Monte Porzio Catone, worth discovering
Popes' villas, a Latin city on the hill, the calendar we still use today. Stories of the town we live in, checked against the sources.
Monte Porzio Catone is a small town in the Castelli Romani, the Alban Hills south-east of Rome, on a hill of about 450 metres looking towards the city. The old town, gathered around its main church, is a little over four hundred years old; the history of the hill is much older.
Worth seeing: Villa Mondragone, where according to tradition the Gregorian calendar was born in 1582, and above the town Tusculum, the Latin city with its theatre and forum, where Cicero had his villa. Then the table: Frascati wine, which grows on these hills. And to plan the day: how to get here from Rome.
Cicero at Tusculum: the villa of the Tusculan Disputations
Cicero at Tusculum, above Monte Porzio Catone: the villa where he wrote the Tusculan Disputations in 45 BC, his Academy, his neighbours and where it stood.
Tusculum: the Latin city above Monte Porzio Catone
The ruins of Tusculum above Monte Porzio Catone, near Rome: the Latin city of Cicero and the Counts of Tusculum, destroyed in 1191. Theatre, forum, acropolis.
Frascati wine in Monte Porzio Catone: a short guide
The wine of Monte Porzio Catone is Frascati: a DOC since 1966, volcanic soils, Malvasia grapes, and the Superiore and sweet Cannellino, both DOCG since 2011.
How to get to Monte Porzio Catone from Rome
How to get to Monte Porzio Catone from Rome: by car on the A1 to the Monteporzio Catone exit, or by regional train to Frascati and the bus to Piazza Borghese.
After the walk, dinner with us
Il Tinello is at Via IV Novembre 9, in the old town of Monte Porzio Catone: handmade pasta, the grill and Castelli wine. To book a table, send us a WhatsApp message.