Life in Grottaferrata
I landed in Grottaferrata nearly a year ago. When I first arrived in Italy I lived in Rome with my husband and our oldest son. We then transferred to our house in the Umbrian countryside where we opened our first music bookshop, an extension of our online store. Soon we decided to kick the country thing in the butt and leave. It wasn’t all we thought it would be but with no regrets we returned to Rome. We opened a bookshop-cafe in Rome, Pigneto and found it to be our place. We contemplated living in the same neighborhood, but we didn’t like the idea of living around the corner from where we worked. The thought immediately made us feel like we would never separate the two and some distance (not too much) would be the right solution. We decided with certainty that Grottaferrata or Frascati would be the perfect place to settle. The commute was only 20 minutes and we could have the best from the city while breathing fresh air in the hillsides surrounding it. This ultimately led us to Grottaferrata. A small town (very small) but filled with city commuters and urban enough to not feel completely disconnected and isolated, as it was our Umbrian decision.
Grottaferrata is mostly an affluent suburb of Rome. Once a small town on its own, now it reaches the city limits with an ever-expanding Rome. It has manicured lawns and parks, tree-lined streets with a mix of old mom-n-pap stores and high-end boutiques. The main street is lined with specialty grocery stores, small retail shops and cafe’s. There are many places to dine, since this is a favorite site for Roman weekend getaways. Not to exclude the many four or five star hotels in historical villa’s often booked for summer weddings.
One Sunday a month there is an antique market on the main street of town (Corso del Popolo) that becomes pedestrian and fills with stands from one end of the street to the other. Every Monday morning there is also a general market with anything from household goods to clothing or fruit and vegetables located near the Abbazia San Nilo. The Abbazia San Nilo is the main touristic attraction of town where foreigners often arrive by guided bus tours.
Grottaferrata has a view of both Rome and the sea. St. Peter’s cupola is seen sticking out in the skyline on a clear day. Since we are in Rome, it’s almost always a clear sunny day. The sunsets over the sea are to die for and the weather is often cooler than Rome during the summer months and almost always breezy with winds from the sea. Stormy weather passes quickly and is magnificent to experience up here.
When I sit on our terrace and look down below to the street, shops and passerby’s I often feel I’m stuck in another time. My husband said to me one day, “Hey look at this we’re in Pleasantville!” (the movie)..I laughed, it’s not hard to imagine everyone in their Sunday best, strolling the Corso with shopping bags and saying good morning with hands waving from across the street. The scene deserves a picture of the 1950′s black and white. Many times I’ve imagined this place with the people and places I pass without color and I like it.
The atmosphere is a mix of locals, people from Rome moving out (the towns here in the Castelli Romani have grown by 250,000 new inhabitants during the past 15-20 years) and you’ll find many foreigners calling it home like me. It offers excellent church affiliated private schools and international schools (teaching bilingual english). Many sporting activities, swimming,rowing or sailing with Albano lake nearby or hiking in the woods surrounding Rocca di Papa or the Pratone of Vivaro, Rocca Priora for horseback riding.
Food is a tradition in this area..the famous porchetta (pig roast) stands are abundant where you can eat a porchetta sandwhich with a glass of local Romanella wine. Restaurants offer mostly traditional Roman cuisine, such as trippa, coda alla vaccinara, pasta fagioli, artichokes, pappardelle with wild boar or pasta with cacio e pepe – one of my favs.
During September and October get ready for a few flies in the house as the grapes are harvested in the many surrounding vineyards. They produce our famous local Frascati Doc wine. We’re so close to the city, yet you still can find cantina’s (frascetteria) in town serving tap wines straight from the barrels. Just bring your use water bottles, fill up a liter and take it home for as little as 2 euros. But take your hubby along, these are old guy hangouts. There are always men sitting around long tables in these smokey, dirt floored cantina’s drinking, playing cards and listening to music…so imagine the looks when a girl walks in! You feel your entering a secret club. That’s ok, you’ve got the goods and you work your way home.
So you may wonder what’s wrong with this place??? Not much, it’s just a bit conservative . When I walk down the Corso dressed in black with combat boots it arouses a few looks, nonetheless picking my son’s up from private school…but I’m just a bit of a punk at heart with good taste – I mingle!
