Castelli Romani
The nearest countryside to Rome, and the one Romans actually use. Volcano, two lakes, and a white wine you have heard of.
60 things to book9 placesthe nearest is a 33 min drive from Rome
The Alban Hills are one enormous collapsed volcano, and the towns stand around its rim looking down into it. Half an hour from the middle of Rome you are among vines, a few hundred metres up, with the whole city laid out below you and the temperature several degrees lower than it was.
Each town does something. Frascati is wine, and the estates run tastings on terraces facing Rome. Castel Gandolfo is the papal palace and its gardens, above Lake Albano. Nemi looks down on the smaller crater lake, the one Caligula floated two enormous ships on. Ariccia is porchetta, taken very seriously, eaten in wooden-tabled places called fraschette. Rocca di Papa is the highest and the coolest, with the ridge above it.
This is the day to take if you have one day and no ambition to drive far. It also works in the evening, which is when the terraces are at their best.
The towns are twenty minutes apart on small roads. It is the classic case for a driver, particularly given what most people come here to drink.
The practical shape of a Castelli day is a town, a lake and a table, in whatever order suits the weather. Frascati and Grottaferrata are the closest and the best supplied with places that will feed you; Castel Gandolfo and Nemi look down on the two lakes; Rocca di Papa is the highest and has the ridge walk above it. None of them is more than twenty minutes from the others, so a day here is not a route so much as a small area you wander around.
Wine is the reason a lot of people come, and it is worth knowing that Frascati is a denomination rather than a single estate. The tastings run from seventy-five minutes among the vines to a whole afternoon with lunch, several of them are set up to start at the railway station, and a number are run in English. That combination — train, cellar, English, half an hour from the city — makes it the easiest wine day anywhere near Rome.
Two seasonal notes that change the day. In late summer the estates run harvest days where you pick, which is the version of a tasting that children can also join. And in July and August the hills are several degrees cooler than the city, which is precisely why the towns are there: Romans have been escaping up here since antiquity, and they still do it in the evening.
All fifteen towns, sorted by how close they are to Rome. Wine, lakes, gardens, food and the volcano they are standing on — plus cooking classes, farm days, guided villa visits and the papal gardens above Lake Albano.
Closest to Rome first. Never by who pays us.
On the trailA Greek-rite abbey founded in 1004 by monks from southern Italy led by St Nilus of Rossano, the last of the Byzantine monasteries that were once spread across southern Italy and…
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On the trailVisitors wear headsets for a mixed-reality tour through the piano nobile and the Pannini Gallery of Villa Grazioli, one of the Tuscolan villas.
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On the trailClip into a harness and cross the trees: from age four there is a course to do.
€5 per person
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With your handsThe estate sits in an eighteenth-century casale on a hill at Monte Porzio Catone, thirty hectares of Frascati DOCG vineyard in front and the skyline of Rome beyond.
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On the trailThe archaeological area of the Latin city of Tusculum, on the ridge above Frascati.
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On the trailVilla Mondragone sits on the Tuscolan hills between Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone.
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With your handsVilla Simone at Monte Porzio Catone sells six tastings that can be booked and paid on its own site, from a wine-only flight to wine with food.
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With your handsA private visit that starts in the vineyard and ends in the eighteenth-century rooms of the estate, led by a dedicated sommelier or by the owners.
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With your handsA wine tasting in the cellar which can be combined with a massage.
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With your handsAbout two hours of truffle hunting in the hills with the truffle dogs, then a seven-course truffle lunch at the host's home with wine from his own production.
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With your handsMetro C to the end of the line, two hours hunting, then a seven-course lunch.
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With your handsCut the grapes yourself. The window opens 1 September and shuts 15 October.
€40 per person
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With your handsThe estate has a dedicated events and tastings page on its own site.
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With your handsThe estate sells a day alongside one of its technicians, doing the work of a winegrower.
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With your handsA guided walk through the vineyards and the cellar followed by a tasting of the estate's wines paired with local food, lasting two hours.
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On the trailThe gardens of the Ville Pontificie at Castel Gandolfo are open as the Borgo Laudato Si', a working site of integral ecology.
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With your handsGuests are welcomed with a glass of prosecco, then split into groups that take turns preparing dishes chosen by the hotel's chef.
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With your handsA tasting devoted to three wineries of the Castelli Romani, served with artisan focaccia, mixed cheeses and cured meats, on a terrace looking over Lake Albano.
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On the trailThe Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo was opened to the public in 2014.
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On the waterFour guided outings from the beach club on Lake Albano, all the same length and the same price: on a paddleboard along the Francigena shore, aboard the club's sailing boat, on f…
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With your handsA bistrot two steps from Piazza della Libertà, run by the team behind the Michelin-starred Sintesi.
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On the trailA ten-kilometre easy walk from Castel Gandolfo to Nemi between the two crater lakes, through woods and past the villages on their rims.
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With your handsFour day-long outings run in English by a small local company: a street-food stroll through Frascati, Nemi or Ariccia ending in a fraschetta; a private tasting room in one of th…
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On the trailDay one walks from Castel Gandolfo to Nemi between the two lakes, with a brunch stop at a farm bistrot and a floating aperitivo on the lake at the end; the night is spent in ten…
See the dayFrascati is a denomination, not just a town. The estates on this hill are small, family-run and used to visitors, and several are ten minutes from the ring road. A good number run in English and start from the station, which makes this the one wine region near Rome you can reach without driving.
Best fit for this section first, then whatever you can book today. Closest to Rome breaks a tie. Never by who pays us.
On two wheelsThirty minutes from Termini by train, then six hours through Frascati vineyards.
€89 per person
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With your handsMake the pasta at a Frascati winery: 22 minutes by train, picked up at the station.
€109 per person
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With your handsA guided tour of a Frascati winery built around a 16th-century villa, including the vineyards and the historic volcanic cave used as a cellar, followed by a tasting.
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With your handsA family estate on the edge of Frascati that makes Frascati wine and extra-virgin olive oil and has a page of its own devoted to events and tastings, alongside pages on the cell…
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With your handsA walk through the vineyard, then the cellar and the barrel room of an organic Frascati estate, ending with a guided tasting of four De Sanctis wines.
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With your handsAn organic estate on the hills at Frascati working the native Frascati DOCG grapes — Malvasia del Lazio, Greco Bianco, Bombino.
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With your handsThe short version: fifteen minutes by train to Tor Vergata, five on foot to the farmhouse, a walk among the vines with views back towards Rome, and three Frascati wines paired w…
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With your handsA driver meets you at Frascati station, takes you to a sixteenth-century family vineyard for a tasting of three boutique wines with snacks, then a guided walk through Frascati a…
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With your handsFifteen minutes by train from Rome: a walk through the vineyard with a local guide, then a hands-on class where you cook traditional Frascati dishes and the local wine cookies w…
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With your handsA guided walk through the historic centre of Frascati tasting slow-roasted pork and jug wine, then a pizza lesson with a master pizzaiolo: you make your own, eat it with antipas…
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With your handsPick-up at Frascati station at half past four, a tasting of three Frascati wines with local snacks at the farmhouse vineyard, then a guided walk through the historic centre and …
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With your handsA guided walk through the estate on the volcanic slopes above Frascati, with the story of how vines have been grown here, ending in a tasting of the estate's own wines paired wi…
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On two wheelsA guided e-bike ride leaving the centre of Frascati, climbing gently towards Monte Tuscolo and continuing on dirt tracks and hill roads to one of the area's historic wineries, w…
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With your handsThe estate offers a visit that covers the vineyards, the production philosophy and the winemaking, and can be combined with the secrets of Roman cooking.
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With your handsA walk through the vine rows, then the production rooms and the barrel cellar, ending in a guided tasting of four De Sanctis wines.
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With your handsThe visit starts at the Museo Tuscolano in Frascati among the finds from ancient Tusculum, moves to the Museo del Vino at Monte Porzio Catone which traces how Frascati wine has …
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On the trailA guided walk through Frascati that begins in the Scuderie Aldobrandini — the Aldobrandini stables converted by the architect Massimiliano Fuksas into the Museo Tuscolano — then…
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With your handsAn hour on a historic estate above Frascati: the view over the vineyards and the cypress avenue, the story of the place, the cellar and how the wine is made with low sulphites, …
See the dayAlbano under Castel Gandolfo and Nemi under Nemi: crater lakes with the walls going straight up around them. Kayaks, paddleboards, boats and paths round the rims, plus the Roman ships museum at Nemi — closed for restoration until 7 September 2026, so check it has reopened before you build a stop around it and the walk up to Monte Cavo above both of them.
Best fit for this section first, then whatever you can book today. Closest to Rome breaks a tie. Never by who pays us.
On the waterThree hours paddling across Lake Albano, gear included, children from six up.
€42.40 per person
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On the waterKayak rental on Lake Albano below Castel Gandolfo.
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On two wheelsThe train tickets are in the price. You ride the Castelli, Castel Gandolfo to Nemi.
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On two wheelsAn eight-hour private e-bike day out of Rome: Caffarella park, the Park of the Aqueducts, then a 30-minute train ride from Capannelle station up to the Castelli Romani.
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On the trailThe museum was built between 1933 and 1939 to hold two enormous ships of the emperor Caligula recovered from Lake Nemi, destroyed by fire in 1944.
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On the waterA lakeside beach club on Lake Albano at Castel Gandolfo.
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On the trailThe civic museums of Albano Laziale and the town's monument circuit can be visited on your own without booking, for individuals or groups of up to ten.
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On the trailA four-hour, nine-kilometre loop of medium difficulty around the Via Sacra climbing towards Monte Cavo, up to the belvedere over both lakes.
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On two wheelsElectric bikes to ride the old Via Sacra, the Loggetta, Fontana Tempesta, the Grotticelle and the Rotte Cave up to the top of Monte Cavo, where there is a food stop.
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On the trailMeet at Campi di Annibale at nine, climb through the woods to the Loggetta viewpoint and on to the top of Monte Cavo, the summit of the Castelli Romani.
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On the trailTwo routes on the flanks of Monte Cavo — the panoramic one and Le Due Vette — walked with a qualified mountain guide, through the Faete wood, the Grotticelle and the old Via Sac…
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On the trailA three-kilometre loop with 126 m of climb starting from Campi d'Annibale, a hamlet of Rocca di Papa at 757 m, along the Roman paving of the ancient Via Sacra that led to the te…
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On the waterGuests sit on a floating platform out on Lake Nemi and are served by staff.
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On the waterAn hour on Lake Nemi on a stand-up paddleboard with a federal instructor, board and gear included.
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On the trailA four-hour day around Lake Nemi that takes in the temple of Diana, the Museo delle Navi Romane with Caligula's ships, and the walk towards the Roman emissary, then visits three…
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Under the groundA six-hour guided day around the underground hydraulic works of the Lake Nemi basin — horizontal wells and tunnels, some still carrying water.
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On the trailA five-kilometre guided walk taking in Palazzo and Parco Sforza Cesarini, the Castelluccia quarter looking over Lake Nemi, the church of Santa Maria della Cima, the Clementine f…
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On the trailA guided walk starting at the Parco delle Olmate, where a stretch of the via Virbia paving survives, through the Parco Sforza Cesarini with stops on its history, mythology and p…
See the dayDriving time from the middle of Rome, on the road network and without traffic. It tells you whether the day stands up; it is not a timetable.
Getting there
The day stays yours: you leave when you want, stop where you want, and come back when the light goes.
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See prices on LocalrentNo parking to find, no wrong turns, and you leave when the day is done.
Affiliate link — you pay their price, never more, and they pay us. You book with Welcome Pickups, and anything about that booking goes through them.
See prices on Welcome PickupsThe fifteen towns on the rim of the volcano south-east of Rome, plus the country between them. They have been the city's summer escape since antiquity, and they are the closest real countryside to the centre.
Frascati and Grottaferrata are around half an hour's drive from the middle of the city; the furthest of them are under an hour. The times on each card are calculated on the road network without traffic.
Frascati for wine and the shortest drive. Castel Gandolfo for the papal palace and the lake below it. Nemi for the view, and its ships museum once it reopens on 7 September. Ariccia if the day is really about lunch.
The palace and its gardens at Castel Gandolfo open to visitors, and the gardens are the better half. Days and times are published by the people who run it, and each card links to them rather than to a timetable of ours.
In summer, it is the best time. The terraces face Rome, the sun goes down behind the sea, and dinner is half the price it is in the centre.
By car, with the drive time on each card. There are also railway lines to Frascati, Castel Gandolfo and Albano, and several Frascati estates build their tasting around the station — which is the one case here where the train is the easier way in.
Frascati, without much argument — it has the denomination, more estates open to visitors than anywhere else on this page, and the shortest drive. Monte Porzio Catone and Monte Compatri on the same hill are the quieter version of the same thing.
Lake Albano has shore access below Castel Gandolfo and is where the kayaks and paddleboards go out from. Nemi is smaller, steeper and more of a place to look at than to swim in. Both are craters, so the water is deep and cold a short way out.
For a town, a lake and a long lunch, comfortably. For all fifteen towns, no — and trying is the standard mistake. Pick two that are next to each other and let the day be slow; that is what the people who live in Rome do with them.
The lake shore at Castel Gandolfo with pedalos and kayaks, the ships museum at Nemi (closed for restoration until 7 September — confirm before you go), the adventure park in the woods above Grottaferrata, farm and pasta-making days on the estates, and the walk up Monte Cavo if they are old enough for a hill.
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