Travel: Santa Marinella, Santa Severa , Italy, March 16-17/2025
- Lili Naveh
- Mar 17
- 7 min read
A continuation of a trip which started on March 12th, a layover week, on the way to Israel.
Orvieto - 3/11-12 (here) Castiglion Fiorentino & Montepulciano. 3/15
Cortona - 3/12-14 (here)
It took about 2 hours to drive from
Montepullciano ,Toscana to Santa Marinella, Lazio
Santa Marinella - a seaside commune, which is located about an hour drive (60km) North of Rome is an alternative possibility for staying a night over,
(during off season), before heading into or out of the airport, at a start or finish of a visit to other parts of Italy, if avoiding a stay in Rome, is desired.
The location and cost of its few hotels (see below) make the stay-over at Santa Marinalla, reasonable and convenient, to car parking, as well as accessing the airport.
(only 40 minutes drive to Fiumicino Airport)
The beach resort town is crowded and traffic is a nightmare in July and August., so better avoid staying there during high season, unless the beach is the destination.
Santa Marinella and its extension Santa Severa are two, small waterfront town commune in the Metropolitan City of Rome (region of Lazio) which are popular seaside escapes for Romans.
These towns both lack in the glamour and beauty of the gorgeous Amalfi Coast landscape and towns, or in the attractiveness of Puglia beaches, however they do compensate in distance and their proximity to Rome
The area had several scattered settlements in Etruscan times and then in Roman times. both leaving their historical marks on the landscape.
Most of the beach strip stretches along the historic Via Aurelia, (blue on map)
which most of it is rocky and not conducive for bathing, and against the backdrop of the verdant hilly inland landscape on the eastern-side,
The view from the beach of chain hills descending toward the sea
Santa Marinella has been called the la perla del Tirreno (the pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea ) situated near an easy landing point, protected from the winds and the sea, and blessed with a climate, which is said to be rather ‘perfect’ year-round.
It became, in fact, a Roman resort and site of many opulent villas under the Empire, and it was.a very fashionable place in the 1950s-1970s.
During its ‘heyday’, many Hollywood stars vacationed here. Famously, actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini owned a summer home here.
Steeped in history and culture dating back to the Etruscans, the 2 towns.
offer few reasonable beaches, the Port of Odescalchi, open all day to the public,
with Castello Odescalchi,by it, another imposing medieval Castle of Santa Severa,
set between two beaches. Roman bridges, luxurious Villas, waterside restaurants and cafés, few churches, and a small square in the historic center, surrounded by more restaurants. and tranquility.
The commune is known for its "Wheels of Immigration" - a pretzel-like snack consumed by Russian Jewish immigrants who temporarily settled there in the late 1980s on their way to United States or Israel.
Till today this quint seaside town is a magnet to many Jews, who travel from Rome to summer vacation here, and benefit from the Jewish services it provides
Castello Odescalchi, di Santa Marinella
Today the castel is a historic site where celebrating weddings or special events.
The current seen structure was built in the 15 c on the ruins of the anciant Punicum,
Looming over the small tourist port, the Odescalchi Castle stands in a place already known in ancient times for its strategic, landscape and natural characteristics.
For the Etruscans, the harbor was a port of call for goods coming from Carthage, later the Romans settled there giving it the name of Punicum and built near Castello Odescalchi, a luxurious seaside villa that belonged to the famous jurist Ulpian
It was equipped with a port and fish farming facilities (peschiere), acquired perhaps at the beginning of the 3rd AD by the jurist Ulpian., as shown by lead pipes (fistulae) with the inscription "Cn. Domiti Anni Ulpiani"
In antiquity, Santa Marinella was the site of Punicum, an important Etruscan port which served the city of Caere.
Punicum was identified in the Peutinger Table, in which it is on the Via Aurelia 9km N of Pyrgi.
The name Punicum, some connected to the attendance of this stretch of coastline from the Punic people, it is perhaps more properly derived from the Latin name of pomegranate (malum Punicum) plant in ancient times, along with many other elements of the natural landscape, was often used as a reference point topographic (for Punicum).
The striking rectangular medieval fortress on a promontory, along the Tyrrhenian coast offers amazing sea views from the Saracen Tower. and covers over 2000 years of history.
Its origins is traced to the Roman period. It was built on the polygonal walls of the Roman castrum,- army camp whose walls remain visible today, in particular on the right side of the fortress. and was inhabited without interruption until late antiquity, at least until the 4th-5th century AD.
The castle was built in the area of the ancient site of Pyrgi, the Roman port city founded between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th BC
The Castle owes its current name when in between the 10th and 11th c it was dedicated to a young Christian martyr Severa, who was killed – traditionally – on June 5, 298 AD in this place, together with his brothers Calendino & Marco, under the empire of Diocletian.
The actual structure of the real Castle, however, originated in the 14th c. The village was gradually built up in various stages during the 15th and 16th centuries.
A moat surrounded the structure, with a rectangular plan with corner towers, and connected it by a wooden bridge to the imposing cylindrical fortification, the “Maschio”, formerly called “La Torre del Castello”.
Pope Leo X built it in the mid-9th AD
and, following further reconstruction, it continues to this day in its XVI-XVII century structure.
Between the 16 and 17 AD, it was the resting place of many popes, including Gregory XIII, Sixtus V and Urban VIII
It belonged to various noble Roman families for five hundred years, from 1482 to 1980, and was a possession of the Order of the Holy Spirit.
After reaching its period of maximum splendor in 17 AD, the Castle then experienced a long and slow decline.
In 1943 it was used by the Germans as a strategic military post.
The Castle became the property of the Local Health Authority. Then the goods of hospital orders passed to the latter, and currently by Regine Lazio, which reopened it since since 2017 to visitors, to allow the community to enjoy the special heritage, by also offering a museum and an Hostel services inside it (see below)
Exploring the castle premise by the beach was a sheer joy. Unfortunately the Museum of the Territory located inside the Castle of Santa Severa and documents the importance that this monumental premise, was closed on Monday.
The Beach by the Castle
Roman bridges are preserved of the ancient Via Aurelia, the famous road linking Rome, coastal Etruria and Liguria, built from the 3rd BC based on earlier Etruscan layouts.
Of particular interest and monumentality are the Largo Impero Bridge (km 60.4 of the Via Aurelia) with an arch of 15 limestone ashlars and the Via Roma Bridge (km 60.7) with a segmental arch with 19 radial ashlars in limestone and traces of the flanking walls and cement abutments. The Ponte delle Vignacce (km 62.3) also with a single arch in sandstone ashlars is difficult to access today.
About 10km northeast are the remains of the baths of Aquae Caeretanae famous until the 5th c large and elaborate ancient Roman thermal baths at Pian della rediscovered in 1987.[
They used the natural hot springs there and are located in a beautiful rural location overlooking the sea. They were in the territory of the ancient Etruscan city of Caere from which their name was derived.
At the 58.2 km of the Via Aurelia, close to the sea, lie the remains of the Villa delle Grottacce, one of the numerous maritime villas and identified with the ancient port of Panapione mentioned in many historical sources such as the Itinerarium Maritimum of the Antonine period.
The vast estate, equipped with a remarkable system for breeding fish and shellfish (peschiera) and a long pier, today almost completely submerged
The regional park of Maremma which is also nearby, includes 25 kilometers of coast, a chain hills descending toward the sea with sandy beaches and cliffs, surrounded by marshes, pine forests, cultivated fields and pastures and offering hiking and biking in the hills.
Restaurants
Restorante Acquamarina - (Next to hotel La Isole) in Santa Marinella
Piazza Trieste 8 S 0766511715. 3351042240
A poplar family style Sea Food Restaurant
in town center, with views to the sea
L Isola del Pescadore - on the Beach
Via Cratagine 1 Santa Severa
0766570145
Great Sea food place worth the driving and visiting the beach right by the Santa Severa Castle.
The Beach by the restaurant
Hotels Recomended
Hotel Villa delle Palme - Santa Marinella
Lungomare G. Marconi, 9, 39 0766 537433
Considered the best place to stay in town with a breath-taking sea view.
Villa Palome an historical charming Boutique Hotel, is overlooking the bay on Santa Marinella, with a luxury garden, with some centenary palms and a platform on the sea, while as well as a beach bar and Bianca Ristorante, also in service
Pino al Mare. - Beach Hotel in Santa Severa
Via Cneo Domizio, 32 Lungormare Pirgy . 0766570027. 0766570112
A modest hotel on the beach
For an unusual modest medieval stay
Ostello -Santa Severa il Castello
SSI via Aurelia Santa Severa, +390651681778. +393925046571. +393398927749
Manager: Claudia + Valentina
Within the Castle mentioned above
only 9 modest sea view rooms no breakfast.
BY Bye Bye Santa Marinella
Upon landing safely in Israel on March 18th, we learnt that the second round of the Israel Gaza-war has started, the previous night, when Israel launched renewed attacks on Hamas in Gaza, in defiance of the Israeli Gov to the kidnapped plan B release deal, and against the will of the majority of Israelis .
On day 530, since the first round of the Oct 7th/2024 war begun, still 59 kidnapped captivity, has been only lingering.
Just 3 hours after landing, we already joined the mass of 40,000 demonstrators who gathered in TLV Habima square. demonstrating against the Gov's threats to depose the head of the Shin Bet - Ronen Bar, and the Gov's General Attorney - Baharav Miara, along with fury against the Gov's robbery of public funds for coalition's and sectorial's waste and against exempting the ultra orthodox- Haredi from army service.
The grieving and emotionally & physically exhausted public , was beyond itself, inaugurated against its malicious inept electives, who have been deliberately dismantling systematically all functioning public services, and ridding the country off its law-protective Gatekeepers, while madly galloping and sawing only chaos, plunging the Israel into the verge of the abyss . May G=d help us all....
THE END
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