We left Rome in a very cute little rental car -- a Ford "KA," which we're pretty sure wouldn't be big enough to drive in the US but was perfect for windy Italian roads. Our first major stop was a village called Minturno, from which Tom's great grandfather emigrated in the early 1900s.
The town is built around a central castle, with a serviceable court yard that some local boys were using for sports practice while we were there. The town winds around in acient narrow streets, handsome enough to make even the rusty planters and occasional strings of laundry look elegantly picturesque.
There's a park next to the castle where the villagers congregated in the evening to sit and talk quietly and watch the sun go down. 
...And down in the town itself is Piazza Rotelli, which has a little church, a grocery store, and some children on bicycles -- all the right sorts of accoutrements for a square bearing that august name. 
We fell in love with Minturno (and even with the carabinieri who pulled us over -- unclear exactly why, although if we spoke Italian we might know -- who ended up giving us vigorously gestured directions to Piazza Rotelli and waving us on). We can't wait to visit again.
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