Anywhere Italy

Quieter bases

10 quieter bases for seeing Rome

Comuni within 90 minutes of Rome with at least one recognition, for travelers who want the capital at arm's length. 10 towns shown, nearest first.

Rome rewards visitors who can leave it. From these towns, all within ninety minutes and each holding at least one recognition, the capital becomes a day trip with a countryside to come home to.

Nearest first. The math favors longer stays: a week based here costs what three nights cost inside the ring road.

  1. 1.Cerveteri55 minRoma · LazioAn Etruscan capital seven kilometers inland from the Tyrrhenian coast, with the Banditaccia necropolis holding 1,000 tombs in the largest ancient cemetery in the Mediterranean.
  2. 2.Castel Gandolfo61 minRoma · LazioA papal town on the rim of Lake Albano's volcanic crater, summer residence of the popes since 1626 in the Castelli Romani.
  3. 3.Ariccia68 minRoma · LazioThe Castelli Romani town where you go for porchetta — a Bernini-designed Baroque ensemble (palazzo + Santa Maria dell'Assunzione + Piazza di Corte) on a volcanic crater rim 25 km south of Rome, with the most concentrated cluster of fraschette porchetta restaurants in Italy and Lago di Albano below.
  4. 4.Bracciano68 minRoma · LazioThe Lazio lake town with the eighth-largest lake in Italy below it and one of the best-preserved Renaissance castles in the country above it.
  5. 5.Anguillara Sabazia71 minRoma · LazioA medieval cape town jutting into Lake Bracciano, twenty-five kilometers from Rome, built above a 5700 BC Neolithic lakeshore village.

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  1. 6.Castelnuovo di Porto72 minRoma · LazioA tufa-ridge borgo twenty-five kilometers north of Rome inside the Parco di Veio, dominated by the Rocca Colonna above the Tiber valley.
  2. 7.Tivoli72 minRoma · LazioA travertine town on the Aniene falls twenty-five kilometers east of Rome, holding two separate UNESCO sites: Hadrian's villa below and the Villa d'Este above.
  3. 8.Nemi78 minRoma · LazioThe smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
  4. 9.Tarquinia82 minViterbo · LazioAn Etruscan capital on a Maremma ridge whose 6,000 rock-cut tombs at Monterozzi hold the largest body of pre-Roman painting in the Mediterranean.
  5. 10.Canale Monterano83 minRoma · LazioA hilltop village next to the burned ghost town of Monterano, where Bernini's San Bonaventura and the Baroque fountain stand roofless.

We write about towns like these every Sunday, one town a week, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, from Pietrasanta.

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One letter on Sundays. The week’s town, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

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