The best MTB trails around Marcellina

Palace at Tivoli, large landscaped park

A magnificent alternative route back to Rome with breathtaking views of the Villa Gregoriana waterfalls and the town of Tivoli. Always remember to change your angle 🙃😉

Villa d'Este is a masterpiece of engineering, architecture, and nature. This Italianate Renaissance garden has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. The interplay of water and architecture is truly extraordinary. The villa can only be visited on foot, and it takes about a couple of hours, so it's a good idea to plan on parking your bike.

From this vantage point you have a unique view of the town of Tivoli, the Villa Gregoriana waterfall, and the woods surrounding the town.

Enchanting corner in the heart of the Lucretili Mountains Park

A unique historical and spiritual complex, carved into the rock along the walls of the Aniene valley. These hermitages are linked to the figure of Saint Benedict of Norcia, who stayed there briefly in 503. During his time at San Cosimato, it is said that the monks attempted to poison him, but the vessel containing the poison miraculously shattered when Benedict blessed it with the sign of the cross. The caves, accessible via a staircase carved into the rock, include a rock chapel dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, rich in frescoes, and an ossuary. The convent above, built later by Benedictine monks, was dedicated to the saintly doctors Cosma and Damiano. This place combines history, art and spirituality in a suggestive naturalistic context.

From the web: "One of the so-called "penitence routes", among the shortest, which started from the little church of the Sepulchre of Vicovaro followed the road parallel to the Ronci, a tributary of the Aniene, and which led to a venerated and solitary Marian sanctuary, S. Maria del Ronci, in the valley of the same name. This impervious road, which enters the gorges of the Lucretili, had been in the Middle Ages a valid diversion from the one traced in the valley floor of the other tributary of the Aniene, the Licenza: many pilgrims and wayfarers had travelled it to reach the ancient Farfa castles of Spogna, Macla Felcosa, Petra Demone to then flow into the lower Sabina and thus reach Farfa or the Reatino. Once these castles on the Lucretili were abandoned and in ruins, the Ronci road remained, favorable weather permitting, only the prerogative of a few, both for to arrive with some time to the nearby Orsini fiefdoms of Roccagiovine, Licenza, Civitella or Percile, or, for the most part, to reach the hermitage of S. Maria di Ronci as “penitents” and devotees. The ideal date to go to the small and remote sanctuary was above all the first and third day of the month of May, the feast of the Madonna del Ronci, when the Follettoso and the other mountains of the Lucretili had lost their characteristics of snow-capped peaks, the Ronci no longer appeared threatening with its “floods” and spring presented itself in full bloom with all its explosion of colors and scents. In those days, many people arrived in procession from various streets even from other neighboring towns, such as S. Polo, Licenza, Civitella, Roccagiovine, called by the annual festival and to enjoy the small fair of livestock and small items that was held in the clearing to the side of the church in the area of a microscopic cemetery. The starting point for individuals or for the group of faithful especially coming from Vicovaro, Cantalupo, Bardella and other sites in the Aniene Valley, was, as already mentioned, the church of S. Maria del Sepolcro: from here the “companies” of pilgrims or individual penitents, after having refreshed themselves materially in the shade of the pleasant portico and spiritually with the morning mass in the adjacent church, began the impervious and harsh “path of penance”. Having left the Via Valeria, the penitents climbed, barefoot and chanting, into the small deserted valley of Ronci. There, among the greenery and the rocks that loom over the river, one can enjoy a spectacle of magnificence and terror, so much so that it is believed to be populated by who knows what demonic creatures and called the Valley of Hell [...].

Beautiful meadow on the slopes of Mount Follettoso