Rocca Massima: an ancient village with breathtaking views

On December 5, 1202, Innocent III granted Pietro Annibaldi the territories on Mount Massimo with the Brief “Quia per tuae”, but with the obligation to swear an oath of perpetual fidelity to the Roman Church. Moreover, Innocent III authorized Annibaldi to build a fortified fortress “munitionem et castrum”, given the strategic importance of the place located between the Sacco Valley and the Pontine Plain. Thus was born Rocca Massima, the village perched at 750 meters high on the heights of Mount Massimo, belonging to the chain of the Lepini Mountains, in the province of Latina, in southern Lazio, where you can enjoy a breathtaking view. A natural oasis among endless undulating expanses of olive and chestnut trees, shades of green with different nuances that border the incredible blue sea of the beautiful Pontine Islands. A handful of inhabitants, about 1100 permanent residents, are left for the love of this territory that they take care of and that they protect, that they embellish and that they restore to make more pleasant the life to themselves and to the tourists. The only noise is given by the melodies of the wind, the tranquility of being able to listen undisturbed to their thoughts that as if by magic, removed from stress, take on a completely different form. This is the great added value of this place of other times. The inhabitants of Rocca Massima are hard-working, creative, ingenious and in cooperation with nature have been able to obtain excellent products, such as the so-called green gold of the Pontine countryside, an evo oil of the highest quality obtained from the Itrana olive, which has extraordinary characteristics for health. No less precious is the Gaeta table olive, increasingly rare and sought after by connoisseurs of taste. But Rocca Massima also offers high-level culture. For the past 18 years, in summer, the International Organ Review has been held at the Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo, built in the late fifteenth century, in the heart of the historic center, where in the more recent past a mechanical organ was installed, inaugurated with a concert by maestro J.E. Goettsche, titular organist of the Vatican Basilica in Rome. Since then musicians from all over Europe and the United States have taken turns in concert praising the technical characteristics of the instrument.
From a distance it looks like a crib Rocca Massima, an area rich in history, art, tradition, landscapes, silences and virtues of its people friendly, welcoming and festive. Genuinely festive.