Gaeta

The next morning we hopped on a train to Formia.  We picked up a rental car and drove to Gaeta.











I will admit I was a little nervous because it had been a long time since I had driven a stick shift.  Formia and Gaeta were full of narrow streets with scooters everywhere.

My kids had already visited Gaeta and couldn't wait to show us around.  My daughter in-law described Gaeta as a very traditional Italian coastal town, with friendly locals, delicious food and stunning beaches. It is their favorite place in Italy so far, also the only place where they felt they experienced the true Italian culture.
They brought us back to the same apartment they had stayed at before.  Our host didn't speak any English.  My daughter in-law spoke to her in Italian because she promised when she came back she would speak to her in her own language.

The apartment was the cutest place, with french doors opening to a porch with an incredible view of the mountains and water.

There were lemon trees on the back patio where we had breakfast each morning.

Just a 5 minute walk down the hill is a local restaurant with good food and a private beach for the neighborhood.



Fontania Beach is a small, quiet beach.  In the 1st century AD Roman consul Gneo Fonteo built his villa on the beach.  In the pictures you can see what's left of the villa.  In the picture below, the dark portions of the water is where the outer walls of the villa were.




We took in a little sun, jumped off some cliffs and looked through the old ruins of the villa.  We even saw a small octopus in the water. 




Within the narrow streets of the town there were plenty of places to shop.  We walked around and shopped for a little while.  We had lunch at a local bar that had a lunch platter that was incredible.












If you want to see more pictures of our days in Gaeta please feel free to look through our Gaeta Italy 2018 Album.