Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
With its hilltop historic centre and fascinating archaeology museum, Palestrina is well
worth a visit. In ancient times, the town, then known as Praeneste, was a favourite get-
away of wealthy Romans and home to a spectacular mountain-side sanctuary.
The 2nd-century BC
Santuario della Fortuna Primigenia
was a vast temple that extended
down the hillside in six terraced levels, covering much of what is now the historic centre.
It has long since been built over but there's a model of it in the
Museo Archeologico
Nazionale di Palestrina
( 06 953 81 00; Piazza della Cortina; admission incl sanctuary €5;
9am-8pm, ticket office closes at 7pm, sanctuary 9am-1hr before sunset)
, showing what it originally
looked like.
The museum, housed in the 17th-century Palazzo Barberini, itself built into the sanctu-
ary's upper terrace, has an interesting collection of ancient sculpture and funerary arte-
facts, as well as some huge Roman mosaics. Its crowning glory, though, is the breathtak-
ing
Mosaico Nilotico
, an extraordinarily vivid 2nd-century BC mosaic depicting the
flooding of the Nile and everyday life in ancient Egypt.
For a bite to eat, the highly regarded
Zi' Rico
( 06 8308 2532;
www.zirico.it
; Via Enrico Toti
2; meals €35-40; Tue-Sat, Sun dinner by reservation only)
serves creative Italian fare in an in-
timate setting near the cathedral. Also in the historic centre, the
Albergo Ristorante Stella
(
06 953 81 72;
www.hotelstella.it
;
Piazza della Liberazione 3; meals €25-30, s/d/tr €50/70/90)
offers
robust country cooking and modest, no-frills accommodation.
Cotral buses run to Palestrina from Ponte Mammolo metro station in Rome (€2.20, one
hour, hourly).
By car it's a straightforward 39km along Via Prenestina (SS155).
