Sant’Angelo Romano is a small town not far from Rome, nestling in the Cornicolani Mountains,where ample walking and hiking opportunities are to be found in the Forest of Gattaceca, known as the “Macchia”. It is renowned for its outstanding flora and fauna and extends over an area of 1,000 hectares in the Tiber Valley in the Sabina Romana region. The hilly landscape with sections given over to grazing land and crop cultivation is breathtaking.
Downtown, the Orsini-Cesi Castle houses the Territorial Prehistory Museum, which contains fossils and archaeological remains from the local area, testifying to human and wildlife presence during the Middle Pleistocene Ice Age. The collections on display, consisting mainly of an enormous amount of ceramic and stone relics, are largely the result of random, rather than systematic, discoveries, starting in the second half of the19th century. A curiosity of the museum is the Sala della Grotta dello Sventatoio di Poggio Cesi, a fascinating cave used in the Bronze Age as a place of worship.
From the terraces of the castle one can admire various environmentally protected areas to the north-west of Rome.
Continue your discovery of Sant’Angelo Romano by walking to the Forest of Grotte Cerqueta, a landscape area rich in hypogean and epigean karst [irregular limestone rock formations]. One can see the amazing series of sinkholes known as the Fossi and appreciate the botanical abundance of this small, but fascinating, forest.
The Pizza Varata, made with crushed aniseed, is an unmissable treat in Sant’Angelo Romano at Easter.