Affile

Affile, a little over an hour's drive from Rome, a few kilometres from the Simbruini Mountains and the Aniene valley, thanks to its microclimate has favoured the cultivation of the indigenous red Cesanese di Affile grape variety, with 100% of which is used to produce an excellent quality wine, Cesanese di Affile DOC. The town is part of the Cesanese wine route. Its connection with vine cultivation is very ancient, as is also testified by the town's heraldic coat of arms: a vine shoot with black bunches of grapes and an asp twisted on the trunk. The area, inhabited by the Equi and later colonised by the Romans, preserves memories of the past thanks to some Latin and Italic vestiges, polygonal Roman walls and a Roman cistern. In Affile there is some evidence of the passage of Benedict of Norcia when, in 497 AD, he decided to leave Rome in search of solitude and concentration.