Every design for Aprilia

Aprilia lies at the northern tip of the reclaimed Pontine plain, on the edge of the Agro Romano between the Nettunense and the Pontina roads. To the south-west are the seaside towns of Anzio and Nettuno; to the north-east rise the Colli Albani. On paper it belongs to the province of Latina, but most people think of it as part of the Roman countryside.

That position explains the town. Before reclamation this was marshland and forest, and in the nineteen-thirties the land was cleared, drained and ploughed, then settled by families from Trentino, Veneto, Friuli and Emilia-Romagna on new farms. The town was founded in April, which gave it its name, and grew around a handful of buildings: town hall, post office and church. It was flattened in the fighting of the Second World War, when the Allies called it "the factory", and rebuilt. Today it is the fifth most populous town in Lazio, spread over many outlying settlements such as Campoleone, Carroceto, Campo del Fico and Casalazzara, with the old castle of the Colonna family still standing at Campo del Fico.

For anyone who grew up here, the map holds San Michele Arcangelo, Parco Europa and the farmland that begins where the houses stop.