Frascati: Rome's Soccer Mom Suburb

I love taking day trips around here! They are so cheap & easy compared to flying out for the weekend, and I still get to spend lots of time in my beloved Roma. 

Today, my roommate Gianna and our friends from school, Nafis and Taylor, went to Frascati. It's only 30 minutes with a direct train from Termini and costs 2,10 euros each way. That's what I'm talking about. I had found it on lots of day trip lists, as well as on this blog post.

Arriving at the train station, we wandered up the hill and some steps to the historic city center. This is one of the main attractions in Frascati, Villa Aldobrani. Unfortunately, it's closed on the weekend, but it's beautiful to stare up at!

 

Across the street from that, there's an overlook with the city of Rome spanning out beneath you and mountains in the background. It's pretty incredible!

For lunch, we followed said blog post's instructions and it was amazing! So what you do is go to Piazza del Mercato where they sell fresh roasted pork. The stand is called "Leda, La Regina della Porchetta". As directed, we ordered porchetta, bread, mozzarella, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes for four people to take to a cantina. She gave us directions to one [which ended up being closed] but the blog told us about a hidden gem! At Piazza dell'Olmo, 3, is the oldest cantina in Frascati, Osteria dell'Olmo. A cantina is a place that distills wine and Frascati is known for their local white. 

It was such an experience. As Gianna put it, it may not have been swept since it opened long ago. And it smelled a lot like fermentation [for good reason]. We sat at a picnic table next to another couple enjoying lunch. Opening up our goodies, we put together sandwiches, ordered a liter of wine to drink, and dug in! The pork was fatty, crispy, & delightful complemented by the sweet mozzarella. Our sandwiches were so big we could hardly eat them! Don't worry, I managed to get most of mine down :) The wine was really interesting. It had a really full flavor that almost was more like super strong juice. It's hard to describe. All in all, a perfect meal & memory!

After that, we explored town a bit. Check out this awesome car.

 The local sweet is this odd cookie... It's a woman with three breasts - two for milk and one for wine. I have no other information about it except that it's a weirdly soft, chewy, honey flavored pastry. I sort of liked it but none of us were that impressed. The best part was taking pictures of this ridiculous thing!

We then found this amazing cake bakery that made little cream puffs. There were all sorts of flavors - cream, liquor, pistachio, and of course, chocolate! Kept in a fridge, it seriously tasted like it was stuffed with pudding. SO TASTY. After that, we took a little siesta in the most perfect, sunshine filled park :)

Wandering back towards the train station, we stumbled upon this little corner. This is what I'll miss about Italy. Molto bella.

And there was this church. It's a lot prettier on the outside than inside, actually! Strange, I know.

Wandering a bit farther, we ended up in a more modern part. Nafis and I both described it as a perfect, soccer mom suburb town. It's not a vibe you get in most places around Italy, that's for sure!

And after a lovely afternoon, we returned back to Rome before dinner. I highly suggest a little lunchtime trip to Frascati if you ever get the chance!