Nettuno is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, south of Rome. A resort city and agricultural center on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it has a population of approximately 50,000. Its name is perhaps in honour of the Roman god Neptune.
Economy
It has a touristic harbour hosting about 860 boats and a shopping center, selling everything for fishing and sailing. There is also a yacht club. Nettuno is the city of the D.O.C. wine Cacchione. Nettuno has a large base for the Italian Force, whose territory extends to the Province of Latina, and an Italian Police School, where especially police dogs are trained. Nettuno is one stop south of Anzio on the local train from Rome and also the last stop of the FL8 line.
History
According to a theory, the town would be a direct survival of the Roman Antium, the territory of which almost entirely corresponded to Nettuno and modern Anzio. Giuseppe Tomassetti considered Nettuno the real heir and continuation of the ancient Antiates. In contrast, Beatrice Cacciotti doubted an ancient origin of the town, and postulated a medieval origin. Nettuno was also considered to be the location of the ancient Volscian port town of Caenon, which was the closest port of the town Antium. According to a more recent theory, the town Caenon would be located on a hill more east to Nettuno, and the port, would have been over the mouth of the river Loricina. In 469 BC, the town Caenon was destroyed by the Roman consul Titus Numicius Priscus. On January 22, 1944, Nettuno and nearby Anzio were the theatre of an Allied forces landing and ensuing the Battle of Anzio, which began Operation Shingle during The Second World War. American forces were surrounded by Germans in the caves of Pozzoli in February 1944 for a week, suffering heavy casualties.
Main sights
Nettuno is a popular tourist destination. Sights include a well-preserved old quarter, the Borgo Medievale, with mediaeval streets and small squares, and the Forte Sangallo, a castle built in 1503 by Renaissance architectAntonio da Sangallo the Elder. Nettuno is also a center of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Maria Goretti, in which a crypt houses the mortal remains of the saint. The church keeps also a valuable polychromed wooden statue of Our Lady of Grace, which is honoured by the town with a procession every year the first Saturday of May. It was originally Our Lady of Ipswich, although it left England after the Reformation. The privately owned Villa Costaguti-Borghese at Nettuno, built 1648, has gardens in a landscape park designed about 1840, now protected as a nature reserve. The Borghese Gladiator was discovered at Nettuno. At the north edge of town is the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, where over 7,800 US soldiers are buried.
Sport
is one of the most important Italian baseball teams, often winner of the national championship. Baseball was taught to the local people by American soldiers after their landing in World War II.
