The best walks and hikes in Sic Boschi Mesofili Di Allumiere

Kaolin quarry, massive abandoned mining site rich in kaolinite, clay mineral, hydrated aluminum silicate. The formation is linked to the hydrothermal alteration processes present in the area. The quarry appears of extreme interest for understanding the dynamics of spontaneous re-naturalization underway by a very rich floristic biodiversity. Interpretation point of the NW landscape of the Tolfa complex up to the Mignone valley, the sea and in the background the Tuscan archipelago to Mount Amiata.

from Wiki: "According to what is reported in the Liber Pontificalis, the city was founded by Pope Leo IV on 15 August of the year 854 to give a safer seat to the citizens of Centumcellae (Civitavecchia) and the related diocese[1], being the city hit by the raids of the Saracens on the Tyrrhenian coast. According to his biographer, the pope gave the new city the name of Leopoli, but in all the documents, in the first centuries, the name of Centumcellae - civitas or castrum centumcellensis, later changed, is found in Centucelle - Cincelle - Cencelle. The new city was founded on a branch of the Via Aurelia, on an easily defensible hill between the Mignone river and its tributary Melledra, which had also been occupied in ancient times by the Etruscans. At the time of the foundation, the city walls were built, a first church, an episcopal seat, with an adjoining cemetery and wooden houses, later replaced by brick houses and buildings. The main church dedicated to Saint Peter was rebuilt larger between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. The city was damaged by the earthquake of 1349 and the buildings were subsequently restored. It progressively declined and at the beginning of the 15th century the lands were, according to sources, "destroyed and uninhabited". In the second half of the fifteenth century the city area was used for the exploitation of the alum mines in the Tolfa mountains and in the seventeenth century it was probably the center of an agricultural company".

The ruins are very suggestive and there is a wonderful 360 degree view

Boiling water, two man-sized tanks. It is recommended to stay in the water for a maximum of 2-3 minutes.

It is an archaeological site where the remains of a medieval city built in the mid-ninth century and abandoned in the modern age were excavated. From the web: According to what is reported in the Liber Pontificalis, the city was founded by Pope Leo IV on August 15 of the year 854 to give a safer seat to the citizens of Centumcellae (Civitavecchia) and its diocese, as the city was hit by the raids of the Saracens on the coast Tyrrhenian. According to his biographer, the pope would have given the new city the name of Lviv, but in all the documents we find, in the first centuries, the name of Centumcellae - civitas or castrum centumcellensis, later changed to Centucelle - Cincelle - Cencelle. The new city was founded on a branch of the Via Aurelia, on an easily defensible hill between the river Mignone and its tributary Melledra, which had also been occupied in ancient times by the Etruscans [2]. At the time of the foundation, the city walls were built, a first church, an episcopal seat, with an adjoining cemetery and wooden houses, subsequently replaced by masonry houses and palaces. The main church dedicated to San Pietro was rebuilt larger between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century. The city was damaged by the earthquake of 1349 and the buildings were subsequently restored. It gradually decayed and at the beginning of the 15th century the lands were "destroyed and uninhabited" according to sources. In the second half of the fifteenth century the town area was used for the exploitation of the alum mines of the Tolfa mountains and in the seventeenth century it was probably the center of a farm. The site has been the subject of excavation campaigns conducted by the chair of medieval archeology of Sapienza - University of Rome by Letizia Pani Ermini since 1994, in collaboration with several other universities and research institutes. The excavation is directed by Francesca Romana Stasolla.

Information taken from the web: Ripa Maiale (313 m a.s.l.) is a volcanic cliff composed of ignimbrite and trachyte, which originated at the end of the Pliocene with the birth of the Tolfa mountains. Topographically this vertical wall is the final term of the Palano maquis. The area is geologically very interesting due to the presence of marine fossils (bivalve molluscs such as pectinidae and oysters) from the Miocene and volcanic breccias containing leucite crystals. The cliff has natural caves and a perennial source of water, elements that favored human settlement from the end of the Middle Palaeolithic.

Village dating back to the 15th - 17th centuries and grown around a water mill in an important area for alum mines. Unfortunately today the village is in a state of almost total abandonment. Near the village the Church of the Immaculate Conception at the Farnesiana of the century. XIX, this too in a state of neglect, unfortunately. In what was the old granary now there is the Tenuta Farnesiana farmhouse