Robert got up early to a beautiful clear cool morning. He quietly left the apartment with his drone and went to the east end of the village to get some drone shots from above!

Olive grove outside the medieval wall.

The crane marks the 3rd gate, Porta Perugina in the south wall.

About an hour later I went out and got this panorama shot over the lake from the south Porta Perugina gate over the south half of the lake.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Today we explored Castiglione del Lago our home for a few days.

The square with the non-working fountain, from the small balcony of our Airbnb.

After breakfast we went out to explore the small village within the medieval walls. The lane between the buildings at the top of the picture above leads to the north of the 3 gates, Porta Fiorentina. Turning left rather than going down to the gate took us two buildings over to the main Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, built in 1836 after the older and smaller medieval church was demolished.

The inside is richly decorated with geometric frescoes giving 3D impressions.

We went through another gate, Porta Senese, at the west point of the elongated oval wall circling the old village.

The gate opens onto a terrace overlooking the fountain and a stairway going down to the straight “Road to Montepulciano”.

We turned back into the village and walked to the other end (east) of the walled town.

Another smaller church is decorated with gilded frescoes.

At the east end of the wall is the fortress or Rocca del Leone, built in the 13th century on a pentagon plan resembling the constellation of Leo. It is possible to go up on the guard walkway, towers and keep for great views but we couldn’t find the route!

Inside the fortress is a theater where kids were rehearsing a play, in the muggy heat! There was also a small snack bar for a cold beer!

Also the ruins of an ancient church, where Robert was introduced to ‘Art’!

We went back to our air conditioned apartment, cleaned up and had lunch. Later, after dinner and as it cooled down after sunset, we went for a stroll around the outside of the walls.

Looking up at the west gate, Porta Senese, lit up for the night.

As we walked around we passed lots of cars parked in the parking slots along the wall. We peeked into a gated entrance into the center of the fortress at the east end and saw that the kids were presenting their play they had been practicing for this morning! The seats were filled with their family and friends!

The square under our balcony was quieting down after the football game on the TV at the bar below us!

Yesterday after our visit to the cemetery we did some grocery shopping on the way back to the hotel, then napped and cleaned up to go out for the evening.

The room is on the 2nd floor, there is an elevator, but it’s slower and less fun than using the spiral staircase!

We went down to the huge marina. This must be a pleasure sailing craft mecca!

‘Modern’ buildings are built right up to the medieval ramparts of the old city wall!

We found a little bar serving chicken wings and giant tater tots in the “Borgo Medioevale” or Medieval Village.

We got up this morning and packed for our 11am train ride to Castiglione del Lago, almost smack in the middle of Italy, a 4 hour trip.

Our travelin’ clothes.

We made it to our destination and our host picked us up at the train station which we were very grateful for! Castiglione del Lago is on a hill and it was 95 degrees out and humid!

Another walled medieval city, this one on a hill overlooking a lake. This is one of the 3 gates into the village center.

Lake Trasimeno is the 4th largest lake in Italy (after the more famous Garda, Maggiore and Como). It is also the shallowest, at only 4-6 meters deep. It has no natural outlet and is fed by rainfall only. It becomes swampy in times of drought and was prone to malaria outbreaks in the distant past!

A montage of our Airbnb, a remodeled ancient apartment right on the main town square!

Our reason for coming to Nettuno, Italy was to visit the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial and find the headstone of a particular soldier. Lieutenant James A. Calhoun, a Tuskegee Airman, was buried here in 1944 after being shot down and killed over Yugoslavia on a mission flying out of the liberated airfields of Italy. He and his family were highlighted in a CBS Sunday Morning episode “Honoring America’s war dead far from home“, back on November 12, 2023. It was a moving episode and we wanted to come and pay our respects at his gravesite.

We arrived after a 15 minute walk under an overcast and muggy sky. The feeling was somber when we entered, matching the weather.

We went into the visitors center where we learned about the many overseas cemeteries filled with American war dead from WW1 and WW2, and this cemetery in particular, from the battles in Sicily to Rome. The towns of Nettuno and nearby Anzio were battlefields where Allied forces landed behind the German lines to assist other Allied armies fighting up the center of Italy and stalled at the German line.

Some of the history.

And some of the background. Fascism is rearing it’s ugly head again, and right in our midst.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”; attributed to writer and philosopher George Santayana.

An official at the visitors center conversed with us and was able to locate the grave we were looking for so we headed out to find it.

There are over 7,800 graves and over 3,000 names of the missing engraved on the walls of the memorial.

He gave his life for our freedom in the USA, his country, where he was severely discriminated against during the Jim Crow era. Again, that is rearing it’s ugly head too.

A contemplative garden. What a juxtaposition to the graves of those who died in such gory, bloody, violent war.

Today is a travel day, and we arranged to take the rental car back to the agency this morning and have them transport us and our packs to the train station so we didn’t have to carry the packs on our backs the one mile from the hotel to the station! We had over 4 hours on the train ahead of us, with less than a 45 minute layover in Rome before boarding another train. We rode along the coast and then through Naples, heading into the countryside on the way to Rome. Brief glimpses of stone aqueducts and ancient ruins alerted us we were near Rome! The station was hot and we were lucky that our train was waiting at the station so we were able to board and relax in air conditioning during our layover! A little over an hour later we disembarked in Netunno, a ‘suburb’ over 60 km from Rome on the Mediterranean coast. We had a short 5 minute walk to our hotel where we were able to get in fairly quickly and turn on the air conditioning and relax! We waited until close to sunset to venture out and find dinner!

Yum, Pizza!

A short walk took us to the beach, or the road above the beach along the ancient city wall.

The Sea is calm and hazy with the heat wave settled over the whole area!