Ancient Rome's first great highway, the Via Appia, was begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, and it ran from Rome south to Capua and later on to Brindisi on the Adriatic. At Itri, in the hills behind the Gulf of Gaeta, it squeezes through a narrow pass between the Monti Aurunci and the sea, and the road still crosses the same gap today. A stretch of the old paved line survives near the pass, with its big, rounded basalt blocks, though you will need to get off the main road and look carefully to find it.
The pass has always been a place of ambush and trade, and of stories. The most famous local figure is Michele Pezza, known as Fra Diavolo, who was born at Itri in 1771 and led a guerrilla band against the French in the Napoleonic wars. He was captured and hanged in Naples in 1806, and the town has never quite decided whether to call him a bandit or a hero. The medieval castle above Itri is a good place to see the lie of the land. The surrounding hills grow the Itrana olive, a small black fruit that is eaten and pressed locally, and the olive groves climb the slopes in terraces, grey-green and silvery in the wind.
On a motorcycle, the way in from Fondi or from the coast is quick and enjoyable. The old Appia, the SS7, climbs from Fondi in a series of broad curves with moderate gradients, and the road through the pass is busy with trucks, particularly on weekday mornings. A better option is to leave the main road and ride the quieter provincial roads towards Sperlonga and Gaeta, where the coastline is rocky, the sea changes colour from deep blue to green, and the cliff-top villages have steep, narrow lanes that need care on wet tiles. Sperlonga has the remains of a villa of the emperor Tiberius, where a banquet grotto, partly collapsed, once held huge marble sculptures.
Fuel, food and coffee are plentiful. Itri has about eight thousand people and Fondi over twenty-six thousand, so there are stations and bars in both. Come in spring or in September and October to avoid the summer traffic to the beaches, and be wary of heat and Saturday congestion between June and August, when the coast road backs up for kilometres.