Nomentum Nature Reserve

The Nomentum Nature Reserve is a regional protected area of 827 hectares between the municipalities of Mentana and Fonte Nuova, northeast of Rome, managed by the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. Entry is free and the reserve has no gates or ticket office: you enter from the trails and the local roads. The visitor center, called the Welcome Area, is on Via Nomentana at kilometer 21+200, number 320, in the territory of Mentana. The contacts of the protected areas office of the Metropolitan City are the numbers 06 6766 7258 and 06 6766 7260 and the address direttoreareeprotette@cittametropolitanaroma.it. The opening hours of the Welcome Area change with the season and with the calendar of educational activities. Check them on the official portal of the protected areas of Lazio before leaving. The hiking network is marked by the Italian Alpine Club and includes trail 491 of Collelungo with its variants 491A, 491B and 491C and trail 492, the Macchia Mancini loop. From Rome you get there in barely half an hour outside rush hour, via Via Nomentana or via exit 12 of the Grande Raccordo Anulare.

If you want to widen your view to the other green destinations of the Roman territory, you will find an overview map on the page of tourist attractions of this site.

Where the Nomentum Nature Reserve is and how to get there

The reserve occupies the hilly strip between Via Nomentana and Via Palombarese, in that stretch of countryside that marks the passage between the Roman agro and the Tiber Sabina. It is a border protected area, in every sense: geographic, because here the continuous periphery of Rome ends and the countryside begins. Ecological, because the territory is the hinge between the Mediterranean world and the temperate Apennine one. Administrative, because the surface is divided between two young municipalities in very rapid building expansion.

By car to the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The simplest road is Via Nomentana. You leave Rome at Porta Pia, cross the Nomentano, Trieste and Monte Sacro neighborhoods, pass the Grande Raccordo Anulare and continue toward Colleverde, Tor Lupara and Mentana. If you start from the south or west quadrant of the city, it is quicker to take the Raccordo and exit at 12, toward Via Nomentana. The reference to set in the navigator is the Welcome Area at kilometer 21+200 of the Nomentana: from there you take the minor roads toward the woods. A practical warning worth more than many tips: Via Nomentana between the Raccordo and Tor Lupara is one of the most congested arteries of the northeast quadrant, and in weekday rush hours the travel time doubles. Leave early, or leave on a Sunday morning.

By public transportation to the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The urban connection reaches as far as Tor Lupara, a hamlet of Fonte Nuova: line 337 of the Rome transport company runs up the Nomentana from the Monte Sacro quadrant. Beyond Tor Lupara, for Mentana and for Monterotondo, the service is suburban and falls under the regional concessionaire that covers the province. The runs are sparser on holidays, which is exactly when you would feel like walking. Anyone arriving by train can consider the Monterotondo Scalo station on the line for Orte and continue by bus or taxi. It is a few kilometers, but without a car they need organizing. In any case, check times and runs on the carriers' official sites the day before: here public mobility is designed for commuters, not for hikers.

Parking and starting points of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

There is no equipped parking lot for the reserve. You leave the car along the local roads, in the packed-earth wide spots at the start of the trails, or in the center of Mentana if you want to combine the walk in the woods with a visit to the town. Two rules of common sense: never block access to farm fields, because tractors really do pass here, and after days of rain avoid the dirt wide spots, which on the clays of this area become traps for drive wheels. The clay ground is the geological signature of Nomentum and makes itself felt under your shoes as under your tires.

The numbers of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The official sheet of the protected areas portal of Lazio classifies Nomentum as a regional nature reserve, territorial area of Rome, extent 827 hectares, managing body Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, municipalities involved Mentana and Fonte Nuova. It was established in 1997, within the framework of the regional law that reorganized the system of protected natural areas of Lazio. 827 hectares is a little over eight square kilometers: a surface that to the eye seems modest, and that instead contains a variety of environments out of proportion to its size.

The perimeter is not compact. Nomentum is a mosaic reserve, made of woodland fragments separated by olive groves, arable fields, remnant vineyards and housing developments. This fragmentation is at once its limit and its reason for being: without the protection, those fragments would already have been swallowed by the building expansion that since the 1950s has climbed up the Nomentana and the Palombarese. Anyone who walks here doesn't find wilderness. They find a historic agrarian landscape defended with difficulty, which is a different thing and in some ways more interesting.

The elevation ranges between 60 and 200 meters above sea level. These are low, rounded hills, cut by ditches that run down toward the Tiber and toward the Aniene. The total elevation gain of a typical hike rarely exceeds 150 meters. It is terrain for normal legs, not for mountaineers.

The woods of the Nomentum Nature Reserve, one by one

The protected territory is easier to read if you break it down into its woodland cores, each with its own character. These are names that appear on maps in no particular order and that are worth learning, because that is what hunters, farmers and park rangers call them.

Bosco Valle Cavallara

It occupies a narrow valley between the Nomentana and the Palombarese, where the ditch has cut into the clay deposits and created a cool microclimate that holds even in the worst summers. It is the sector where the Turkey oak woodland shows itself in its most mature form, with good-sized Turkey oak specimens and a dense understory of butcher's broom. In spring the valley floor is covered with windflowers. If you have only one morning and want to understand what the forest cover of this part of Lazio was like before the land reclamation and the clearing of woods, come here.

Bosco Mancini

It takes its name from the Mancini ditch, one of the minor watercourses that drain the slope. It is the wood around which trail 492, the Macchia Mancini loop, runs, and for this reason it is the one most visited by Sunday hikers. The ground is damper, the banks of the ditch bear elms and brambles, and in the spots where water stagnates willows and black poplars appear. The density of birds here is the highest in the reserve: in an hour of silence, with mediocre binoculars, you can put together a dozen species without effort.

Bosco Santa Lucia

It owes its name to the locality of the same name, which today is one of the two main hamlets of Fonte Nuova. It is the sector most exposed to urban pressure, and it shows: the edge of the wood borders warehouses and development roads. For that very reason it is an instructive case study on the value of a protection. Without the reserve, all that would remain of Santa Lucia would be the name on a road sign.

Bosco Spallette and Bosco Pascolaretto

They are located between Via Nomentana, Quarto Conca and Selva dei Cavalieri, localities of Fonte Nuova. They are two patches of Turkey oak woodland alternating with pastures and cultivated fields, where the transition between woods and open countryside is more gradual and more readable. The place name Pascolaretto tells by itself the historic vocation of the place: pasture, not closed forest. This is where you best grasp the hybrid nature of the reserve, which protects a landscape built by centuries of farm work as much as spontaneous vegetation.

Parco Trentani and the ditch of the same name

Divided between the territories of Mentana and Fonte Nuova, Parco Trentani is the green area most directly usable by residents, the one in which the reserve also works as a neighborhood urban park. The Trentani ditch has cut a small valley with silty-clay alluvial sediments, and along its banks a water-loving vegetation has settled that is a rarity in this area. If you arrive with small children and don't want to take on a real trail, you find here the best compromise.

Macchia Trentani, Macchia Mancini and the place names of the countryside

In local place names the word macchia indicates the patch of remaining woodland inside the cultivated countryside, and the surnames that accompany it are those of the families that owned the land. Macchia Trentani, Macchia Mancini, Valle Cavallara: they are not decorative names, they are land registry. Reading them this way changes how you look at the landscape, because it reveals that every fragment of woodland survived for a precise reason, almost always an economic one.

Monte Pizzuto and the farmland

The Monte Pizzuto sector is agricultural, with olive groves and arable fields climbing the rises. It seems the least interesting part of the reserve and is instead the one that explains all the rest: the matrix of the territory is agrarian, the woodland is the exception. The olive groves of this stretch of southern Sabina have old plantings, with specimens hundreds of years old, and in autumn the harvest is still done with nets laid out by hand.

Monte d'Oro and the Casali di Mentana

Within the perimeter fall the archaeological area of Monte d'Oro, that is, the hill of Montedoro where the remains of ancient Nomentum emerge, and part of the locality Casali di Mentana. The historic center of Mentana is also included in the perimeter of the protected area, which is rather rare for a regional reserve and explains why here the border between a nature visit and a historic visit is entirely artificial.

The Bosco della Gattaceca and the relationship with the neighboring reserve

Between Monterotondo and Castelchiodato extends the woodland complex of Gattaceca, which forms a regional nature reserve in its own right, the Macchia di Gattaceca e Macchia del Barco, managed by the same body and served by the same Welcome Area. The two protected areas should be considered together: whoever visits Nomentum and ignores Gattaceca misses the most enclosed and coolest part of the district, with its sinkholes and karst swallow holes. The reserve also borders the Parco dell'Inviolata, on the Guidonia side, and the territory of Monterotondo.

The Welcome Area of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The visitor center of the Nomentum Nature Reserve is called the Welcome Area and is the official gateway of the park. It is on Via Nomentana at kilometer 21+200, number 320. The facility works as a reference point for environmental education, hosts meetings with schools, associations and citizens, and offers training programs on ecosystem management and the protection of biodiversity. It serves Nomentum as well as the neighboring reserve of Macchia di Gattaceca e Macchia del Barco.

A professional observation: the Welcome Areas of the reserves managed by the Metropolitan City do not have continuous museum-style opening hours. They open according to the scheduled activities, workshops and seasonal events, and close when the staff is busy out in the field. Anyone planning a visit with a group, a class or a party must call or write in advance to the protected areas offices and agree on the date. Showing up without notice and finding the gate closed is the most common mistake of those who come here for the first time.

The educational activities in the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The reserve's calendar revolves around two fixed events and many spontaneous initiatives. The Spring Festival falls around the end of April and fills the meadows and trails with families. The guided walks of the hiking program are instead concentrated between October and November, when the woods change color and the temperature allows walking for hours. The body also promotes calls for universal civil service tied to the management of the protected areas, a sign that part of the trail maintenance rests on volunteering and on young people in service. The exact dates change every year and should be read on the official portal of the protected areas of Lazio.

Geology and morphology of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The geology of this territory is the deep reason for its biodiversity, and understanding it in five minutes makes the walk three times more interesting.

The sedimentary substrate

The area mostly features sedimentary terrains of the Plio-Pleistocene marine cycle. The main rock type consists of sands and clays, resting on the Pliocene formation of the blue clays, located only in the southern part of the protected area. Translated: there was a sea here, then it withdrew, leaving seabeds that time turned into hills. The blue clays are the same material that throughout central Italy produces badlands and landslides, and that here, covered with woodland, stays stable.

The tuffs and the legacy of the volcanoes

There are limited residual outcrops of volcanic nature, made up of multicolored layered tuffs of La Storta and of the Vulcano Laziale. They are the outermost fringes of the great pyroclastic blankets that built the Roman countryside: the last tongues of material arrived here, and for that reason only traces of them are found. Tuff, where it exists, has shaped human settlement, because it is the stone with which walls were built and cellars were dug.

The ditches and the alluvial sediments

Within the valleys of the Trentani, Ormetta and Mancini ditches there are alluvial sediments of silty-clay character. These are the dampest and most fertile strips, where water stagnates and where the vegetation changes sharply within a few meters. The set of forest and herbaceous plant communities tied to the river network and the alluvial substrate can be traced back to the environments that evolved along the course of the Tiber, its meanders and its tributaries. Nomentum, in this sense, is a piece of the Tiber valley that has climbed up onto the hills.

A bioclimatic transition zone

The ecological value of the area can be summed up in one word: transition. This territory represents a bioclimatic, geomorphological and environmental passage zone between the last Apennine fringe and the outermost front of the Roman agro, that is, the boundary between the Mediterranean and the temperate region. The variations in the overall picture are considerable even over short distances, and the result is an ecological system of great value, with animal and plant species of both worlds and a varied phytoclimatic picture. It is the reason why in 800 hectares you count more species than in much larger but homogeneous protected areas.

The flora of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The plant cover is made of fragments of deciduous broadleaf woodland alternating with olive groves, arable fields, cultivated land and urbanized zones. It is not a continuous forest, and anyone who expects a forest is disappointed. Anyone who knows how to read an agrarian mosaic finds instead plenty to chew on.

The Turkey oak woodland, the dominant wood of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The deciduous mesophilous wood is represented mostly by the Turkey oak woodland, a formation characteristic of the southern Apennines. The dominant tree is the Turkey oak, Quercus cerris, recognizable by its deeply fissured bark and by acorns with a bristly cup, almost disheveled. Next to the Turkey oak grow the Hungarian oak, Quercus frainetto, an oak with large leaves and deep lobes that is one of the southernmost presences in Lazio. Then come the downy oak, Quercus pubescens, which occupies the drier slopes, the manna ash, Fraxinus ornus, the Oriental hornbeam, Carpinus orientalis, the field maple, Acer campestre, and the cornelian cherry, Cornus mas, which at the end of winter flowers yellow before putting out leaves and is one of the first signs of the wood's recovery.

The Turkey oak woodland is a centuries-old coppice wood, that is, a wood cut in rotation and regrown from the stumps for generations. You can see it in the shape of the trunks, often multiple and starting from the same stump. It is not a defect. It is the economic history of the place written in the wood.

The understory and the blooms of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The understory is rich and characterized by shrub species including butcher's broom, Ruscus aculeatus, and hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna. Among the climbers are rough smilax, Smilax aspera, and ivy, Hedera helix. The spring blooms are the most beautiful thing in the reserve and are dominated by the Apennine windflower, Anemone apennina, with its blue flowers that cover the ground in patches, and by the spring cyclamen, Cyclamen repandum. In autumn it is the turn of the Neapolitan cyclamen, Cyclamen hederifolium, to flower even before putting out its leaves.

A clear opinion: the best time to visit the Nomentum Nature Reserve is not summer, it is the second half of March and the first half of April, when the windflowers are at their peak. Anyone who comes in August finds dust, mosquitoes along the ditches and a closed, silent wood.

The wetlands and the water-loving vegetation

The wetlands and the ditches have a natural value greater than their extent. Along these watercourses silty-clay alluvial sediments have been deposited and an extensive water-loving vegetation has developed. Near the drainage lines grow the field elm, Ulmus minor, the wych elm, Ulmus glabra, and the elmleaf blackberry, Rubus ulmifolius. Where water accumulates the fig, Ficus carica, and the elder, Sambucus nigra, appear. Where stagnation is greater there are single individuals or small groups of white willow, Salix alba, and black poplar, Populus nigra.

The storax, the plant worth the trip

In the reserve there is the storax, Styrax officinalis, a shrub that can reach the size of a small tree, with intensely scented white flowers and honey-yielding properties. The storax has a very restricted Italian distribution, concentrated precisely in Lazio, where it survives in a few stations. The resin obtained from it was used for centuries as incense and in pharmacopoeia. If it is in bloom, you smell it before seeing the plant. It is worth a May morning by itself.

The fauna of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

From the faunal point of view the reserve hosts many species of small mammals and over 50 species of birds. The number, for an area of 800 hectares wedged between two expanding municipalities, is high and is explained by the variety of environments.

The birds of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

Among the representatives of the birdlife are the great spotted woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, and the green woodpecker, Picus viridis, whose loud laugh is the sound that accompanies every walk in the Turkey oak woodland. Also the tawny owl, Strix aluco, a nocturnal raptor that nests in the cavities of old trees, the cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, which arrives in April, the wren, Troglodytes troglodytes, tiny and very vocal in the understory, the little owl, Athene noctua, tied to farmhouses and olive groves, the scops owl, Otus scops, whose monotonous whistle on May nights is one of the most characteristic sounds of the Roman countryside, the common buzzard, Buteo buteo, which you see wheeling over the clearings, the hoopoe, Upupa epops, with its unmistakable crest, and the kestrel, Falco tinnunculus, which hunts hovering over the fields.

The presence of woodpeckers is not an ornithological detail. It indicates that in the wood there are mature trees and standing dead wood, that is, that forest management has left something to eat for the wood-boring insects. A wood that is too clean is a poor wood.

Amphibians and reptiles of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The notable presence of water in some spots makes the area suitable for hosting several species of reptiles and amphibians. The herpetofauna includes, among the amphibians, the green frog, the common toad, Bufo bufo, and the green toad. Among the reptiles are the western green lizard, Lacerta bilineata, with the blue-throated male in spring, the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, and the western whip snake, Hierophis viridiflavus, the black and yellow snake that scurries noisily through the dry leaves and is completely harmless to humans.

The spectacled salamander, the jewel of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

Along the watercourses of the reserve the Northern spectacled salamander, Salamandrina perspicillata, has been found, a rare Apennine endemic. This amphibian exists only in Italy, in no other country in the world, and its name comes from the pale spectacle-shaped patch it bears on its head. The belly is bright red and the tail, if the animal is disturbed, rises to show that color as a warning signal. Its presence is an indicator of water quality: the salamander does not tolerate polluted ditches. Finding it half an hour from Rome, in a territory surrounded by housing developments, says a lot about why this reserve exists.

The mammals

In the reserve there are the crested porcupine, Hystrix cristata, the largest European rodent, which leaves its fallen quills along the trails and digs deep burrows on the clay slopes. The hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus. The fox, Vulpes vulpes, which here also frequents the urban edges. And the badger, Meles meles, a nocturnal and shy animal, whose presence is inferred from the beaten tracks and the large burrow entrances. Anyone who wants to see something must accept two conditions: go out at dawn and keep quiet.

The trails of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The hiking network of the reserve is surveyed and marked by the Italian Alpine Club, with the numbers that you find again on the white and red trail markers. They are short routes, of tourist or easy hiking difficulty, suitable for people who walk normally and for families with children who are used to it.

CAI trail 491, the Collelungo Trail

It is the main itinerary of the Nomentum Nature Reserve and takes its name from the locality of Collelungo. It crosses the most continuous part of the Turkey oak woodland and touches the Collelungo watering trough, one of the most interesting rural structures in the district. The ground is packed earth and after rain it becomes slippery on the clays: ankle boots, not sneakers.

CAI trails 491A and 491B

The 491A is a variant that joins at the crossing of trail 491 and serves to connect the main route to the minor roads. The 491B links the Collelungo watering trough to the locality Romitorio, in the Casali di Mentana. It is the stretch that joins the wooded part to the historic one, because the Romitorio is one of the points where finds from ancient Nomentum have been uncovered. Whoever wants a route with as much woodland as archaeology takes this one.

CAI trail 491C, the Collelungo Loop

The loop variant lets you return to the starting point without retracing the same road, which in a fragmented reserve is not a given. It is the right choice for a morning with a single vehicle available and no desire for shuttles.

CAI trail 492, the Macchia Mancini Loop

The second loop of the reserve goes around the Bosco Mancini and has a variant marked 492A. It is the dampest and coolest route, the one that follows the banks of the ditch and crosses the strips of water-loving vegetation. In summer it is the only one you can walk with pleasure even in mid-morning. Here too, after days of rain the ground becomes demanding.

Rules of behavior in the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The rules of every regional nature reserve apply: stay on the trails, don't pick flowers or mushrooms without authorization, don't light fires, dogs must be kept on a leash, don't leave litter. I add a recommendation born of field experience: most of the surface is privately owned and cultivated. The nature protection is not a right of way everywhere. Respecting fences and gates is not a formality, it is the condition for still being able to walk here in 10 years.

Nomentum, the ancient city that gives its name to the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The reserve takes its name from the Latin-Sabine city of Nomentum, whose remains are in the locality of Montedoro, at kilometer 21.500 of Via Nomentana. It is the reason why a regional protected area bears a Latin name instead of the name of a mountain or a river.

The disputed origins of Nomentum

On the origin of the city the ancient sources do not agree. Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes it as a colony of Alba Longa, therefore as a Latin city planted in Sabine territory. Pliny the Elder instead considers it outright Sabine. The contradiction between the two authors is not an error of transmission. It reflects the real position of Nomentum, exactly on the line of contact between the Latin and the Sabine world, just as today the reserve sits on the line of contact between two bioclimatic regions. Geography repeats itself.

Nomentum against Rome

The city rebelled against Rome after the death of Ancus Marcius and was forced to surrender to Tarquinius Priscus. It then took part in the Latin League and was involved in the defeat at the Battle of Lake Regillus. The final submission came in 338 BC, with the dissolution of the Latin League, which closed for good the question of the autonomy of the cities of Lazio. From that moment Nomentum became a Roman municipium and was included in the fourth Augustan region, Sabina et Samnium.

The wine of Nomentum and the Aquae Labanae

The city's fortune was built on two resources. The first was wine: Nomentum prospered as a wine center, and Nomentan wine appears in Latin literature as a product of middling quality but wide distribution, the kind you drank in Rome without too much ceremony. The second was the spa station of the Aquae Labanae, near today's locality of Grotta Marozza, exploited for its sulfurous waters. A provincial city with wine and baths 30 kilometers from the capital of the world: you can see why they came to stay.

Seneca and Martial, the illustrious owners

In the Nomentan territory both Seneca and Martial owned villas. For the poet of Bilbilis the Nomentan farm is a recurring theme in his verses, the small and modest refuge set against city life. They are the two literary presences that tie this piece of countryside to the great Latin culture, and they are the reason the name Nomentum survives in textbooks even though almost nothing of the city remains standing.

The archaeological remains of Nomentum

Of Nomentum there remain stretches of walls in tuff blocks datable to the 4th century BC on the hill of Montedoro, brickwork structures near the present route of Via Nomentana, and finds identified in the area of the Romitorio di Casali. The ancient route of the Roman road and parts of the paving stones are still visible. They are modest remains, which can't stand comparison with the great archaeological parks of Lazio: whoever arrives expecting a monumental site is disappointed. Whoever instead walks on the paving stones knowing that the wine carts passed that way toward Porta Collina has a different experience.

The end of Nomentum

In AD 408 the city was still a bishop's seat. After the Lombard occupation of 741 the settlement began to move to a more defensible position, giving rise to today's Mentana. The last certain reference to the ancient name dates to the year 800, when Pope Leo III and Charlemagne met here, on November 23, a few weeks before the imperial coronation in Saint Peter's. One of the decisive scenes of European history had this countryside as its backdrop.

Via Nomentana, the road that crosses the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The consular road that gives access to the reserve was originally called Via Ficulensis, because it only reached Ficulea. It changed its name when it was extended to Nomentum. It starts from Porta Pia, crosses the Nomentano, Salario, Trieste, Monte Sacro, Monte Sacro Alto and Talenti neighborhoods, passes the Grande Raccordo Anulare on a viaduct and continues through Colleverde di Guidonia, Tor Lupara, Mentana and Monterotondo, where it merges into Via Salaria at Monterotondo Scalo. The variant called Nomentana bis joins at kilometer 18.600.

Remains of the ancient Roman paving are found already at kilometer 12, inside the municipal territory of Rome. Driving the Nomentana from Porta Pia to the reserve means going back up, in 30 kilometers, 2,500 years of urban history: the Umbertine district, the Liberty villas, the buildings of the 1930s, the postwar borgate, the developments of the 1980s and finally the countryside. No other Roman consular road offers such a readable stratigraphic section.

Anyone who wants to add a Roman stop before leaving the Raccordo will find a short distance away, on the parallel Via Salaria, the catacombs of Priscilla, and between the two consular roads the large park of Villa Ada.

Mentana, the town inside the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The settlement of Mentana developed starting from the 8th century, after the abandonment of ancient Nomentum that followed the Lombard events and was completed between the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century. The town passed, with the pontificate of Gregory VII between 1073 and 1085, into the possession of the monks of San Paolo. Then to the Capocci family around the 13th century, to the Orsini in the 15th, to the Peretti at the end of the 16th and finally to the Borghese. In the history of the castle the Crescenzi also appear, the great baronial Roman family of the late Middle Ages. Today the municipality counts about 22,600 inhabitants and has as hamlets Mentana centro, Casali and Castelchiodato.

The Baronial Castle of Mentana

The Baronial Castle dominates the old core and preserves the medieval defensive structure, reworked over the centuries by the families that succeeded one another in possession. Its position, on top of a hill shaped like a promontory, explains by itself why the inhabitants of ancient Nomentum decided to move up here: from the castle you control the whole plain toward Monterotondo and toward the Tiber valley. It was this same position, eight centuries later, that decided the outcome of a battle.

Palazzo Borghese and the museum of masks

Palazzo Borghese, which the princes built and enlarged starting from the 17th century, has suffered structural damage over time and successive restorations. Since 1997 it has housed the Museum of Theatrical Masks and Puppet Theater, a little-visited and surprising collection for a town of this size: commedia dell'arte masks, puppets, marionettes, stage materials. It is one of those collections that nobody expects to find half an hour from the Grande Raccordo Anulare, and which by itself justifies a detour from the woods. Hours and visiting arrangements should be asked of the municipality of Mentana or the city's cultural center.

The church of San Nicola and Palazzo Crescenzio

In the historic center are the church of San Nicola, in the old version on Via Terzo Novembre near the historic core, and Palazzo Crescenzio, which houses the municipal library. A second church dedicated to the same saint, more recent, stands at an important crossing of the town. Whoever is looking for the historic building should aim for the center, not the new church. The detail seems pedantic and is instead the classic mix-up that loses you 20 minutes.

Villa Santucci and the Casali di Mentana

In the locality of Casali stands Villa Santucci, which preserves on its walls the marks of the bullets of the 1867 battle. The farmhouse, then called Vigna Santucci, was one of the key points of the clash and fell into the hands of the papal troops. Seeing those holes in the plaster, on a sunny afternoon, while around you the countryside is the same as then, is the strongest historical experience this territory can offer. It is worth more than 10 museum display cases.

The battle of Mentana and the Garibaldian museum

On the plain southeast of Mentana, near the Conventino, on November 3, 1867 the clash between the Garibaldian volunteers and the Franco-papal troops was fought. It is the historical event that made the name of Mentana known all over Europe, and the reason why this territory appears in school textbooks.

How November 3, 1867 went

Garibaldi had gathered around him between 5,000 and 8,000 volunteers, a number already reduced by the desertions that followed the royal proclamation of October 27. Moving against him were about 3,000 papal soldiers under General Hermann Kanzler and a French contingent of about 2,500 men, of whom 2,000 were actually engaged on the field, commanded by General Pierre Louis Charles de Failly with the brigade of General de Polhes. The Franco-papal troops left Rome in the night between November 2 and 3 in the direction of Monterotondo, which the Garibaldians had occupied since October 26. The fighting began south of Mentana with the outposts. The papal troops took Vigna Santucci. Garibaldi deployed his forces around the walled town. At that point the French corps attacked the red shirts on the left flank and broke through the lines.

The Chassepot rifle and the legend of the wonders

The French infantry was equipped with the Chassepot rifle model 1866, a breech-loading weapon with a bolt and a paper cartridge that allowed about 12 shots a minute against the three or four of muzzle-loading rifles. General de Failly's report, with its phrase about the wonders performed by the Chassepot rifles, became one of the most hated documents of the Italian Risorgimento. Later historiography has however scaled back that judgment, and already a Garibaldian veteran, Mombello, observed that on rugged terrain of small rises and hollows long range is worth much less than accuracy of fire. Anyone who walks that plain today understands at a glance that the objection was well founded.

The numbers and the consequences

The losses were 32 dead and 140 wounded among the Franco-papal troops, and 150 dead, 220 wounded and about 1,700 prisoners among the Garibaldians. The defeat guaranteed the Papal State three more years of life and allowed Pius IX to convene the First Vatican Council. On the political level it definitively distanced Napoleon III from the Italian national movement. Only in 1870, after the French collapse at Sedan, could the Italian army enter Rome on September 20. A detail that historians of photography know well: Mentana is the first battle fought in Italy of which photographic images survive.

The Ara Ossario and the National Museum

The Ara Ossario of Mentana was inaugurated in 1877 and closed in 1937 by the Society of the Patriotic Battles, which gathered there the fallen of 1867 who had died everywhere. The National Museum of the Campaign of the Roman Agro for the Liberation of Rome preserves relics, weapons, documents and materials of the Garibaldian campaign. In 2005 it was expanded with a section that lists all the fallen and their places of origin. Among the fallen volunteers were men from over 200 Italian municipalities and from foreign countries, from Hungary to Russia: an international brigade before the expression existed. Hours and tickets for the museum should be checked with the municipal administration before the visit.

Fonte Nuova, the other municipality of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

Fonte Nuova is a very young municipality: it was established on October 15, 2001, in implementation of a regional law of 1999, detaching the locality of Tor Lupara from Mentana and that of Santa Lucia from Guidonia Montecelio. Today it counts over 32,000 inhabitants and has a maximum elevation of around 150 meters. The territory is crossed by the Pratolungo ditch, a minor tributary of the Aniene.

Tor Lupara and Santa Lucia

Tor Lupara, which hosts the municipal seat, is higher up and developed from the 1950s along Via Nomentana and Via Palombarese. Santa Lucia, at a lower elevation, concentrates the industrial and commercial hub and is served by Via delle Molette and the Palombarese. The name Tor Lupara comes from one of the lookout towers of the countryside, and from that tower the whole area takes its name.

The Roman remains of Fonte Nuova

In the territory of Fonte Nuova remains of Roman villas and tombs continue to emerge, some identified in recent times: two rock-cut tombs at Quarto Conca, a Roman villa near the terminus of line 337, a Roman cistern at Salvatoretto. Along Via Nomentana there are structures locally called Botteghe oscure, which might belong to a defensive complex of the Roman age. It is the typical case in which the surface archaeology of a growing suburb yields more than the suburb itself knows.

The rural architecture of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

A chapter that almost nobody tells is that of the structures of peasant civilization, which in the Nomentum Nature Reserve are many and largely ignored by visitors.

Watering troughs, drinking troughs and washhouses

The territory preserves many watering troughs, drinking troughs and washhouses, some also marked by the trail signage, like the Collelungo watering trough on route 491. They are masonry and travertine structures, often with multiple basins: the first for drinking water, the second for watering animals, the third for washing clothes. The hierarchy of the basins was the water system of a whole village before the aqueduct, and reading it on the spot is worth a lesson in economic history. Many are abandoned, some have been restored.

The lookout towers

In the countryside survive many towers built to defend the old farm estates, at a time when the Roman agro was unsafe land and raids were a concrete threat. Tor Lupara is the best known because it gave its name to an entire town. They are modest towers, in tuff and brickwork, but they draw a network of visual control that can still be reconstructed today by climbing the rises and looking around.

The olive groves and the historic cultivated lands

The olive groves that occupy the slopes between one wood and the next are not a backdrop. They are the reason the landscape has this shape. Olive growing on these clay hills goes back centuries and has shaped terraces, low walls and service paths that today we use as hiking routes. Walking among the olive trees of Monte Pizzuto on a November morning, during the harvest, is one of the most honest experiences that the territory north of Rome can offer.

How to really visit the Nomentum Nature Reserve

Anyone who arrives here with the wrong expectations goes home unhappy. It is worth saying clearly what to expect.

How long the visit to the Nomentum Nature Reserve lasts

A loop like the 492 of Macchia Mancini is walked in two or three hours at an easy pace. The 491 of Collelungo, with the variant toward the Romitorio, brings the morning to a good four hours. Adding the historic center of Mentana and the Garibaldian museum you build a full day, which is the best way to use this territory: half a day in the woods, half a day among the stones.

When to go and when to avoid the Nomentum Nature Reserve

March and April for the blooms, October and November for the colors and for the olive harvest. May is fine if you are looking for storax in bloom. July and August are the worst period: heat, dust, silent woods, mosquitoes along the ditches. In the days immediately after a heavy rain the trails on the clays become slippery and tiring, and the advice is to wait two sunny days. On Sunday mornings the main routes are frequented by families and local groups: if you want silence, come on a weekday.

What to bring

Ankle boots with lugged soles, enough water because along the routes there are no refreshment points, lightweight binoculars, mosquito repellent in the damp season and a trail map downloaded beforehand, since phone coverage in the valley bottoms is patchy. During the hunting season, ask the managing body which sectors are affected and which are not.

The Nomentum Nature Reserve with children

Parco Trentani and the flatter stretches of the trails are suitable even for children of five or six. The spring blooms, the porcupine quills to collect along the trails and the search for tracks are free teaching material and better than any paid workshop. The organized activities of the Welcome Area, when there are any, are designed precisely for schools. Routes along the ditches with strollers are not recommended: the ground doesn't allow it.

Accessibility of the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The reserve has no equipped routes for people with motor disabilities: the trails are packed earth, with uneven stretches and irregular slopes. The urban green areas of Parco Trentani offer more passable stretches. Those with specific needs would do well to contact the protected areas office of the Metropolitan City in advance and ask which sectors are passable in the current season.

Dogs, bikes and horses

Dogs are allowed on a leash: the presence of wildlife and flocks makes it mandatory in substance even before the regulation does. Mountain biking is possible on dirt roads and forest tracks, taking care not to use the narrowest trails and to slow down near walkers. In the district there are riding stables that organize horseback outings along the rural roads.

What to see around the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The reserve is at the center of a network of protected areas and historic places that lets you build multi-day itineraries without ever going too far from Rome.

The other protected areas of the northeast quadrant

To the southwest, toward the city, extends the Marcigliana park, which protects another fringe of the Roman agro between the Salaria and the Nomentana. Toward the inside of the city you go down along the Valle dell'Aniene nature reserve, the river corridor that links this countryside to the center of Rome, and further west is the Monte Mario reserve. Toward Tivoli the landscape changes and becomes limestone with the Monte Catillo nature reserve. Anyone who wants to see a completely different environment, volcanic and carved with gorges, should head for the Monterano reserve.

The Sabina and its villages

Going up north you enter the true Sabina, that of olive oil and stone villages. Fara in Sabina is the most logical destination for a second day, and on the western horizon stands out the isolated profile of Monte Soratte, the mountain that Horace watched covered in snow.

Tivoli and the imperial villas

About 20 kilometers to the east you reach Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa. Anyone with a whole weekend can alternate the Nomentan countryside and the two great monumental complexes of Tivoli, getting a contrast that explains better than any book how the suburban territory of ancient Rome worked.

A curiosity about the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The best curiosity about this reserve is that its name comes from a city that the Romans themselves considered foreign, and that neither of the two main ancient sources manages to attribute with certainty. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek from Halicarnassus transplanted to Rome under Augustus, maintains that Nomentum was a colony of Alba Longa, therefore a Latin city planted inside Sabine territory. Pliny the Elder, a century later, lists it without hesitation among the Sabine cities. It is not an oversight by one of the two. It is the exact snapshot of a border place, where identities overlapped.

What makes this detail more than erudition is that the very same phenomenon repeats itself today, at the scale of biology. The territory of the Nomentum Nature Reserve is classified by ecologists as a zone of bioclimatic, geomorphological and environmental transition between the last Apennine fringe and the outermost front of the Roman agro: that is, the boundary between the Mediterranean and the temperate region. The species found here belong to both worlds. The Turkey oak and the Hungarian oak are Apennine trees. The smilax and the butcher's broom are Mediterranean. They live together in the same 800 hectares because here the border really does pass, and has passed for at least 3,000 years.

Whoever walks along trail 491 therefore crosses two overlapping frontiers: one political, erased in 338 BC with the dissolution of the Latin League, and one climatic, still perfectly active. Few protected areas of Lazio tell such a clean coincidence between human geography and natural geography. It is the reason why it is worth coming all the way here instead of settling for a city park.

Something nobody tells you about the Nomentum Nature Reserve

What nobody says is that the Nomentum Nature Reserve is not a protected wood. It is a protected cultivated countryside, and the difference completely changes how it should be visited. The protected surface is made of woodland fragments immersed in olive groves, arable fields, cultivated land and urbanized zones. Most of the land is privately owned and continues to be worked. There is no gate, no ticket office, no mandatory route. There is a network of local roads, rights of way, trails marked by the Alpine Club and field margins.

The practical consequence is that here the visitor has many more responsibilities than in a fenced park. An open gate should be closed again, because beyond it there may be animals grazing. A net stretched across a trail is not spite, it is a property boundary. The fruit of the trees, olives included, belongs to someone. They seem like obvious things and are instead the first cause of friction between hikers and residents in all the reserves of the Roman agro.

The second consequence is one of method. In a mosaic reserve you don't walk as in a forest. You walk as in an archive, reading the signs. A row of old olive trees indicates an ancient property. A watering trough indicates a transhumance route or a water route. A surviving patch of Turkey oak woodland almost always indicates a slope too steep or too clayey to be plowed. The Nomentum Nature Reserve is understood by asking yourself, in front of everything, why it stayed there. The answer is almost always economic, and almost always interesting.

Third thing that isn't said: the ecological value of this reserve does not depend on the hectares, it depends on connection. 827 hectares alone do not save any animal population. What they save is the continuity between Gattaceca, the Inviolata, the Marcigliana and the Aniene corridor, that is, a network that lets foxes, badgers and porcupines move through a territory otherwise cut up by roads and housing developments. Nomentum is a node, not an island.

Frequently asked questions about the Nomentum Nature Reserve

How much does it cost to enter the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Entry to the Nomentum Nature Reserve is free. It is a regional protected area with open access, without perimeter fencing or ticket office. Only the visits to the museums of Mentana, such as the Garibaldian museum, remain paid, according to municipal rates.

Where is the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

The Nomentum Nature Reserve is between the municipalities of Mentana and Fonte Nuova, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, northeast of the capital, in the hilly strip between Via Nomentana and Via Palombarese. It extends over 827 hectares and is managed by the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital.

Which trails can you walk in the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

The hiking network of the Nomentum Nature Reserve is surveyed and marked by the Italian Alpine Club, with short routes of tourist or easy hiking difficulty, suitable for families with children who are used to walking. The main one is CAI trail 491, called the Collelungo Trail.

How much time do you need to visit the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

A loop like the 492 of Macchia Mancini is walked in two or three hours at an easy pace, while the 491 of Collelungo, with the variant toward the Romitorio, brings the morning to a good four hours. Adding the historic center of Mentana and the Garibaldian museum takes up a whole day.

What is there to see in Mentana, inside the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

In Mentana, the town included in the Nomentum Nature Reserve, there is the field of the battle of November 3, 1867, fought between the Garibaldian volunteers and the Franco-papal troops, also documented by the local Garibaldian museum. It is the first Italian battle of which photographic images survive.

Where does the Nomentum Nature Reserve get its name?

The Nomentum Nature Reserve takes its name from the ancient Latin-Sabine city of Nomentum, whose remains are in the locality of Montedoro, at kilometer 21.500 of Via Nomentana. The ancient sources do not agree on its origin. Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes it as a colony of Alba Longa.

Is the Nomentum Nature Reserve suitable for a visit with children?

Yes, the trails of the reserve have minimal elevation changes and modest distances, which makes it suitable for families with children who are used to walking, according to the classification of tourist or easy hiking difficulty assigned by the Italian Alpine Club to the main routes.

The advice I give you for visiting the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The advice is just one and goes against the instinct of those looking for a stroll: don't come here to walk a lot, come to walk slowly. The Nomentum Nature Reserve has minimal elevation changes and modest distances. If you treat it as a workout, in two hours you are done and you have seen nothing. If instead you treat it as a route for reading the landscape, 8 kilometers take up a whole morning and you go home with something in your head.

In practice: set out at dawn, not in mid-morning. The difference between 07:00 and 10:00, in a reserve where the wildlife is abundant but shy, is the difference between seeing something and seeing nothing. At dawn in spring in the Bosco Mancini you hear in succession the green woodpecker, the cuckoo, the wren and, if you are lucky, the tawny owl finishing the night shift. At 10:00 you will hear the dogs of the farmhouses and the engines on the Palombarese.

Second element of the advice: always combine woods and town. Anyone who does only the trail misses half the meaning of this territory, because here history and nature are the same object. The recommended itinerary is this: Macchia Mancini loop early in the morning, lunch in Mentana, afternoon among the Baronial Castle, Palazzo Borghese and the Garibaldian museum, and finish at Villa Santucci to see the bullet holes in the plaster. Those who still have energy go down in the evening to the paving stones of the ancient Nomentana.

Third: call ahead. The Welcome Area and the guided activities follow a calendar, not continuous hours. Five minutes on the phone with the protected areas office of the Metropolitan City are worth more than any online search, and often let you join a guided excursion already scheduled, which is the best way to see the less accessible sectors. Those who organize outings for groups or companies can rely on the certified professionals of TourLeaderPro in Rome, who work regularly in the suburban territories.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely cited

That a battle was fought at Mentana in 1867 is known by everyone, or almost. What is rarely cited is that Mentana is the first battle fought in Italy of which photographic images survive. Not paintings, not engravings: photographs. The field, the dead, the prisoners, the places. In 1867 photographic technique still required long exposure times and bulky equipment, which means that no image shows the fighting in progress. They show the aftermath, which is almost always more eloquent.

The second little-cited fact concerns the makeup of the Garibaldian army. The fallen volunteers came from over 200 Italian municipalities and from foreign countries, including Hungary and Russia. In 2005 the National Museum of the Campaign of the Roman Agro for the Liberation of Rome was expanded with a section that lists all the fallen and their places of origin. Reading that list is a different experience from reading an overall figure. Every line is a town, often tiny, often very far from here.

Third neglected fact: the defeat at Mentana was not only an Italian military defeat, it was a very costly political victory for France. General de Failly's report on the wonders performed by the Chassepot rifles produced in Italy a wave of anti-French hostility that in 1870, when France found itself alone against Prussia, translated into a total lack of solidarity. Three years after Mentana, Sedan. 20 days after Sedan, Porta Pia. The causal chain is tighter than the textbooks let on, and it passes through this countryside.

The right photo to take at the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The photograph worth taking home from the Nomentum Nature Reserve is not the one of the woods. Coppice woods photographed from the inside almost always give muddled images, with thin trunks and dirty light. The right photo is taken from the edge, looking out. You climb one of the rises of Monte Pizzuto or of the cultivated lands around Collelungo, put the wood behind you and frame the sequence of olive trees, arable fields, scrub, and in the background the profile of Mentana on its promontory. In a single image there is the whole meaning of the reserve: the mosaic, the agrarian landscape, the fortified town.

The best light is that of first thing on an autumn morning, when low fogs fill the valley bottoms of the ditches and let only the treetops and the castle emerge. The phenomenon lasts little, half an hour at most after dawn, and requires being already in position: it is the main reason why I insist on dawn starts. In spring, macro works instead: the blue carpet of Apennine windflowers and the cyclamens in the understory hold up very well even to a phone shot, provided you get down to the ground and don't photograph from above while standing, which is the mistake that ruins 90 percent of flower photos.

Third option, the most narrative: the walls of Villa Santucci with the bullet marks of 1867, in raking late-afternoon light, when the shadows make the holes in the plaster readable. A true historical photograph, which needs no captions. Remember that the villa is private property: you photograph from outside, from the road, without entering and without using drones. On flying remotely piloted aircraft inside a protected natural area, specific limitations apply that must be checked with the managing body before lifting anything off the ground.

Some important events that happened here in history

Few suburban territories of Rome have a density of historical events comparable to that of the Nomentum Nature Reserve, and almost all have to do with the fact that this was the way you passed to enter or leave the city.

The rebellion against Rome and the submission. After the death of Ancus Marcius, Nomentum rebelled and had to surrender to Tarquinius Priscus. It was then involved in the Latin League and in the defeat at the Battle of Lake Regillus, and the final submission came in 338 BC, the year in which Rome dissolved the League and reorganized all of Lazio. Nomentum became a municipium and was enrolled in the fourth Augustan region.

The meeting between Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, November 23, 800. The last mention of the ancient name Nomentum is tied to one of the decisive appointments of European history: here the king of the Franks and the pontiff met a few weeks before the imperial coronation that would refound the idea of empire in the West. The exact place of the meeting is a matter of discussion among scholars, but the source places the episode in the Nomentan territory.

The end of the city and the birth of Mentana. Between the Lombard occupation of 741 and the following centuries, the ancient settlement was progressively abandoned in favor of the defensible position on the promontory. The date traditionally given for the final destruction of the ancient site is 1059, in a context of Norman raids. The move was completed between the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century.

The passing from hand to hand among the great families. With Gregory VII, between 1073 and 1085, Mentana passed to the monks of San Paolo. Then to the Capocci in the 13th century, to the Orsini in the 15th, to the Peretti at the end of the 16th, finally to the Borghese. Each passage left a built mark, from the castle to the princely palace.

The battle of November 3, 1867. The clash between the Garibaldian volunteers and the Franco-papal troops, with the defeat of the former, the 150 dead and the 1,700 prisoners, and the political consequences that kept the Papal State alive until 1870.

The inauguration of the Ara Ossario, 1877. 10 years after the battle, the funerary monument was inaugurated. In 1937 the Society of the Patriotic Battles closed it after gathering there the fallen of 1867 who had died in every place.

The establishment of the reserve, 1997. The regional law of 1997 on the protected natural areas of Lazio placed the restriction on these 827 hectares, stopping the building expansion that since the end of the 1950s had been climbing the Nomentana and the Palombarese. Without that decision, there would be nothing to visit here today.

The birth of Fonte Nuova, October 15, 2001. Tor Lupara and Santa Lucia detached from Mentana and from Guidonia Montecelio to form an autonomous municipality, which today exceeds 32,000 inhabitants. The reserve thus found itself divided between two administrations.

Who passed through the Nomentum Nature Reserve

The list of figures who have crossed this territory is out of proportion to its present fame, and it begins very early.

Seneca. The philosopher owned a villa in the Nomentan territory. For a man whose work revolves around withdrawal from public life and the value of otium, the choice of a farm a few hours from Rome but already in real countryside is consistent to the point of irony.

Martial. The poet of the Epigrams also had a property here, and speaks of it in his verses as the small Nomentan farm, set against the noisy and servile life of the capital. It is thanks to him that the name of this piece of countryside entered Latin literature and has stayed there.

Tarquinius Priscus. The fifth king of Rome received the surrender of Nomentum: the first name in Roman history tied with certainty to this place.

Charlemagne and Pope Leo III. On November 23 of the year 800 the king of the Franks and the pontiff met in the Nomentan territory. A few weeks later, in Rome, the imperial coronation would take place.

Gregory VII. The pope of the investiture struggle assigned Mentana to the monks of San Paolo, opening the long series of feudal passages.

The Orsini, the Peretti and the Borghese. Three of the major Roman families succeeded one another in possession of the fief, leaving the castle, the palace and the urban layout that can still be seen.

Giuseppe Garibaldi. On November 3, 1867 he commanded his volunteers here in the battle that bears the name of Mentana. He is the figure who tied this territory definitively to national history, and the museum dedicated to him preserves relics related to him and to Giuseppe Mazzini.

Hermann Kanzler and Pierre Louis Charles de Failly. The commander of the papal troops and that of the French expeditionary corps: two names that in Italy stayed unpopular for generations, and that belong to this countryside as much as Garibaldi's.

Giulio De Angelis. The Roman architect active between the 19th and 20th centuries, known for works of Umbertine Rome, signed the design of the national museum dedicated to the Garibaldian campaign. His presence here links Mentana to the building season of the capital of the Kingdom.

Quick questions about the Nomentum Nature Reserve

How much does it cost to enter the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Nothing. The reserve is a regional protected area with open access, without perimeter fencing or ticket office. The visits to the museums of Mentana remain paid, according to municipal rates.

Where exactly is the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Between the municipalities of Mentana and Fonte Nuova, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, northeast of the capital, along the axis of Via Nomentana. The visitor center is at kilometer 21+200 of the Nomentana, number 320.

How big is the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

The official sheet of the regional portal of protected areas gives 827 hectares, a little over eight square kilometers.

Who manages the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

The Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, through its protected areas office, which also manages the neighboring reserve of Macchia di Gattaceca e Macchia del Barco.

When was the Nomentum Nature Reserve established?

In 1997, within the framework of the regional law of Lazio on protected natural areas.

How do you get to the Nomentum Nature Reserve from Rome without a car?

By public transportation you reach Tor Lupara di Fonte Nuova going up Via Nomentana from the Monte Sacro quadrant with urban line 337. For Mentana and Monterotondo the service is suburban. Alternatively you go by train to Monterotondo Scalo and continue by bus or taxi. Times and runs should be checked on the carriers' sites.

Do you need to book to visit the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Not to walk the trails. For the activities of the Welcome Area, for group visits and for outings with school classes yes: contact the protected areas office of the Metropolitan City in advance.

What are the hours of the Welcome Area of the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

They are not continuous museum-style hours. Opening follows the calendar of activities and events. They should be checked on the official portal of the protected areas of Lazio or by phoning the managing body.

How long does the visit to the Nomentum Nature Reserve last?

From two or three hours for a short loop to a whole day if you add the historic center of Mentana and the Garibaldian museum.

What are the trails of the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

The 491 Collelungo Trail with the variants 491A, 491B toward the Romitorio of the Casali di Mentana and 491C Collelungo Loop, and the 492 Macchia Mancini Loop with the variant 492A. The numbering is that of the Italian Alpine Club.

Are the trails of the Nomentum Nature Reserve difficult?

No. The elevation changes are contained and the difficulty is tourist or easy hiking. The only critical factor is the clay ground, which becomes slippery after rain.

Can you bring dogs to the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Yes, on a leash. The presence of wildlife and grazing animals makes it necessary.

Can you go mountain biking in the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

On dirt roads and forest tracks yes, with caution and respect for those who walk. The narrowest trails and the stretches along the ditches are better left to pedestrians.

Is the Nomentum Nature Reserve suitable for children?

Yes, in particular Parco Trentani and the flat stretches. Strollers are not recommended on the trails in the valley bottoms.

Is the Nomentum Nature Reserve wheelchair accessible?

There are no equipped routes. Some stretches of the urban green areas are more passable than others: it is a good idea to ask the managing body which sectors are passable in the current season.

What is the best time to visit the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

The second half of March and the first half of April for the windflowers and cyclamens, May for the storax bloom, October and November for the colors and for the olive harvest. July and August are the least interesting period.

What animals can you see in the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Over 50 species of birds, including green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, tawny owl, little owl, scops owl, buzzard, hoopoe and kestrel. Amphibians such as the common toad and the rare Northern spectacled salamander. Reptiles such as the western green lizard and the western whip snake. Mammals such as porcupine, hedgehog, fox and badger.

What is the spectacled salamander?

An Italian endemic amphibian, present along the watercourses of the reserve, recognizable by the pale spectacle-shaped patch on the head and by the red belly. Its presence indicates good water quality.

What is the difference between the Nomentum Nature Reserve and the Macchia di Gattaceca?

They are two distinct regional nature reserves, managed by the same body and served by the same Welcome Area. Nomentum protects a mosaic of woods and cultivated land between Mentana and Fonte Nuova. Gattaceca, between Monterotondo and Castelchiodato, preserves a more continuous wood and karst phenomena.

Can you pick mushrooms or flowers in the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Picking is subject to the rules of protected natural areas and to the provisions of the managing body: without authorization, you don't pick.

What remains of ancient Nomentum?

Stretches of tuff walls from the 4th century BC on the hill of Montedoro, at kilometer 21.500 of Via Nomentana, brickwork structures along the modern road, finds in the area of the Romitorio di Casali and stretches of the ancient paving stones.

Where is the museum of the battle of Mentana?

In Mentana, in the National Museum of the Campaign of the Roman Agro for the Liberation of Rome, which preserves Garibaldian relics and, since 2005, the complete list of the fallen of 1867. Hours and tickets are checked with the municipality.

Are there cafes or refreshment points inside the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Not along the trails. Cafes, bakeries and restaurants are in Mentana and Tor Lupara: water and a packed lunch have to be brought from home.

Can you fly a drone over the Nomentum Nature Reserve?

Inside a protected natural area, flying remotely piloted aircraft is subject to limitations: check with the managing body before every flight.

Can you visit the Nomentum Nature Reserve with a guide?

Yes. The managing body organizes guided excursions on a calendar, in particular in spring and autumn, and in the territory professional guides and escorts operate for private and corporate groups.

The verdict on the Nomentum Nature Reserve

This part of Lazio has to be presented for what it is, without inflating it. The Nomentum Nature Reserve does not compete with the great parks of Lazio and does not have a view that takes your breath away. It does have three things worth the trip: a historic countryside still readable half an hour from the Grande Raccordo Anulare, a town with a castle and a battle that shifted the history of Europe, and a red salamander that survives in a ditch a few hundred meters from an industrial warehouse. If you accept walking slowly and looking, this place pays back. If you are looking for spectacle, go elsewhere and don't blame anyone.

One last operational tip: the first time, come early on a Saturday morning in April, with binoculars and no program. If you like the place, the other seasons will bring you back too. Those traveling with a group, a school class or a corporate incentive can have the outing organized by licensed professionals, for example through the tourist escort service of TourLeaderPro. Those arriving from abroad who want to understand how to fit a day of Roman countryside into a city itinerary will find useful material in the English guides on things to do in Rome and in the overview dedicated to Italian nature and mountains.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? The English guides to visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.