Sometimes We, Umbrians, are in the mood for something different, we need to breathe a different air and to escape some place we don’t know or some place where we know everything is different.
On a Thursday afternoon, a few weeks ago, we decided the time for our out-of-Umbrian escape had come. A couple of days and some telephone calls later we were ready to leave. And we left.
We left Umbria early in the morning and after a 3hours drive we arrived in a beautiful place in southern Lazio, inside the Circeo National Park. The drive was not so hard; you get to your freeway exit very fast and then you take a Province road that immediately gives you the idea you have come to a totally different place than Umbria: different landscape, different people, different colours and habits. And in fact we chose that area beacuse we wanted to be in a place looking really different from our home Region, because we wanted to be by the sea and we did not want to spend too much time driving a car. And we had never been there before.
Our choice was really successful!
As soon as we arrived we noticed the main feature of the place: WILD!
The road that runs along the beach is not so wide and it is bordered by bushes of several kinds of Mediterranean short shrubs on both sides. Here and there you can get glances of water: light blue spots amongst the green, yellow and bright pink of bushes and flowers; on our right the sea, on our left the coastal lake. And there was a “plus”: the road, as well as the beach, was deserted. These are the advantages of visiting Italy in “low season”!
But the best had yet to come! When we arrived at the hotel we immediately understood why it was called its name: it is standing in a privileged position, right on the beach! It is simple and silent, with comfortable commons spaces characterized by open rooms with big windows, the fireplace, wild plants everywhere, white walls and dark brown wooden ceiling…. tasting a little bit Mexican.
Anyway the best thing was: we wanted an hotel with a view on the sea and what we got was an hotel with the beach in our room; the water was so close and the roaring of the waves was so strong we could hardly talk to each other. Our room had a balcony with comfortable chairs, from which we had the chance to enjoy a beautiful view of the Circeo promontory, of the Pontine Islands and a beautiful sunset in the Tyrrhenian sea.
The weekend passed very fast, with walks on the wide wild beach, visit to local villages, a morning cruise around the islands, beautiful panoramas, discovery of several villas hidden amongst the Mediterranean vegetation and meals based on local food, fish of course!
To be repeated soon, there on in another beautiful spot, OUT of Umbria but not so far!
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