Last month Jerzy from Poland, who also took some fantastic photos posted on the Casa Capena Facebook page, said:

“We came to Capena at 1 am and that was the first big “wow”. Narrow streets, beautiful Piazza del Popolo, cats and silence. Fantastic! The second “wow” was in your incredible home

Then David and Jenny had this to say yesterday:

We arrived at your apartment in Capena earlier this afternoon.

At the moment, all we can say is…. WOW !!  

It’s fantastic.

David & Jenny

Mind you, David and Jenny are genealogists by profession so you’d expect them to appreciate the hundreds of years of history in Casa Galilei. If those walls could talk…

Wow factor

Barabbata Festival

The Barabbata Festival is held every year on 14 May on the shores of Lake Bolsena in the fishing village of Marta near Viterbo. The festival is a catholicised re-enaction of pagan rites of spring and consists of parading a portrait of the Virgin through the town and up to the church at the top of the hill. What sets it apart from thousands of other religious festivals is the enthusiasm with which the townsfolk construct their highly elaborate floats each year. These have got so big over the years that most of them can no longer manage the narrow lanes of the old town and have to be paraded along the main thoroughfare. Despite its devotion to the Madonna it’s an all male affair, the women are restricted to casting flowers from their balconies. The ‘modern’ festival dates back to 1563 though it probably has its origins in pagan Etruscan festivities.

The trades involved are the fishermen; the shepherds; the ‘butteri’, the cowboys of the Maremma; the herdsmen and the villani, the villains or peasants all dressed in their traditional costume. All is accompanied by loud cheering of “Evviva Maria, evviva il santisimo sacramento, Evviva la Madonna!” and there is also a noisy local band led, rather incongruously given the antiquity of the festival, by majorettes twirling their batons.

The festival starts at 4.00 AM with a drummer beating round the town awakening all the participants to put the finishing touches to their floats. They then start forming up along the lake shore from about 8 and the procession heads off through the town from 9 arriving at the church of the Madonna del Monte above the town at around noon where everyone then indulges in a wine picnic surrounded by their on-looking animals.

This year the 14th falls on a Saturday which means there’ll be more visitors than usual but don’t be put off it’s a great day out.

Marta can be reached by local buses departing from Viterbo. Two train lines connect Rome and Viterbo: the FR3 main stops in downtown Rome are Ostiense, Trastevere and San Pietro, the other line’s terminus is Flaminio.

For other travel news on the Viterbo province read this article.

The most famous and typical religious ceremony of  northern Lazio is Santa Rosa, in downtown Viterbo.

Some of the best products of this area are chestnuts and mushrooms.

“I’ve been posting my favorite sources for Rome trip planning here and there on different threads, but figured I should put them in a dedicated thread that will more easily turn up in a search. I’d also love to see other’s favorite resources added here.

As well as the official tourism sites and well known websites that have been around for sometime, I find the following 5 sources indispensible for planning my trips. Also, since I love Rome and can’t get there often enough, it’s great to keep up with these online journals year round as they make me feel like I’m “virtually” there. I’m even following these folks on Twitter, many of them post pictures and it is so cool seeing how crowded the market is in Testaccio on Sunday morning for instance, mere seconds after the counter was swarmed at Cristalli di Zucchero! (My list is in no particular order, I love all of them):

In Rome Now Beyond the Guidebooks

Parla Food

Revealed Rome

Rome NileGuide

Darius Arya Digs”

Rome beyond the guidebooks