When In Rome, LEAVE as the Romans do.

Living in Rome and working in the tourism industry for the past ten years, I long ago resigned to the fact that each August I would be destined to roast in my hot apartment and watch out my balcony as my fellow Romans pack up their lives, board up their homes, and flee the city for greener (read: cooler) pastures for the month. While over the years I have managed to put together a bit of a survival guide to spending August in Rome, I must admit there is something special that happens during the month of August, especially in the small towns of Italy.

When friends recently invited me to visit them at their family’s home in the mountains near Rome, I happily accepted the invitation. I didn’t know what to expect from their mysterious town aside from the fact that it was in the mountains, which meant goodbye hot-and-bothered self, hello cool-as-a-cucumber new me. Little did I know what a completely different world would await me just 70 kilometers from busy Roma, the Caput Mundi.

Cervara di Roma sits on a hilltop in the Simbruini mountains. Founded by Benedictine Monks in the 8th century, it is now home to a whopping 465 inhabitants. To get there one must park their vehicle along the main road that leads to the town, and walk up about 150 feet of steps that wind up and down and around this magical little town.

The town boasts one alimentari shop which sells essential food items (the milk arrives once every four days, and when it sells out you just have to wait until the next shipment), two butchers, two coffee bars, one bed and breakfast, and a shop that sells local honey, wine, and jams. This, readers, is the lowdown on commerce in Cervara di Roma. However, in August something magical happens in this tiny town. Those who moved away come back (their apartments are very much just as they left them, real estate is not exactly booming in such a town so most people just hold onto their homes for vacation use), and with them they bring their children, and sometimes even their children’s children. Suddenly Cervara is overflowing with the joyful sounds of children playing and families reunited. The tiny piazza is illuminated with rocky cliffs rising up around it, and friends and family gather there day and night to catch up on the goings on of the past year. Marriage or divorce, birth or death, gossip rules in a small town like this one.

Each night there are concerts with live music, theatrical performances, or comic acts in the piazza. During the special feast days there will be processions where dozens of volunteers carry giant statues of saints, Jesus or the Madonna through the town and into the church. Craft projects, games, and races are set up for the local children. All of this is organized and paid for by the town.

The beauty of a place like this is that one simply has no choice but to relax, breathe in the clean mountain air, take leisurely walks up and down hundreds of steps and paths, and marvel at the fact that a town so close to Rome can seem worlds away.

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