Lazio bargains: this is the real Italy

HAVING Rome on your doorstep is prize enough, but what makes Lazio, the province that rings the capital, so enticing is its surprising beauty. Volcanic lakes and rolling farmland lie to the north near ancient Etruscan Viterbo; on the other side of the A1 highway to Florence sprawl the blissful Sabine hills. The Sabine melts into wilder stretches of olive-dappled hills towards Tivoli and then down again southwest of Rome, where the Roman plain stretches out towards Frascati, with its outstanding vistas, volcanic ridges and shimmering lakes.