The historical plaque number 15, is posted in one of the most prestigious place in Nettuno: Villa Borghese. The villa, also known as Villa Bell’Aspetto, il located on Via Antonio Gramsci, at number 96. It was built by Cardinal Costaguti and purchased in 1832 by Prince Camillo Borghese, husband of Paolina Bonaparte, when he was awarded the entire feud of Nettuno for the sum of 400 thousand scudos. The villa is the flagship not only of Nettuno, but of the whole coast up to the Circeo mountain. In a higher position, above the pine forest, the palm trees and the centuries-old holm oaks that surround it, it even gives the impression of dominating the sea that is at its feet. A couple of weeks after the actual landing, the villa became the 5th Army’s Advance Headquarters, who directed beachhead operations from here. In addition to the already existing tunnels, on the path that climbs up to the villa from the entrance gate, General Clark had a U-shaped underground tunnel built by the American and Canadian engineers, with entrance-exit towards the ocean and, at the end, a corridor (also underground) which reached the tracks of the railway tunnel; to the north, a security sentinel controlled the gate where there was a freight elevator that made it possible to lower or lift objects, and a wooden ladder for the soldiers who came in or went out from that side. Prince Steno Borghese, who was authorized to stay in the villa for the entire period of the beachhead, was often visited by General Clark and his officers for lunch in the villa’s dining room.
