Our stay in Fossanova was short but absolutely fantastic. We were there to see its Cistercian abbey (above), but the little village that surrounds it was an unexpected highlight as well. It was so charming, peaceful and beautiful.
Amazingly, the Abbey of Fossanova is not nearly as popular with visitors as nearby (45 minutes) Casamari Abbey. Having now visited both, we think Fossanova wins hands down. It deserves far more visitors than it gets, but at the same time I'd hate to see it filled with tour buses.
Along the main street facing the abbey was a long red building (bottom picture above) filled with wonderful little shops. At one end was a cafe with outdoor tables; the others housed a terracotta craft shop, a biscotteria (entirely dedicated to bags of homemade cookies) and a fresh meat and cheese shop (with the local specialty mozzarella di bufula). Magnificent.
After a slow wander around, we visited the inside of the abbey. Like the village itself it was better than we expected, with interesting things to see around every corner.
The cloisters included a chapter house and refectory and a passageway out the east side led to another surprise, the Chapel of St. Thomas.
As you can see from the orange fencing, the lower level is undergoing restoration, but signs pointed up some wonderful stone stairs in the corner to an interesting little room overlooking the abbey and a small upstairs chapel.
After the abbey we visited the Medieval Museum on the corner between the abbey and our hotel, which was another nice surprise. It wasn't super exciting, but displayed some nice finds from the abbey area, including Roman inscriptions and ancient pottery.
Then we hopped in the car and drove out to the nearest town, of which Fossanova is technically part. It's called Priverno and we'd never heard of it, but a sign posted near the abbey listing all its old churches made it seem like a good place to spend the evening. And indeed, it was a nice hill town with the requisite narrow cobblestone streets and picturesquely decaying buildings.
We were underwhelmed by Priverno's cathedral, but further up the hill we discovered the 12th-century Church of San Giovanni with medieval murals covering all the walls. Sadly for photography purposes, it was in use for group praying and chanting. That was interesting in itself, though, and we sat in for a little while. A lady who arrived late was very friendly, wishing us a buona sera in the courtyard and smiling at us inside.
Both our meals featured buffalo, the local specialty mentioned above. What's interesting is that despite having seen many signs for mozzarella di bufala and other buffalo products during our entire tour of the southwest coast, we have never once seen a buffalo!
Both our dinners were great, but David's was seriously spectacular. Despite its unusual ingredients, it was a lot like good old comfort food. It must have been a long day because we really cracked each other up with jokes about Buffalo Helper.
We also had some nice salads, which interestingly arrived after our main dish, and for dessert I ordered ricotta di bufula with strawberries topped with a chewy chocolate cookie. Holy cow (or rather holy buffalo), that was good. So creamy. We ate it too fast to take a picture.
Our Fossanova hotel was beautiful, too. It's called the Albergo Antico Borgo and is actually part of the abbey complex. It has been recently renovated in a very appealing and stylish design.
One downside to our hotel was the receptionist, a girl in her 20s. She was really nice and very helpful but we just had one miscommunication after another. She spoke no English, which is not unexpected, but the language barrier was compounded by strange assumptions and all kinds of confusion.
I had the hardest time explaining that we had a reservation and then she somehow got the impression that we had to have two beds (maybe because we said two people?) instead of one. So we waited in the reception area for about 10 minutes while she rushed around and put an extra bed with new sheets in our room. We assumed the delay was because the room wasn't ready and were pretty surprised when we saw what she'd been doing! But oh well, she was trying to please, and the bed made a good suitcase stand.
Other downsides included the bathroom light blowing out, the lack of hot water our entire stay, and probably the second-worst breakfast we've had in Italy. But we made do and were still happy there. The bed was quite comfy and the location was incredible. We seemed to be the only guests there; I hope they get more in the high season.
On the way north this morning we visited the Abbey of Casamari, the other Cistercian abbey mentioned above. It was very nice but didn't blow my hair back.
Nave of Casamari Abbey church
Side view from cloister
We are now in Anagni, called the "City of Popes" because four popes in the 1200s were born here and lived here much of the time. The cathedral is fantastic, very castle-like with a crypt filled with frescoes that knocked our socks off. More soon.