GTL 5 Lazio From Minturno to Cassino

After kilometers and kilometers of coastline, the fifth stage of the GTL heads inland, to retrace the Tyrrhenian stretch of the Gustav Line, the retreat front of the German army at the end of the Second World War. The strategy imposed by Hitler was to leave death and destruction behind, and the villages in this area still bear the signs of what was the scene of bloody war actions between the Nazis and the Allies. We start from the archaeological excavations of what was once a flourishing Roman city of Minturnae, whose aqueduct is still clearly visible from the Appian Way, and we flank the Garigliano river, which at this point is crossed by a beautiful Bourbon bridge, to go up its course along the Way of San Filippo Neri. The road is slightly uphill and the first few kilometers are immersed in the bush, broken only by spas and dams on the river. The track dances on the border between Lazio and Campania, skirting villages such as Castelforte, Santi Cosma e Damiano, Sant'Ambrogio sul Garigliano. The kilometers before Cassino reveal the first signs of the Ciociaria countryside, with the pre-Apennines in front of us and the imposing figure of the Abbey of Montecassino, a Benedictine monastic complex famous for one of the most violent bombings of the last war, where there are still numerous monumental war cemeteries.