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Nettuno

Coordinates: 41°27′27″N 12°39′40″E / 41.45750°N 12.66111°E / 41.45750; 12.66111
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This article is about the Italian town near Rome. For the Italian word for Neptune, see Neptune (disambiguation).
Nettuno
Comune
Città di Nettuno
Costa di Nettuno Levante
Costa di Nettuno Levante
Coat of arms of Nettuno
Coat of arms
Location of Nettuno
Map
Nettuno is located in Italy
Nettuno
Nettuno
Location of Nettuno in Italy
Nettuno is located in Lazio
Nettuno
Nettuno
Nettuno (Lazio)
Coordinates: 41°27′27″N 12°39′40″E / 41.45750°N 12.66111°E / 41.45750; 12.66111
CountryItaly
RegionLazio
Metropolitan cityRome (RM)
FrazioniAcciarella, Cadolino, Canala, Cioccati, Cretarossa, Eschieto, Falasche Nord, Grugnole, Ospedaletto, Padiglione, Piscina Cardillo, Pocacqua, Sandalo Di Levante, Sandalo di Ponente, San Giacomo, Scacciapensieri, Tre Cancelli, Zucchetti
Government
 • MayorPrefectural commissioner Bruno Strati
Area
[1]
 • Total71.46 km2 (27.59 sq mi)
Elevation
11 m (36 ft)
Population
 (30 November 2017)[2]
 • Total49,873
 • Density700/km2 (1,800/sq mi)
DemonymNettunesi
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
00048
Dialing code06
Patron saintMadonna delle Grazie
WebsiteOfficial website

Nettuno is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Rome. A resort city and agricultural center on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it has a population of approximately 50,000.

The medieval burg

Economy

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It has a touristic harbour hosting about 860 boats and a shopping centre, selling everything for fishing and sailing. There is also a yacht club.

Nettuno is the city of the D.O.C. wine Cacchione.

Nettuno has a large base for the Italian Force, whose territory extends to the Province of Latina, and an Italian Police School, where especially police dogs are trained.

Nettuno is one stop south of Anzio on the local train from Rome and also the last stop of the FL8 line.

History

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According to a theory, the town would be a direct survival of the Roman Antium, the territory of which almost entirely corresponded to Nettuno and modern Anzio.[3] Giuseppe Tomassetti considered Nettuno the real heir and continuation of the ancient Antiates.[4] In contrast, Beatrice Cacciotti doubted an ancient origin of the town, and postulated a medieval origin.[5]

Nettuno was probably the location of the ancient Volscian port town of Caenon, which was the closest port of the town Antium (which did not have a natural harbour of its own).[6] According to a more recent theory, the town Caenon would be located on a hill more east to Nettuno, and the port (similarly to the old theory above), would have been over the mouth of the river Loricina.[3] In 469 BC, the town Caenon was destroyed by the Roman consul Titus Numicius Priscus.[7]

A medieval castle, the castrum Neptuni, now known as the Borgo Medievale, most likely arose in the 10th or 11th century. According to local tradition, the name Neptunus would derive from a temple to the Roman god Neptune - the symbol of the town[8] - but it has been hypothesized a derivation from the marshes already present in the area in the late ancient era, or from a raptor night bird, the noctunus.[3]

Nettuno, which territory practically coincided with that of the Roman Antium,[3] [9] in the Middle Ages had an agricultural evolution.[4] Since 1420 it was a fief of the Colonna family,[9] then in the early 16th century passed to the Borgia nobles, later returned under the control of the Colonna, which kept it until 1594, when passed to the Church. In the 15th and 16th centuries Nettuno was among the major coastal fortified centers in Lazio, of which was considered the important breadbasket: to support the walled and turreted Borgo Medievale, between 1501 and 1503 in the Borgia's period, the Forte Sangallo was built by Renaissance architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, as it was essential to defend the town against attacks from the sea.[10] [11] [12] In 1582 the poet Antonio Ongaro was in Nettuno hosted by the Colonna, and there for the first time he recited his fisherman’s tale entitled Alceo.[13]

In 1903 the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio was a guest in the town with the actress Eleonora Duse, and wrote the opera La figlia di Iorio.[11]

The scholar Luigi Pirandello wrote a novel, Va bene, set in Nettuno in 1904.[14][15]

In 1925 the Convenzione di Nettuno, between Italy and Jugoslavia, was signed in the town to regulate the conditions of the Italian citizens in Dalmatia.[12]

From 1940 to 1945, Nettuno and nearby Anzio were a single municipality (comune) called Nettunia.[16]

On January 22, 1944, Anzio and Nettuno were the theatre of an Allied forces landing and the ensuing Battle of Anzio, which began with Operation Shingle during the Second World War. American forces (5th Army) were surrounded by Germans in the caves of Pozzoli in February 1944 for a week, suffering heavy casualties.

Main sights

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Nettuno is a popular tourist destination. Sights include a well-preserved old quarter, the Borgo Medievale, with medieval streets and small squares, and the Forte Sangallo mentioned above.

Nettuno is also a centre of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Maria Goretti, in which a crypt houses the mortal remains of the saint. The church keeps also a valuable polychromed wooden statue of Our Lady of Grace, which is honoured by the town with a procession every year on the first Saturday of May. It was originally Our Lady of Ipswich, although it left England after the Reformation.

The privately-owned Villa Costaguti-Borghese at Nettuno was built in 1648, has gardens in a landscape park designed about 1840, now protected as a nature reserve. The Borghese Gladiator was discovered at Nettuno.

At the north edge of town is the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, where over 7,800 US soldiers are buried.[17]

Near the eastern border of Nettuno there is Torre Astura: a fortified coastal tower of medieval origin, which overlooks a point of land; it is built over the ruins of a Roman villa with a fish pond. The area its a pleasant coastal place, also frequented by Cicero.[18]

Sport

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Nettuno Baseball Club is one of the most important Italian baseball teams, often the winner of the national championship. Baseball was taught to the local people by American soldiers after their landing in World War II.

Notable people

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Twin towns – sister cities

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See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Italy

Nettuno is twinned with:[22]

References

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  1. ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Popolazione Residente al 1° Gennaio 2018". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Paola Brandizzi Vittucci, Antium: Anzio e Nettuno in epoca romana, Roma, Bardi Editore, 2000. ISBN 88-85699-83-9
  4. ^ a b Giuseppe Tomassetti, La Campagna romana antica, medioevale e moderna, vol. II, Roma, 1910.
  5. ^ Beatrice Cacciotti, Testimonianze di culti orientali ad Antium, in B. P. Benetucci (curator), Culti orientali tra scavo e collezionismo, Roma, Artemide, 2008.
  6. ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith "Antium"; The Topography of Rome and Its Vicinity By Sir William Gell, 1846, "Antium"; Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy by John Murray, 1843, "Nettuno" p. 534.
  7. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, ix. 56; Livy Ab urbe condita, ii. 63.
  8. ^ See the coat of arms above.
  9. ^ a b Paolo Prignani. "L'Apollo del Belvedere, on CambiaVersoAnzio". cambiaversoanzio.wordpress.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  10. ^ Roberto Almagia, Ignazio Carlo Gavini. "Nettuno, on Enciclopedia Italiana (1934)". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  11. ^ a b Cenni storici, City of Nettuno.
  12. ^ a b "Nettuno, on Enciclopedia online". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  13. ^ Donatella Manzoli. "Ongaro, Antonio, on Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 79 (2013)". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  14. ^ "079. Va bene – Novella, con audio, on PirandelloWeb". pirandelloweb.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  15. ^ Luigi Pirandello, Nettuno e Anzio, on Biblioteca istituzionale della Città metropolitana di Roma Capitale, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital.
  16. ^ "Anzio, on Britannica". britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  17. ^ SICILY-ROME AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL Archived October 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 2009-05-25.
  18. ^ Giuseppe Lugli. "Astura, on Enciclopedia Italiana (1930)". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  19. ^ Benedetto La Padula. "Luigi Trafelli-scienziato 1881-1942, on Personaggi Illustri". 100libripernettuno.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  20. ^ Madsen, Anders Christian (23 January 2019). "Valentino's Pierpaolo Piccioli On Why He Is Not A Traditional Couturier". Vogue. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  21. ^ "Nettuno: è ufficiale: Alessio Romagnoli è un nuovo giocatore della Lazio". ilgranchio.it. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  22. ^ "Il Litorale 7/2020: Che Europa vogliamo?". ilpontino.it (in Italian). Il Pontino. April 2020. p. 26. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
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