Braving the traffic again

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We decided to have a day at the beach today so we found our way to Santa Severa which is about 60km north-west of Rome. It took about an hour to drive out there and we almost got lost on the first crazy interchange when we took the wrong ramp. We managed to find our way off the next ramp and by luck more than skill, negotiated our way back onto the ring road in the right direction this time. Just a note - apparently we are not the only ones who get confused at these interchanges as there is an offramp further along with no other path than back on the motorway going the other way. So they have even designed in an admission of insanity!!

Arriving in Santa Severa, we aimed for the parking lot we found on the map but the street was closed off for a local street market. We snagged a spot on the street instead and Em and I went to the beach while Mel had a quick look through the markets.

This beach apparently has some of the cleanest waters of any of the beaches near Rome. While the water and sand are clean, it is brownish sand and the water is a bit muddy-looking. It’s no wonder that the world marvels at Aussie beaches – we’ll never take them for granted again!

We played in the cold water and built a small sand castle. Em even met another little girl who wanted to say hello and practice her English. Em was a bit shy but her name was Emma, age 6, and she and her family were on holiday from Rome for a couple of days.

We wandered along the waterfront all the way to the end at the Castello de Santa Severa, a large castle built on the point right at the water’s edge. It is one of the most important archaeological sites along this coastline, built over the 2500 year old port site of Pyrgi. The castle itself was built in the 14^th century and the village grew around it over the next 200 years. It is currently being turned into a museum to house the ancient artefacts discovered locally as well as the existing Antiquarium of Pyrgi and marine museums.

On the way back along the waterfront, we stopped at one of the gelatarias for ice-cream which we all thoroughly enjoyed before Em fell asleep on the way back to the car. We managed to get back into Rome without incident but found that the Italian sun has a bit of a bite to it – we all got a little sunburnt!

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