We headed off to the beach because, in case I haven’t mentioned it, it was caldo, caldo, caldo. The drive was through the mountains that the French took in May ’44 that split the German lines open. Rugged, steep and rocky. They really have been under-rated in the history books in my opinion. We passed through Ausonia, Formia and ended up on a beach just short of Sperlonga. Lovely it was too. We rented an umbrella, set up the deck chairs, and even ventured into the water once. Superb. I finished off a book by Tom Aitken, a Kiwi engineer, but about the events in a Cassino family’s life in 1943/44. It was an interestingly different perspective from my normal reading on Cassino. There was no biography on Aitkin so I don't know how much is fiction, and how much based on true stories.
After the beach we visited Tiberius' Villa just up the road. It is quite a large complex and includes fish pools in a cave, complete with large statues originally. Then we wound our way up the cliff side, through burnt patches back to Formia, and on to Cassino. 
The fire was still burning strongly, and in fact when we went to the theatre later that night there were two of them going. We saw Oedipus the Greek tragedy, and understood only one word in 20. I never quite figured out what was going on, as there seemed to be no-one killing anyone's father or coveting one's mother. We'll have to read the bloody thing now. It was an experience though, as it was in the old Roman Teatro, so we sat on the same rock hard seats that callused Roman bums 2000 odd years ago. Fortunately there were cushions provided, probably in both eras. I have to match some photos just below the theatre in a pizza restaurant that was used as an anti-tank pill-box, so it was handy to do a recce.
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