The caffarella valley

Rome's largest park - 132 hectares - is quite well hidden. Or so I like to think. In my first Roman flat I was in fact quite near it. When I complained of the lack of green areas in which to walk my dog, when I moaned about the endless concrete jungle along the Tuscolana people would look puzzled. "But there's the Caffarella," which in turn mystified me. Why were they talking about chocolate? (Caffarel is a famous Italian brand) Were they alluding to the comforting effect of a piece of chocolate? Eventually, I understood (my Italian wasn't so good, back in those days) they were referring to a park, a large park, somewhere off Furio Camillo metro station.

One bright wintry morning I went in search of it with my cocker spaniel excitedly pulling my arm out of its socket, as was her wont. At Furio Camillo I found a park encircled by a high wall, it also encapsulated the districts fraction of the town hall. I went in through one of the high portals, there was no grass just mud and dust and gravelly paths. It wasn't big either. I returned home disconsolate. People here obviously had no idea what a park was all about!

Shortly after, I left the area of Ponte Lungo for Monteverde with its own magnificent park of Villa Pamphilji right on my doorstep. Happy days were they for this dog owner. But after a few years I moved to Tor Marancia, it was less affluent and more down-at-heel than Monteverde and I again faced the problem of finding a park for my dog. 

I chanced upon the tenuta di Tor Marancia - a nature reserve - but it turned out not to be to my dogs liking. She was scared of insects that made large buzzing sounds - so that meant most insects - which made the reserve off limits from mid-spring to mid-autumn. Again, the name Caffarella came up.This time I looked it up on a map. There was indeed a large green area somewhere off the Appia Antica which ranged on one side towards the Aurelian walls and on the other to the foothills of the urban jungle of the Appio Latino.

My search proved more fruitful and the park provided many a walk for my spaniel in her last years as it still does for my current dog. I usually approachthe park from the Via della Caffarella side, after having let my dog romp in the dog play area in Parco Scott.

For years I had noticed a curious circular structure on my right as I entered the narrow road of the caffarella. The road is so narrow there are signposts advising walkers and cyclists to hold to the right side. I assumed the structure was an ancient dovecote. Pigeons fluttered in and out of its open window. It wasn't. I discovered it was a 16th century chapel built there by the Cardinal Reginald Pole. He had sided with Pope Paul III against the new Anglican church, his sovereign, Henry the VIII, had set up. Henry set his henchmen onto him. The Cardinal escaped his assassins and built the chapel on the site of their ambush to thank god for saving him. I wonder what the area would have been like in those days. It would have been open country, pastures with a few grand properties here and there.  Today the entrances to the chapel are closed with large boulders and it is home to bats and pigeons.

I walked down the shaded high-wall-lined Via della Caffarella, behind the walls were lavish properties, though some in an obvious state of disrepair. There was a famous tennis club which had been fined for failing to maintain an ancient artefact on its premises. 
Some properties had paddocks with horses. Joggers and cyclists all suitably attired overtook me. The tarmac gave way to a dust road, beside the official entrance to the park was a map highlighting the different things to see in the park.  

Over the years I've got to know the park well. It has been a useful shortcut from one side of the city to the other on strike days. Today I hesitate. If I go straight on, I go past the farm with farm animals on show which my dog always likes. It must be a bit like going to the theatre with an added smell-o-vision effect for her. Or I take a left up a hillock that then looks down into the valley of the Caffarella through which runs the river Almone. Often sheep are pastured in the large field there. My dog likes them too. They are usually watched over by a sheep dog who slowly walks behind them, out flanking them and seeing off any dogs that get too close. They are always accompanied by clouds of small birds, some of which perch on the sheeps backs, fluttering off, then back down again, and large black crows that march ahead of the flock like an avant-garde. In the summer months their woolly coats are shorn.

I go straight on, as going through the valley means walking past the large farmhouse (Casale della Vaccareccia) on the way back, which means going past the large Maremma sheep dogs that wander there. One of them seems to enjoy nipping my dog. Nothing big, just an unpleasant nip on her hind quarters.   

The old farmhouse is a Renaissance structure built around a Medieval tower - one of five that existed  - which in early days would have given the owners a view over the entire property. The current occupiers tend the large flocks of sheep which pasture in the caffarella and produce their own ricotta and other cheeses on site.

I walk on the side of the path as cyclists whizz past. We pause by the exhibition farmhouse. I call it that as the animals are visible behind a high wire fence, and parents with young children like to stand there and watch the animals. For a lot of city children this is the first time they are seeing live farm animals. A peacock is fanning its tail today, an impressive sight which makes the couple next to me debate as to whether it's a male or a female peacock. They settle on male.Some geese, ducks and hen strut around or peck at strands of grass. A donkey brays drawing attention to itself. Some old horses stand together their tails flicking and fanning away the insects.

After a while we move on to our next stop the Cenotaph of Annia Regilla - a square elegant red brick structure. A small ditch dug around it and a chain stop people from getting too close. Alas today I won't get to see it at all. The archaeological site is closed throughout July and August. I can just glimpse it and the bottom of an umbrella pined alley. 

Annia Regilla was a Roman aristocrat married to a prominent wealthy Greek, Herod Atticus. He was once the tutor of the young Marcus Aurelius. The couple lived for a short time in Rome before moving to Greece. Their home in Rome was a vast property extending from the villa on the Appia Antica to most of modern day Caffarella Park. Annia enjoyed a comfortable and prestigious life. But her death was violent. She was kicked in the abdomen by her husband's freedman, Alcimedon, most probably on her husband's orders. She was eight months pregnant and lost the baby before dying. Herod Atticus was grief stricken, on the boundary of their Roman property he raised two columns bearing the inscription in Latin and Greek: "To the memory of Annia Regilla, wife of Herodes, light and soul of the house, to whom this land once belonged." Her brother on finding out about her death was livid and blamed Herod Atticus. He brought charges against him but Atticus was absolved by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. 

We've reached a crossing, to my left , over the river is the main farmhouse ahead is the path that runs along the river to the Nymphaeum of Egeria. We go down there. Two labradors are bathing in the weed filled waters of the river in blatant disregard of a notice which forbids going in the water, so as to protect the ecosystem. 

The nymphaeum was part of the water works in Herod Atticus' villa. The name Egeria dates to the Renaissance. Scholars believed that this was the site of a sacred wood and spring where Numa Pompilius (the legendary second king of Rome) met with the goddess nymph Egeria. The spring is the source of the path of waters that cross the caffarella and the park of the Appia Antica. All that is visible from the walkway is a small grotto at the back of which would have stood a statue. The area is often overgrown and the waters are green with weeds. 

It's a sharp climb up from the Nympheum, almost marred by an encounter with an out-of-control child on a bike with frantically shouting parent in tow, "brake, Marco, brake." Marco makes it to the walkway without injury to self or others. The small copse of trees on the nearby hill is called the sacred wood, another allusion to the legend. I usually make a sharp left and climb up to a church of Sant'Urbano. 

This time I climb down, back towards the river to the Torre Valca - a medieval watch tower, from there I wander on to the Columbarium of Constantine - a temple shaped tomb which in later times was used as a windmill before suffering extensive fire damage. I loop back upwards, close to some busy roads the Via dell Almone with the centre of the aqua Egeria where people can buy the famous water and where food festivals are organised year round and the Appia Pignatelli, towards an ancient Roman cistern. The cistern, known as the cisternone (big cistern) dates to the 2nd century ad. It's a large rectangular structure which would have been used for storing water.

It's time to head out of the park, past the Church of Sant'Urbano alla Caffarella which once was an ancient temple dedicated to Cerere - the goddess of masses -  and Faustina - the deified wife of Antonino Pio - , part of the property of Herod Atticus. Noted among the interior stucco decoration is the apotheosis of Annia Regilla. The church belongs to the vicariate of Rome and it is closed to the public.

Once outside the park its a rather unpleasant five minutes down a pavement-less road. Cars fly by barely inches away. I'm always relieved to duck down into a small road which brings me back to the Appia Antica at the height of the catacombs of San Sebastiano. There at last we can drink from one of the water fountains. It seems a pity for a park full of streams and waterways that there are no drinking fountains in the valley of the Caffarella.