In June 2018 we spent a few days in Frascati, Italy. It was a stop on the way back home to Sweden after a month in Greece. Frascati, famous for its villas and wine, is located 20 kilometers from Rome and it is one of the municipalities of Castelli Romani.
We arrived there late on a Saturday and after a hectic Sunday in Rome, we decided to spend the Monday in Frascati. Mostly relaxing, but also exploring this small town.
The Morning in Frascati
As mentioned before, our hotel the Villa Tuscolana was located quite far up on the hill. This meant that we had a bit more than a kilometer to walk in a steep downhill before reaching the center of Frascati. Walking along the streets we eventually ended up in one of the parks overlooking the town. Here we explored all the stands that had been put up and came to the conclusion that there was an ongoing international food festival taking place. As we, as usual, didn’t time our visit with local customs most stands were closed. In the end, we decided to sit down, have a drink and enjoy the sunshine.
After the drink, we continued back through Frascati. The first World Cup game for Sweden had just started in Nizhny Novgorod and for some reason, there was no place in town making a notice about showing the game. My guess is that there were still some bad feelings about the qualification playoff games. If you’re not familiar with what happened, Italy failed to make it to the finals in Russia. A kind bartender at a cafe switched on the TV while we sat down for an Italian gelato.
Relaxing at the Pool
We eventually decided to walk back up the hill to Villa Tuscolana. It was time for Little A to take a nap and then we had high hopes for a swim in the pool.
Life rarely goes according to plan, nor do Little A’s routines. She tried the pool before her nap as she had no interest in relaxing once we arrived back at the hotel. The pool was, however, a bit too cold for her preferences. Instead, she entertained herself with some good old running around in the grass. It felt quite luxurious, though, as there weren’t any other guests outside. We had the huge garden all to ourselves.
During these war hours of the day, it was quite nice to enjoy the shadows and not walk too much. So it took us a few hours before we started to consider our evening plans.
Back to Town for the Food Festival
A few hours of rest and we were ready to continue exploring Frascati, so down the hill we went. Our destination was the international food festival. And once more, our timing did not match the local customs. We arrived at the food stands more than an hour before they had planned to open. Do we really eat too early in Sweden? Or is it the heat that makes the Italians wait until this late? Well, at least we had time to walk around in the park. For the record, it wasn’t very nice.
To be honest, the wait might not have been worth it for the small plates of chorizo and paella that we eventually bought. But these kind of events are always interesting, and something out of the ordinary. After the small dinner, we returned to what we will probably remember most of our visit – the walk up the hill to the hotel. Little A really enjoyed this and explored with laughter each time I started to run up the hill with her in the stroller. Then she was applauding to Susann when we waited for her to catch up.
We finished the day in Frascati with a glass of wine while we enjoyed the view of the surrounding area.
