Every design for Ardea

Ardea stands on a rock of tufa a few kilometres in from the Tyrrhenian coast, south of Rome, looking across to the western slopes of the Colli Albani. It counts among the most ancient towns in western Europe, and in the Aeneid it is the capital of the Rutuli, the people of King Turnus.

What sets Ardea apart is how far it has travelled from that past and back again. Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, laid siege to it; the Via Ardeatina, one of the great consular roads, still carries its name. Yet after the fall of Rome the town was abandoned, later passed from the Colonna to the Cesarini, and for a long stretch was no more than a frazione of other towns. Only after the land around it was drained in the last century did it grow again, becoming a municipality in its own right in the second half of the twentieth century. Today the Castello Sforza-Cesarini, the Museo Giacomo Manzù and the Area archeologica di Colle della Noce sit within easy reach of long sandy beaches.

For people from Ardea, coming home means seeing the old town on its rock again, the castle still standing guard, and the sea only a short way off.