La tenuta: the nature reserve

It's Sunday, house cleaning day and dog walking day, as in, we go for a really long walk. A decision has to be made: where shall we go for our walk? I'm spoilt for choice. 

The area we live in is surrounded by large parks : the Caffarella with its pasturing flock of sheep, the Appia Antica with its Roman ruins, catacombs and tombs, and a nature reserve called the 'Tenuta di Tor Marancia'. This rather grandly translates as the 'Estate' of Tor Marancia, and history suggests that once upon a long ago it may have been formidable.

The area derives its name from that of a freedman, one Amaranthus, who would have worked for the Numisii Proculi family in the 2nd century AD. The Numisii had their country home here which was run as an agricultural business by their slaves.

 Another origin story more prosaically states that the area was named after an edifice of unspecified use, off the Via delle Sette Chiese past the Catacombs of Domitilla.

In the end, and despite the heavy rain of the last few days, I go for the tenuta. I haven't been there in a while and am eager to see how the approaching Winter is changing the vegetation. Besides, it's a nice sunny afternoon, far too warm for the season.

 I walk down my road on which can be found one of the last of a series of medieval towers which were built as look-outs. It is called Tor Marancia but, originally and up until the 16th century, it  was called the Torre di San Tommaso (Tower of St Thomas). It is situated in the Park of Tor Marancia, a sad, fenced-off area near some plain, weather beaten buildings where childrens play things: swings, slides and a climbing frame, are enveloped in a carpet of weeds.

I head towards Piazza Lante. This is where official tours of the tenuta start, right next to the local eyesore: an electric power station. Over the years many attempts have been made to close it down, as more and more cases of cancer in children have appeared. But to no avail.

I climb the hill past the humming station and ignore the entrance to 'needle lane' (my moniker for it), so called because of the plethora of abandoned needles and other addict paraphernalia I came across on one early morning walk a couple of years ago. There also used to be an unofficial gypsy encampment at its far end beside the cactus grove. Over the years gypsies have come and gone, setting up camps in the caves or among the thick bushes of the park.

Up on a ridge there are views to the distant Castelli Romani. It was a prehistoric eruption of those distant Alban Hills that created the park with its distinct ridges, quarry, streams and fertile land.

Inside the tenuta, in an extensively quarried area, there is a 200-metre long and 20-metre high facade which shows the various strata of earth:  tufo (706 - 680,000 years old), red and black pozzolanic ash from 528,000 to 338,000 years ago and others. It is this ash which has been quarried creating numerous caves and galleries within the sediment. 

Quarry face with its various sediment strata

 Today's walk takes me past an enclave of rosemary bushes, some apple and pear trees, large bramble bushes which at the end of the summer yield crops of berries and down towards a larger path.

At its end is the old farm house, the Casale di Tor Carbone and the humid area of the park which is crossed by some water ways and where a few walks back I came across a fresh water crab. 

I cross over this path towards a large field. In the spring it is covered in wild flowers and thistles then it becomes churned up earth and mud, now it is a verdant expanse.

 Pigeons peck at the earth. At its far end are the remains of old constructions just cement bases and rocks and bricks. Climbing up past these I can see in the distance the mausoleum of Caecilia Metella and the Church of San Sebastiano on the Appia Antica.

From here there are two options: the lower path which leads past a ruined farm house or on the upper ridge of the quarry past a crop of bamboo rushes. I opt for the latter.

 I move onto a smaller path covered in grass, the bramble bushes are thick with spider webs and the rushes rustle in the breeze. I'm beyond the area most fellow dog walkers choose to go to and all I can hear are the bird calls mainly parrots and singing blackbirds with the odd raucous yell of a high-perched crow. 

The tenuta is known for its diverse fauna and flora: quail, kestrels, weasels, fox, brown kite, moorhen, red breasts,dragon flies, various amphibians and reptiles are all known to live in the reserve next to elms, ferns, willows, poplars, numerous clusters and bushes of herbs such as sage, rosemary, parsley, spear mint as well as apple and pear trees.

A late Spring bale of dried up grasses and weeds

Whatever the season, the tenuta is worth a visit.