this is SPERLONGA.

On Friday some friends and I went to the lovely town of Sperlonga, Italy. It is about an hour south of Rome by train. We left nice and early to avoid the transportation strikes in Rome and arrived in Fondi (town with the train station) just a little after eleven. We had to wait until noon to catch a bus to Sperlonga but it was definitely worth it!

Waiting at the train station and reenacting 300.

Sperlonga is right on the Mediterranean Sea and is your typical beach town, but ten times prettier!

Sperlonga, Italy.

We got off the bus and walked straight to the beach, where we had a lovely picnic lunch. Tony was the only one brave enough to strip down and go swimming in the freezing waters, but it was amusing enough to watch!

In front of the Mediterranean Sea.

Tony swimming in the Mediterranean.

Peace.

5 of the 7 of us. Alex, Rachel, Stephen, Vivi, Clara

After lunch we walked down the beach to the town, since it's off season it was pretty much deserted.

I miss my cats.

The beach.

We then found ourselves back on the beach headed towards Tiberius' villa and grotto. The walk was about ten minutes and after touring the very small archaeological museum we spent about three hours hanging out in the ruins and the cave. We were the only people there, and it was soo relaxing to just hang out by the water!

Ruins of Tiberius' Villa.

Ruins of Tiberius' Villa.

Hanging out in the ruins.

In the grotto. Where's Lindsey?

View from the grotto.

When we left the villa we walked to the center of town. Almost all the streets in the top part of Sperlonga are staircases and you definitely get the feeling of quaint small town Italy. We found a gelateria where the price and the product were amazing. This one was dedicated to the lovely Katie! :) We ate in the main square with the locals and an adorable dog who "begged."

How precious are these old men? If this isn't the epitome of the piazza I don't know what is! :)

We then caught the bus back to Fondi and decided to walk around the town since we had two hours to kill before our train. The main attraction in Fondi is a castle that lies in the middle of the town. We climbed to the top in time for sunset which made for many pictures.

Castello Caetani.

Me on top of Castello Caetani.

Sooo gorgeous!

After we made our way down the castle we decided to find a restaurant for dinner. Turns out there's pretty much only one restaurant in the town and when we finally found it, it was about 30 Euro more than we wanted to pay. So we went to a small cafe instead and headed back to the train station and found our way back to the eternal city!

As a side note I'm definitely falling in love with day trips! It's soo nice to travel an hour and get a taste of a completely different city. Plus considering it's cheap and you still get to sleep in your own bed, I think I see a lot of day trips in the future! :)