Every design for Marino

Marino is wine country: it gives its name to a white wine with DOC status, and its Wine Festival is the oldest event of its kind in Italy. The town sits on the Alban Hills among the Roman Castles, between Rocca di Papa, Castel Gandolfo and Grottaferrata, on the old highway between Rome and Naples that kept it busy as a trading town until the faster Via Appia Nuova reopened.

There is a feeling here of being close to Rome and yet apart from it. The capital lies just to the north, but Marino keeps a dialect of its own, distinct even from the other Roman Castles. Its past shows in unexpected places: the Mitreo di Marino holds one of only three painted bull-slaying scenes of the god Mithras in Italy, and the Barco Colonna recalls the centuries of Colonna rule. Further down the slope a World Heritage stretch of the Via Appia runs through the comune, past hamlets such as Frattocchie and Santa Maria delle Mole.

If you grew up here, the map holds every street you knew, from Piazzale degli Eroi to the lanes of the centro storico, with vineyards on the slopes all around.