Coming at you from Terracina, Italy on October 6, 2019

Written by: Shawn and Leo

Steps Taken: 13,362

Flights Climbed: 41

We began the morning in Praeneste or modern day Italian city of Palestrina. Our purpose for being here involved a very, very, very big sanctuary, on the hill, with multiple terraces, with lots and lots of stairs, the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primiginia. First we couldn’t find it. We could see some engaged columns recycled into the side of a church that was probably part of the sanctuary, but we couldn’t quite read what we were looking at in relation to the scematic of the complex. Finally, after about 10 minutes of trying to understand where we were, Mack saved the day. He casually pointed between two builings and said, “Hey, isn’t that the ramp?” With our bearings fully in tack we bounded up the hill. Ben took the lead, because he is faster and more willing to fly up several flights of stairs first thing in the morning than the rest of us. We made our way up the hill. After what seemed an eternity of climbing, we were there. If we hadn’t already been out of breath, the view would have taken our breath away. It was spectacular, we could see out for miles. After a few Instagram moments we went to work studying the site and the museum. The museum boasts a large Roman floor mural from the height of Egyptomania as well as a large selection of sculpture and grave goods.

After a quick lunch at the hotel we were on the road again. Off to Terrachino to find a museum that we had to go to today as it was not open on Monday. The bus couldn’t get to the museum so Arnaldo dropped us at the bottom of the hill and we made our way up. We reached the Roman forum which is still a palazza, where the museum would be. But alas, it was closed. We then looked at the other sites we could see there, the large temple had been turned into a church, the smaller temple was still there in ruins, the Via Appia and its designatory inscription were still present, as are the ruins of a theater, right there on the west side of the forum. Everything would have been perfect had the flies not been out and biting! We stopped for a quick gelato and went to find our bus.

 

Arnaldo then took us to our hotel, a tall, beautiful white tower right on the beach. Oh Luxury! Many people went to the water before dinner. Alex went swimming, Shawn collected sea glass, and Kylie made some great additions to her Snap story while relaxing on a beach chair. We had a great seafood dinner and retired for the night.