The wild Gorges

Here the white willow, the river tree, grows so dense that it forms a shady open-air gallery. Big lizards slither through the shrubs making themselves heard and sometimes even seen. White pebble beaches where you can relax and listen only to the roar of the water and the rustle of the leaves moved by the wind. Trees covered with luxuriant moss that smell of humidity.

An ancient Roman bridge of the sixth century, with a single vault, made of stones and bricks and today dressed in shrubs, without side protections, which overlooks the river connecting the two banks and the two villages from which it is possible to reach this piece of hidden and wild world: Mompeo and Castelnuovo di Farfa.

The natural monument of the Farfa Gorges, in the Nazzano-Tevere-Farfa Regional Nature Reserve, established in 1979, is only fifty kilometers from Rome, a hour drive, yet you feel like being in another world, where you can only meet yourself and see amazing nature. You can rarely meet a pair of walkers with GPS, with wonder in their eyes.

Beyond the Roman bridge, walking on the right, you reach the remains of the ancient Naro Patrizi water mill, which together with other structures in the area allowed the processing of wheat, grapes and olives, according to a modern criterion of seasonality. Today in the shade of the willows you can see the structure that contained the mill and the wheels used for milling. In this tract the landscape is gentle and relaxing, an invitation to lie down on the white pebble beaches and to let yourself become lazy.

Walking along the river to the left of the bridge, however, you can take the path that reaches the Gorges: a difficult place if you are not very experienced, but where you can admire the games that the Farfa river plays with the rock walls.