Maranola : Towards Hills and Mountains

The round slopes behind Formia are home to picturesque hillside villages and hamlets such as Maranola and Castellonorato. The medieval villages of Maranola and Castellonorato included in the municipality of Formia are nestled on the southernmost slopes of the Aurunci Mountains range. The two villages are connected to one another by a road crossing fields, old barns, olive groves and vineyards wrapped up in a peaceful hillside landscape.

      Some Gastronomic Foods

Here over these peaceful hills and among bucolic landscapes the local gastronomy offers traditional tastes of the mountain and hills recipes rather than seafood cuisine popular only few miles away. The hills where these small hillside villages are sited are in a land of unique flavors found in the quality of its olive oil, in the sweet taste of their sun ripened tomatoes, in traditional cheeses made with sheep or goat’s milk, in the cultivation of ancient local grapes and in the preparation of distinctive dishes with vegetables grown over the hills with centuries of genuine and traditional farming.

The local cuisine includes different types of meats still gained with ancient pastoral and rural methods; we can find cured pork products which are among the best in Italy for genuineness and freshness. Refined travelers and gastronomy connoisseurs can only thoroughly enjoy a plunge into a world of ancient flavors that awaits to be discovered slowly and that alone represent a trip on its own among the local traditions and culture.

These two villages are the door of a different face of the Land of Aeneas and Ulysses. Right behind these hills there are mountains with scenic and dramatic landscapes, sometimes green and luscious other times harsh and dry. Here on these rounds, sunny hills other ancient Italic cultures based came in touch with the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Romans.

The Aurunci Mountains placed above Maranola and Castellonorato represent a beautiful crown of Gaeta Gulf. Starting on foot among the smells of aromatic herbs, from Pornito’s mountain Refuge situated above Maranola of Formia through paths passing trough valleys and hills, we find many others ancient pastoral paths; on the southern slopes they leads trough ridges getting more and more barren and solitary, beaten by sea winds while on the northern side we find woods and greener valleys.

These landscapes suspended between mountains and sea show the Mediterranean in all of its beauty. If the sky is clear, you can admire on the south-east side the dramatic shape of the Vesuvius, the volcano which marked the amazing history of Pompei, the Roman town still enclosed in its 2000 years old ashes. The fantastic views reach as far as Punta Campanella passing through Naples Bay, and meeting on the way the isles of Procida, Ischia and Capri.

From south to west the Pontine Islands, Ventotene and Santo Stefano, Ponza and Palmarola seem to float magically on the sea while they get separated from the horizon only by a thin pale blue line. Far North-west you can see other mountain ranges, the Ausonii Mountains and further down the wild Lepini Mounts.

Turning back from the sea, on the way back home, you can see Italian Apennines (Appennini) to soar at the horizon like a magic framework for Liri’s River valley. This is our starting point to explore the splendour of this corner of Mediterranean wilderness.