Frascati, nei Castelli Romani, tra ville antiche e vino DOC

The presence in the territory of these prestigious residences names Frascati “city of villas” and evokes its noble past: Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, nephew of Pope Clement VII, commissioned the construction of this imposing residence;  Prince William II of Germany stayed with his wife in villa Falconieri;  the Borghese, Ludovisi, Colonna, Conti and Cesarini Sforza families succeeded one another in villa Torlonia, until the transfer in 1841 to the homonymous family; Paolina Bonaparte lived for many years in Villa Parisi, today owned by the homonymous family; King Charles Emmanuel IV of Savoy lived as a guest at villa Lancellotti owned by Pietro Piccolomini, until the purchase in 1866 by Prince Filippo Massimo Lancellotti; Queen Maria Cristina of Savoy spent long periods in villa Tuscolana; Villa Sora, originally owned by the Dukes of Sora, hosted Pope Gregory XIII and Cardinal Carlo Borromeo in 1582.
The gardens of the villas and the embrace of Monte Tuscolo that surrounds the city, immerse Frascati in greenery. Next to Piazza Roma, extends the Park of Villa Torlonia, made public in 1954, where the splendid Upper Fountain and the Theater of Waters by Carlo Maderno, an architect of Ticino origins, author of the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, are still preserved.
But the presence of artworks and monuments is not limited to inside the villas. Pushing to the center of the city, we find the splendid facade of the Cathedral of St. Peter, made in Baroque style in 1700 by Gerolamo Fontana, as well as the fountain that completes the picture of the square, lively center of city life.
Outside the city center, at the intersection between Via Tuscolana and Via Gregoriana, is the sanctuary of Maria Santissima del Capocroce, consecrated in 1612 in thanks for the escaped incursion of the Landsknechts, who, when they arrived near the city of Frascati in 1527, changed direction near this intersection, where there was a votive chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The Belvedere, finally, an open terrace with a suggestive panoramic view of the city of Rome, suitably completes our visit. Behind it, a row of “fraschette”, typical local taverns of the frascatana tradition, invite you to enter and taste the flavors of the city: first courses of Roman cuisine, cold cuts, cheeses and DOC wine of Frascati, a local product that had among its first admirers Marco Porzio Catone called The Censor, himself from a family of Tuscolan winemakers.
Among the typical sweets, the pupazza frascatana, a large biscuit representing a prosperous female figure with three breasts in memory of the wet nurses to whom the frascatane entrusted their children for work in the fields, of whom it is said they used a false breast full of wine to calm the little ones.