Airport Runs and Aqueducts

When a jaunt to Fiumicino becomes a road trip of the unexpected kind

Photo by Robin Pierre on Unsplash

Cari amici,

Being a solo immigrant comes with a price sometimes, and for me one of them is not seeing my sons as often as I’d like. But we do the best we can, rendezvousing here in Italy, elsewhere in Europe, or in the U.S., depending on the circumstances. This year I’m fortunate to have my younger son with me for Christmas, and because prying him away from his beloved Iceland is no small feat, I’m proportionately grateful to have him here. And as it happened, his arrival led to an unexpected discovery—a small one, to be sure, but even so, it was the silver lining in what was otherwise a not-fun experience.

I drove to Fiumicino to pick up my son, noting with grim resignation the looooooong, crawling line of traffic heading the opposite direction on the ring road—in other words, soon to be my direction. ’Tis the season, ho ho ho. Whatever. With my son welcomed and stowed in the car, we set off for home, and it didn’t take long for the road ahead on my Google Maps screen to turn a very-bad-news shade of solid red. My trusty Google navigator (whom I’ve affectionately named Francesco) promptly suggested an alternate route with shorter delays that took us north of the ring road to La Giustiniana, from which point the plan seemed to be to drop us back onto the ring road farther east.

But I blew it. I took a wrong turn and Francesco hesitated, obviously confused, when we ended up going back toward Fiumicino on the ring road while groaning and chanting in unison “f--k, f--k, f--k, f--k, f--k”. For my son, who’d been up since 2:30am to watch a volcano erupt en route to the Reykjavik airport, this was particularly bad news. Ignoring his homicidal gaze, I got off the ring road at the next exit, and after looping around a bit we realized where we were—back in La Giustiniana, about to descend a curvy, six-kilometer mountain road for the second time.

“Ignore Francesco this time,” my son said. I agreed, ready to follow his directions, but then at the foot of that six-kilometer descent Francesco suggested another itinerary. Why not? We’d had quite enough of the ring road, thank you very much. Soon we were on our way, via two-lane roads, into the Tuscia region of northern Lazio, heading toward Viterbo.

And you know what? Though the timing wasn’t great given our states of health (both recovering from illness) and sleep deprivation and the fact that we were, for the most part, hurtling through a black void, the wise counsel to travelers—to get off the major roads and explore Italy’s countless nooks and crannies—held true. Because we ended up skirting Nepi, and let me tell you, Nepi looks way cool. Its old city walls—massive, turreted, forbidding—took our collective breath away as we approached, and, in an impressive feat of one-upmanship, a towering two-story aqueduct inspired ooohs and ahhhs as we left. A quick look at visitlazio.com reveals that the town’s name derives from the Etruscan word for water, nepa, which makes sense given that the town is known for its mineral water. (Look for the Acqua di Nepi brand next time you’re in Italy.) It’s also known for the Rocca dei Borgia, a hangout for the family of the infamous Pope Alexander VI.

So yeah, it took four hours to get home instead of the typical two and a half, but my son is here now, and we safely skirted an eight-cars-plus-one-big-truck accident (which thankfully required only one ambulance), and now I have a new town on my list of places to explore. All good.

The point of this little story is to wish you all plenty of unexpected experiences, preferably of the silver-lining variety, a peaceful holiday season (however you celebrate it, or don’t), and tante belle cose for the new year to come. I’m grateful to have you all on this journey with me.

Alla prossima—

Cheryl

P.S. My book! Which you can buy here or on the usual sites, or, better yet, order it from your local bookstore. Another fab option is to ask your library to stock it. If you read it and like it, please tell your friends and/or leave a few lines of praise on any bookish site. You’d be surprised how much a rating or review helps authors. Baci!