Let’s take a step back and talk about some basics for our new followers:

The town of Pico is in a province called Frosinone (fro-zee-NON-neh.) Frosinone is in a region called Lazio and the capital of the Lazio region of Italy is Rome.

Pico is typically 90 minutes south of Rome and 90 minutes north of Naples and 40 minutes to several beach towns. 

It’s set in the Aurunci (Ah-ROON-chee) mountains versus in the valley so the town benefits from a cool breeze on hot summer days. When we’ve run errands in neighboring towns in the valley, you can feel the temperate difference. The gentleman who sold D his guitar yesterday even commented on how nice the temperature is in Pico versus the lower situated towns. 

The highs have been in the upper 80s during the day and it drops to low 60s at night. It is very hot in the afternoon sun, which reinforces why taking a siesta is so embraced here. The house and stores stay cool as everything is built solid with stone. We haven’t needed air conditioning and have one fan that we have been running when cleaning the bathroom and laundry room as they have less fresh air circulation. 

Pico’s population is around 2,800 people which is double the size of Belmont High School. The town itself is 12 square miles, so three times the size of Belmont, MA. 

The town has a medieval borgo, which means at its center there’s a castle and the architecture/buildings for the town are structured around that castle.  Here’s a pic of the town from their tourism site:

The town has a small but jam packed market, multiple “bars” which serve coffee drinks and pastries, alcohol, gelato, chips, granita, etc. The bars have indoor and outdoor seating and tend to be where people congregate.

We aren’t aware of any restaurants in town that are open Monday and Tuesdays. Thursday – Sunday there’s a delicious pizza place where we ate on our first night, and they are only open on Wednesdays in August. 

There is a neighborhood gym (Palestra) and peeking through the window yesterday we saw weight machines and a ping pong table (random!) but it didn’t look open, no sign for hours or phone number. After two weeks of traveling, D is missing his gym membership; yesterday he worked out on the terrace. 

Everyone we’ve met in town has been very welcoming. They are happy to speak with Paul, and I can follow along most conversations. It’s been three years since I was last in Italy so I’m out of practice with speaking to order food, exchange niceties with shopkeepers, etc, but it will come back. 

There is a lot of abandoned property in Pico. Walking to and from the town center we see birds flying in and out of upper level windows that are open to the elements. Directly across the street from us is vacant on the first floor but occupied on the second. As we’ve learned with Italian real estate, property just gets passed down among family members and it’s common for people to own property in multiple towns. With property tax so low it’s easy to hold onto land or buildings and just let them sit unoccupied for decades. 

In the morning we awake to the sounds of roosters, birds and maybe a cow? Sometimes we awake to India, the dog next door, barking at some perceived menace. At night we hear, but don’t see, secadas. Paul said there’s a gecko living in the caldaia (hot water heater cabinet on the terrace.) In other parts of Italy we’ve experienced a lot of mosquitos so one of our first purchases was a disposable, plug-in mosquito repellant which we’ve also bought on previous trips. We haven’t needed to plug it in here though. I think the mountain breeze helps compared to the places we’ve stayed in beach-side communities. Occasionally inside we’ve encountered small spiders but I’m chalking that up to the place being unoccupied for a decade. 

Our friend, Carlo, runs the bed and breakfast in town: Nena Al Borgo Castello. When visiting we recommend staying at Nena!