conquering Christians. For example, on the picture below you can see a Medieval building with yellow paint in a slanted pattern. This was once the inside of another building, you are looking at medieval paint from the inside of a building. When it was bombed in WWII it removed that building and revealed the Roman ruins below at the bottom of the picture.
This was the beginning of the Terracina Roman Forum or Goverment Center. Don’t forget the Ceasars and many officials traveled this far south because they had many of their summer villas here, along the coast. Villas like Tiberius Villa and Caves in Sperlonga and Nero’s Palace in Anzio. Of course we can’t forget the temple of Jupiter perched high in Terracina’s cliff! This Temple would have brought many people down the Appian Way from Rome. Even our town of Itri and Formia have many Roman ruins dating back 2000 years. So we can imagine the Ceasars and Roman senators and officials moving along the Appian Way in their white togas and closely clipped hair making their way to the forums along this stretch of coastline.
This arch is the Arco Quadrifronte, it was the East Entrance to the Terracina Roman Forum, Medieval buildings had been built all around it hiding it for centuries until the bombings in 1943 that revealed it in its entirety.
Terracina is like a treasure hunt for history enthusiasts or even those trying to learn about history because as you walk around the old Roman Forum and Medieval Piazza, you read the signs and try to identify which things were Roman (2000 years old) and which things were Medieval (approx 600 years old) which things were pagan and which were Christian. I always try to imagine the people walking this Piazza, from the Romans in their togas to the Medieval royals in their fine taffeta and velvet.
After all of this history you may be ready for some refreshment, there are always plenty of places to get a gelato or enjoy a long Italian lunch but don’t forget to stop at my favorite winery here in Terracina. Terracina is known for their Moscato wine, a sweet white wine perfect on a hot day. Are you more of a red wine person? Don’t worry, they also have red wine. You can visit the actual winery and vineyards or visit their wine shop in the center of Teracina located at Piazza Fontanavecchia, 10, 04019 Terracina LT.
I love getting “Vino Sfuso” in Italy, roughly translated it means “wine in bulk”, this is usually the new wine that has not been aged and preferred by Italians for their everyday drinking wine because of its lower alcohol content. Vino Sfuso is wine not yet bottled, you buy it out of the large stainless steal containers in the wine shop. It’s usually only €2-3 a liter and they fill a plastic bottle for you out of a tap at the bottom of the tank or with a nozzle that looks like you are pumping gas! A true “local style” trip to Italy is not complete without getting some Sfuso wine. I guarantee it will make you feel like a local.
