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The Cardellino Spring in Jenne: where water has shaped travertine for millennia
In the Simbruini Mountains Park, between Jenne and Trevi nel Lazio, the Cardellino Spring gushes from a cave halfway up the hillside, and fans out into dozens of rivulets over the rocks below, entirely carpeted in mosses and ferns. The name derives from the local stone, cardellino, a layered travertine rock shaped by the water over the centuries through continuous calcareous deposits.
How to get there
The valley-floor path linking Subiaco to the Trevi Waterfall is nearly flat, approximately 10 kilometres along an unsurfaced trail, and crosses one of the most unspoiled stretches of the upper Aniene valley. The route goes from the Subiaco side near the ruins of Nero’s Villa, or from the Jenne side near the Trevi Waterfall. Along the way is the Tartare Spring, the Grotta dell'Inferniglio cave and the Mola Vecchia, an 11th-century Benedictine mill.
In the footsteps of Coleman and St Benedict
This stretch coincides with the Coleman Trail, dedicated to the painter Enrico Coleman who crossed the Simbruini Mountains in 1881 noting landscapes and orchids, and with a stage of St Benedict’s Way (Cammino di San Benedetto). In the spring the undergrowth bursts into flower; in summer the turquoise pools of the Aniene invite the visitor to have a swim. The nearest car park is on the Provincial Road 45a, in Subiaco.
