Via Francigena del Sud Day 2: Albano Laziale - Velletri

What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

- Henry David Thoreau, Walking, and the wild

Road to from Rome 2021, Day 2:  Albano Laziale - Velletri (21 km) 

The Road to Rome 2021 group, about 25 walkers today, assembled at 8 am in front of the cathedral in Albano Laziale, where we met with the arciprete or head priest who told us a few facts about the cathedral, which dates back to the fourth century AD (though it has been rebuilt many times since due to fire and earthquakes). We then headed uphill through the town, with Gerardo of Il Gruppo dei Dodici, an association concerned with the Via Francigena in Lazio south of Rome, to point out some of the town's key sights to us. 

We passed the Roman amphitheatre and entered the enchanted woods of the Castelli Romani park, where we spent the morning amidst chestnut, hazelnut and oak trees, wild cyclamens, streams and springs emerging out of rocky hollows... In short, a fairy-tale atmosphere. And through it ran the Via Sacra, a paved pathway built by the Romans to link the temple of Diana with the temple of Jupiter. 

We emerged from this enchanted forest on another ancient road, Via Roma, and a magnificent view of another volcanic lake, Lago di Nemi, opened up before us. In the town of Nemi we were offered a snack of fresh fruit and cold water by the city government, whom we were able to thank in person at a meeting with the mayor in the charming square in front of the town hall. 

After a short stretch along the road we were back in the woods, and though not as cool and shady as the path through the park in the morning, this forest offered tasty snacks of juicy blackberries! Unfortunately in some spots the blackberry bushes had grown right over the signposts indicating the Via Francigena, and at one point our group accidentally split in two and went two different ways! 

But we all found each other again and made it through the final stretch along the shoulder of a busy road into the town of Velletri. I, along with fellow Ragazza in Gamba Alessandra, Alfredo from Arona, the only other member of the group planning to walk all the way to Santa Maria di Leuca (apart from the indefatigable Myra Stals, our social media manager, who has walked all the way from Calais), and Nello, a local walker who kept us marching at a lively pace, arrived in town well ahead of the others, and were amused to be welcomed by the authorities as if we were the whole group, or at least the most important part of it! We corrected them on that account and sat down over a beer at a nearby bar to wait for the rest of the gang to arrive! 

We all then proceeded to the town hall, accompanied by local guide Sara who showed us the sights along the way. We were received by the deputy mayor in the council chambers, which are decorated with a  fresco of Velletri 's most illustrious citizen: the Emperor Augustus, who was born here in 63 B.C. 

How many towns can boast of being the birthplace of a man who gave his name to a whole month in the calendar? 

«Velitris antiquitus tacta de caelo parte muri, responsum est eius oppidi civem quandoque rerum potiturum; qua fiducia Veliterni et tunc statim et postea saepius paene ad exitium sui cum populo Romano belligeraverant; sero tandem documentis apparuit ostentum illud Augusti potentiam portendisse.»	"Since that remote time when lightning struck a portion of the walls of Velitrae, it was prophesied that one day a townsman would hold great power; for this reason the inhabitants of Velitrae, confiding in this promise, fought frequently against the Roman people, almost to the point of ruining themselves. Only much later did it appear clear that the prophesy referred to the power of Augustus."
(Gaio Svetonio Tranquillo, Vita divi Augusti, v.II.)

In addition of being the birthplace of Augustus, Velletri is renowned as the home of the Velletri Sarcofagus, a second - century sarcophagus carved with scenes from the life of Hercules which is kept in the civic museum. 

After our whirlwind tour of the town, the group split in two to go to our respective accommodations in two B&B's in the countryside just outside Velletri. Ours is run by a walker, Paola, who is active in maintaining the Via Francigena del Sud around these parts, with her Scottish husband, and it has everything a pilgrim could hope for - even a washing machine! Some of us are staying in the rooms, others in the yurta in the garden.