Pops’ Italy Travel Guide, Pompeii Back to Rome

On the way back to Rome and just north of Naples is the city of Caserta. The Royal Palace of Caserta is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century. In 1997, the Palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, described in its nomination as "the swan song of the spectacular art of the Baroque, from which it adopted all the features needed to create the illusions of multidirectional space".

We exited the A1 and found a place to park and then made the walk to the palace. This palace is huge with some 1,200 rooms, including two dozen state apartments, a large library, and a theatre modelled after the Teatro San Carlos of Naples.

Of all the royal residences inspired by the Palace of Versailles, the Reggia of Caserta is the one that bears the greatest resemblance to the original model. At the end of WWII, the royal palace served as the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander. In April 1945 the palace was the site of the signing of terms of the unconditional German surrender of forces in Italy. The agreement covered between 600,000 and 900,000 soldiers along the Italian Front including troops in sections of Austria. The first Allied war trial took place in the palace in 1945; German general Anton Dostler was sentenced to death and executed nearby, in Aversa. The Caserta Palace has been used as a filming location in a number of movie productions. In 1997 it served as a filming location for Star Wars when it was used as the setting for Queen Amidala’s's Royal Palace on Naboo in the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It featured again in the 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as Queen Jamilla’s palace. The same room was also used in Mission:Imposible III as Vatican City. In fact, the square where the Lamborghini is blown up is actually the square inside the Palace. The main staircase is also used in Angels and Demons as the Vatican's staircase. The Palace featured in Beautiful but Dangerous starring Gina Lollobrigida in 1955 and in the opening scenes of the film Anzio from 1968 starring Robert Mitchum.

Behind the palace is a beautiful park and gardens with beautiful fountains. Take the time to walk the gardens as part of the tour.



Our next stop was interesting and a little weird. We were getting hungry and wanted to stop for something to eat. We saw a large shopping mall and decided to look at that also. As we were walking around we saw a restaurant that caught our eye. The restaurant was supposed to be modeled after an American restaurant. The weird part was it was also patterned after the area where we live. We live in Sacramento which is very close to the gold rush towns of the 1800’s. On the wall of this restaurant was a map of the gold country with highway 49 going through such towns as Auburn, Placerville, Jackson and Angels Camp. How weird was that? They served BBQ and had Pabst Blue Ribbon and Millers on tap. We had to stop there and grab some food and suds. I can’t remember what town it was in but it was just north of Caserta. You can’t miss the mall from the A1. As you are driving north it will be on the right.

It was a very long day but well worth it. If we were part of a tour we never would have found the restaurant.