Colle San Lorenzo, Sezze
Perched on a limestone spur of the Monti Lepini just 20 km from Latina, the hilltop town of Sezze offers what is arguably the finest panoramic view over the entire Pontine Plain — a vast, flat, geometrically drained landscape stretching from the Castelli Romani hills all the way to the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pontine Islands. Come at golden hour and bring a camera.
The view and the walls
The belvedere at Colle San Lorenzo sits beside the medieval walls of Sezze and looks almost straight down a 300-metre escarpment onto the plain below. On a clear day you can pick out the white tower of Palazzo M in Latina, the dunes of Sabaudia, and the silhouette of Monte Circeo above the sea — a single glance that compresses the entire history of this landscape.
The walls themselves are partly built on Volscian polygonal masonry dating back to the 5th century BC — enormous, irregularly shaped limestone blocks fitted without mortar that have outlasted every civilisation that has tried to improve upon them.
Sezze town and its artichokes
Sezze is a working hilltop town with a fine Romanesque cathedral (the Cattedrale di Santa Maria), a small archaeological museum with Volscian finds, and a main street lined with bars where locals drink the local Cesanese red wine at all hours.
The town is the home of the violetto di Sezze artichoke, and if you visit in spring you will find them piled in every doorway and cooked every way imaginable — alla giudea (deep-fried flat), alla romana (braised with mint and garlic), or simply grilled with olive oil.
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