Frascati

In Rome, wine is called Castelli Romani. In the Castelli Romani, it’s called Frascati.

The area around this town so famed for its wine is known as the Castelli Romani because it has been, since time immemorial, the location of the vacation homes of the most rich and most powerful people of Rome; the castelli, or castles were an enduring symbol of power. It’s enough to know that eight Roman Emperors saw fit to have their domiciles here, and, after the fall of the Roman Empire, an indefinite number of cardinals and popes. The origin of the town’s name, however, is curious and rather more humble: it appears to derive from the Italian frasca, meaning “branch” or “bough,” referring to the way in which the roofs of houses were covered.

Frascati itself was born as a suburb of one of the most ancient Italian cities, Tusculum, a city older than Rome itself. Stories of the origin of Tusculum bind together myth, legend, and history: supposedly, the city was founded by Telegono, the son of Ulysses and the sorceress Circe. It is certain that Tusculum was a very powerful center before the rise of Rome until it entered into the sphere of the future caput mundi when the Romans defeated the Latin League, the federation of the people of Lazio that sought to oppose with the rising power of the city on the banks of the Tiber. After their defeat at the hands of the Romans, Tusculam was the first Latin city to receive Roman citizenship and remained faithful to the Empire until the end. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the town became the fiefdom of a powerful local family called by the name of Conti del Tuscolo, the Counts of Tusculum. This family, thanks to intrigue and violence, succeeded for almost sixty years in nominating family members to the papacy, until the year 1191, in which they were defeated at the end of a long war which also brought about the destruction of the city.

From that moment began the history of Frascati, the center of which was built around the old Roman villas. Over the course of the passing centuries, the town played host to plenty of Popes, every one of which embellished the town with their splendid homes. This prolonged building frenzy provided employment for many of the major Italian architects-including Giacomo della Porta, Luigi Vanvitelli, Francesco Borromini, and Carlo Maderno. Their works, the famous Tuscolan villas, today comprise the major tourist itinerary in the area. The first of these princely habitations was constructed in the principal piazza of Frascati and from the grounds of the Villa Aldobrandini (pictured above)-which takes its name from the name of the Cardinal that ordered its construction-can be seen a splendid view of the Roman countryside. Inside, among many other treasures, can be admired a fountain made by Bernini. Close by is found Villa Lancelotti, constructed on the site of Roman villas (including that of Lucullus), and which played host, in a later day, to George Sand, among others. Villa Falconieri, constructed by Cardinal Rufini, is accordingly called the “Rufinia.” The smallest of the Tuscolan villas is the Villa Tuscolana, erected in the ruins of what was once the summer home of the Cicero, the famous Roman orator. This villa was another creation of Cardinal Rufini, and to distinguish it from the other, it was called the “Rufinella.” Inside of the villa, the Palazzo is a work by Vanvitelli. Also on the villa tour, the view of the Villa Torlonia can’t be missed. Though the villa was bombed during the war, Carlo Maderno’s remarkable Theatre of Water remains in place. Last of the villas in the territory of Frascati is the Villa Mondragone where Pope Gregory XII signed in 1582 his eponymous calendar reforms.

We began by saying that those who said Castelli meant Frascati and those who said Frascati meant Wine. The town has, in fact, always remained a center of the production of wine thanks to the soil, of volcanic origin, and the mildness of its climate. During the harvest season-October and November-Frascati and all the area around it is full of theatre and festivals concentrated on the wine. Walking around the city on foot, it is practically impossible not to give into the tempation of the wine seen in the city’s rich selection of osterie, trattorie, bars, and restaurants. Frascati represents a full immersion into Italian culture, with its archaeological past in Tusculum, the marvelous architecture of its villas, and the unequaled flavour of the vino bianco of Frascati.

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