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The Aniene Valley Nature Reserve: 600 Hectares of Nature and History in the Eastern Outskirts of Rome
The Aniene Valley Nature Reserve extends across more than 600 hectares in the eastern quadrant of Rome, between two ancient bridges: Ponte Mammolo and Ponte Nomentano. Established in 1997, it protects the last urban stretch of the River Aniene before its confluence with the Tiber. It is one of the few places in the capital where freshwater crayfish and crabs are still found — indicators of clean water — along with grey herons, kingfishers and colonies of bats.
Oak Woods, Wetlands and Urban Allotments
The territory alternates flat stretches of mixed oak woodland — pedunculate oaks, Turkey oaks, downy oaks — with wetlands populated by willows, elms and ash trees. Since 2011, approximately 4,000 square metres of the reserve has been set aside to the Orti Urbani, allotments cultivated by local residents.
The Cervelletta and the Casal de' Pazzi Museum
The historic heart of the reserve is the Casale della Cervelletta: a medieval tower 30 metres high, with Guelph battlements from the 12th century, surrounded by residential and agricultural buildings erected between the 16th and 17th centuries by the Sforza, Borghese and Salviati families. A short distance away, the Casal de' Pazzi Museum houses a Pleistocene deposit with fossils of ancient elephants and stone tools: fragments of a landscape 200,000 years old, saved from urbanisation.
