Village lanes

Inside the walls the streets are alleys, and you walk one behind the other. The paving is narrow, the walls high, and at midday the shade stays at the bottom of the street while up above the sun catches only the cornices. Sermoneta is built on the slope of the Monti Lepini, so almost every stretch climbs or drops: steps, bends, covered passages, an arch that forces you to bow your head. The houses lean on one another, with small windows and iron balconies. There is no single axis. You turn, you lose sight of the plain and find it again, all at once, at the end of an alley. This stop is the fabric of the village, the time you lose before the climb closes in on the castle.