Some sort of a postcard from Terracina

A while ago I promised to tell you why I spent Ferragosto (in agony) on a sunbed under an umbrella at the beach. So here it comes...

We were going to spend Ferragosto in Terracina, a seaside town midway between Rome and Naples. Before Italy became united this town belonged to the Vatican State. At the moment it has approximately 40.000 inhabitants, but during the summer months thousands and thousands of tourists come to savour the sun and the sea here.

Ferragosto is also my brother-in-law's birthday so we were invited to spend the weekend with my in-law's (which also means staying at the beach...). I have to admit that I'm kind of "allergic" to the kind of beaches where sunbeds are lined up almost like soldiers and where there are so little space between the umbrellas that you can't even see the sky from under it... This however, doesn't seem to ruin the Italian's holiday. After having spent the whole month of August almost under the same umbrella they seem to be "one big, happy family".

I however, was planning to leave the beach to itself and go for a walk. Not a "round-the-corner-walk", but a real, long, nice walk. Just outside the town there is a temple that I was planning to visit. It's called "Temple of Jupiter" or "Tempio di Giove Anxur" in Italian. It's situated on the top of Mount Sant Angelo. I went for this walk alone because no Italian will ever come with you if it involves walking for a long time and under the burning, hot sun.

Here you can see the mountain where it's situated. I've taken the picture from the centre of town

So, the day before Ferragosto I put on my brand new sneakers, grabbed my camera and a bottle of water and off I went - away from sunbeds and umbrellas. That is, at first I had to walk 4 km along the beach to get to the centre of town and the only thing that changed as I was walking was the colour and the shape of those umbrellas at the beach.....

 

My feet started hurting immediately after I left the house, because of my new shoes, but since I had decided to do this I couldn't let a stupid thing like my shoes stop me...

I went through the old town of Terracina....

Imagine - living two feet from a historic site.....

Here I met someone who really enjoyed life....

The top of the mountain is a bit closer than before. However, still a long way to go. And my feet are still hurting because of the shoes...........

I didn't meet many people on my way to the top. And I'm pretty sure that those few I did meet where tourists. They're the only ones out walking when it's 40 degrees.... I also met some horses, but they didn't even look at me....

A strange town up in the mountains. It resembled a kind of a "Disney-town". I still don't know what town it is....

This picture shows the temple from the outside. And why is my only picture of the temple from the outside? Well, from the simple reason that I had only a few euros in my pocket and when finally arrived on the site I had to decide whether to buy the entrance ticket and then "die of thirst" or to buy me something to eat and drink and skip entering the site. I can tell you that it was an easy decision. After walking 10 km in the heat I chose the bar over the temple. I even had to pay to get into the bar so I could buy a bottle of water.... On my way to the top it occurred to me that this would be the perfect place if someone wanted to "rip off" tourists dying of thirst, but I didn't immagine that it would really be the case....

Having bought something to eat and drink I sat down looking at the sea and the city from above. Nice, isn't it?

I've put an X at the point from where I started out. It's really far away, or what...?

Having finished my really expensive lunch there was nothing else to do than starting on my way back - my feet still hurting and also bleeding.....

Stumbling over the doorstep some hours later my husband had to help me taking of my shoes and socks that where soaked in blood. And I'm not lying. The last 5 kilometres I kept walking just because I'm really stubborn and I didn't want to call my husband asking him to come and pick me up with the car...

And the galls? Well, it took 4 weeks to get rid of them. And it was because of the galls and my hurting limbs that I spent Ferragosto at the beach - unable to move.....

Too bad I didn't get to see the temple from the inside,though, but I've found a video on Youtube that you can watch. It's really nice. Click here to see the video. I was really impressed so I will go back some time, but I will definitely bring both my car and sufficient money.... and shoes that doesn't hurt!