Via Francigena del Sud Day 10: Formia - Minturno

Road (to) from Rome Day 10: Formia - Minturno

Water, water everywhere 

Nor any drop to drink! 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)

This morning I set off alone, as my hotel was a little further along the Via Francigena than where the others stayed. I followed the gps track, as there were practically no markings on the ground, and ended up taking a shorter but less scenic route than the others as far as Scauri, where I sat at a beachside bar writing in the Pilgrim Diary of the Ragazze in Gamba until the rest of the group showed up. From Scauri we walked the rest of the day by the water: first the sea, and then the River Garigliano, the river marking the border between the regions of Lazio and Campania. 

We walked all day by the water, but we were thirsty all day: there are practically no public water fountains in this part of Italy! I asked a man in a garden to fill my water bottle from his garden hose and made do with that. 

We eventually arrived at the archaeological site of ancient Roman Minuturnae and stopped for a picnic in the shade before Valentina, the guide from the historical association Lestrigonia who showed us the Torre di Mola in Formia last night, gave us a guided tour of the ruins. Highlights included a floor mosaic illustrating scenes of putti treading grapes, and the public latrines, complete with Latin graffiti! 

Roman graffiti in the latrines: "Eutichio hic cacavit" 
Eutichio pooped here! 

Minturnae was a Roman port city built at the site of the bridge over the river Liris (now Garigliano) on the Via Appia, and because of its strategic location, the city was repeatedly invaded and destroyed, first by the Goths, then by the Longobards in AD 590 and by the Saracens in 883. A new town was built in a higher position, above the marshlands, but this was also destroyed, by the Magyars and again by the Normans. The town suffered destruction yet again during World War II, as it was situated on the Gustav Line and bombed heavily by the Allies.

Defensive lines built by the Germans in central Italy in 1943-1944

The "new" town on the hilltop, where we are spending the night in the Monastery of San Francesco, was built using stone from the ruins of the Roman town below, and so Roman columns became houseposts, and various blocks of stone and capitals were incorporated into the castle and the cathedral dedicated to Saint Peter. The columns in the nave of the cathedral are all different, each taken from a different Roman building, and there are architectural elements dating from the tenth century, the twelfth century and the Baroque age; yet the overall effect is surprisingly harmonious!

In July of every year (except 2020) the town of Minturno celebreates the Sagra delle Regne, a festival in which votive images of the Madonna made entirely from ears of wheat are paraded around the town. 

After showering at our accommodations, all together this evening in the dormitories of the convent of San Francesco, we ended the day with a dinner party to celebrate the final evening with our new friends in Lazio, the Gruppo dei Dodici and the walkers from various towns in the area who had joined them for this section of the Via Francigena in southern Lazio. 

We hope to find new walkers as friendly and helpful as them when we enter the region of Campania tomorrow!