Rocca di Papa, viaggio nel cuore dei Castelli Romani

At the foot of the mountain lie the Fields of Hannibal,  the territory where the commander camped, who still bears its name today.
Rocca di Papa, which during the time of the Latin League was called Cabum, owes its name instead  to Pope Eugene III (1145-1152), who stayed here in exile from Rome, while the town was mentioned for the first time in 1181,  on the occasion of the occupation by Pope Lucius III, who incorporated the town into the possessions of the Church.
Rocca di Papa hosts the headquarters of the Roman Castles park, which surrounds the town with lush woods, providing it with evocative panoramic views,  that can be admired from the top of the Rocca, among the climbing narrow alleys and ancient buildings where time seems to have stopped. 
This setting lent itself well to some scenes from the film Il marchese del Grillo with Alberto Sordi, which were shot here. Among the points of interest is the church of Santa Maria ad Nives of Palazzolo, a place of worship overlooking Lake Albano, near which passed the via Sacra, which from the via Appia led to the temple and near which there is an ancient tomb believed to belong to the Cornelii Scipiones.
Curious is that from the shape of some bas-reliefs found on this unsuspecting tomb, the symbol of the fasces, used in the fascist era, was later derived. On the ground above it, in 1629, by the will of Cardinal Girolamo Colonna, the “cardinal’s villa” was built, now used as a ceremonies and conference center.
The papal fortress located at the highest point of the town was the scene of Guglielmo Marconi’s experiments and today houses the city’s geophysics museum, where one of the first seismological observatories in Italy is located, still active today.
Among the curiosities of the territory is the physical phenomenon of a stretch of road that appears to be uphill but is actually a downhill, located outside the town center, on the stretch of the via dei Laghi between  Ariccia and Rocca di Papa, where curious people and scholars go to see the phenomenon with their own eyes.
Among the gastronomic specialties, the proximity of the woods naturally inspired many dishes based on porcini mushrooms and chestnuts, to which the town dedicates a festival every October.