Many volcanoes have been extinct, silent and still for centuries. Many have been asleep for a long time, so none of us remembers that others continue to erupt. These are tragedies for men who, more or less aware, live with them. They are have always been a part of human life.
How often do we ask why people built their houses in such a dangerous place, but how often do we climb to a crater which is threatening to erupt, to observe it close up?
In history, volcanoes have been images of divinities, and places of mystery and magic. The mystery at the heart of the earth that burns beneath us excites both fascination and fear of things that have remained quiet for ages. Then it erupts with fury that sweeps things away or simply destroys. Some times, on the other hand, volcanoes reveal the essence the earth, and give life.
?There exists a volcano south of Rome, or a volcanic complex composed of a superimposition of different craters. For millenia they have constituted the earth's energy in this region that we call the "Colli Albani". Normally we are used to observing these hills from Rome and the vision we have is of a mountainous whole in conical form with the peak of Monte Cavo rising into the sky, to a height of 949 metres above the campagna Romana.
?But the so-called massif of Lazio vulcano is something more complex and extensive than one may think. The beginning of volcanic activity that gave life to the Colli Albani goes back 700,000 years and in different phases formed the double crater that we can still see today, if we look carefully.
If we happen to arrive at Ciampino Airport and look down before landing, we see the great external crater, with a horse shoe shape, of the Lazio volcano. We can pick it out parting from the Via dei Laghi, where Nemi is. From here begins Monte Artemisio, a long fragment of crater, which bounds the Pratoni del Vivaro. This we find inside the crater, while the slope of the mountain that faces Velletri is on the outside. The crater continues with a series of heights, including Monte Fiore and other hills, and further on Rocca Priora, until we come to Monte Tuscolo. From here the "signs" of the crater are lost, due to a series of eruptions taking place in differen epochs, that have fragmented the great crater in the zones extending eastwards from Grottaferrata onwards, across the territories of Marino, Castel Gandolfo, Albano, Ariccia and Genzano.
?During this phase, which according to some experts seems to have been about 37 thousand years ago, Lake Albano and Lake Nemi were formed. These two craters, side by side, are filled with water from the gentle slopes.
?Other eruptions inside the great crater have created a second smaller crater that we can pick out in the zone of Monte Cavo and the Campi d'Annibale in the region of Rocca di Papa.
The great Lazio volcano, now extinct for millenia, is today a vast inhabited area, with many towns on the inside and ouside of the old crater, among thick woods and great green plateaus.
Since ancient times they have been places of life and transit for peoples heading from Rome southwards. Different roads have crossed and still cross this territory. The most important arteries of the ancient epoch, which still exist, towards the south are: the Via Latina, today synonymous with the Via Anagnina which cuts right across the ouside crater rising and descending between vulcanic hills, and the Via Appia which beween "Antica" and "Nuova" crosses different towns of the Colli Albani.
Since ancient times this mountain has had symbolic importance, as its height makes it visible from all parts of the Roman territory and, also from this 'bridge ' area and other surrounding ones.
To the east of Monte Cavo, on the inside of the crater, about five hundred metres lower down, there is the Via Latina. This road was constructed at the end of the IVth century B. C. . Parting from Rome, it crossed the Colli Albani, the Velle del Sacco and del Liri and arrived at Capua, being 129 miles long. In the Middle Ages the name changed to Anagnina as, around the XIIIth century, the route had been used by four popes, among them Boneface VIII, born at Agnani, where he often went to spend his holidays. To the west of Monte Cavo, on the outside of the crater, there is the Via Appia Antica, called the Regina Viarum, constructed in 312 B. C. by the censor Appio Claudio. This follows, in part, the route of the ancient via Albana, of the epoch of Alba Longa; it was the main means of communication of Rome with the south of Italy, Greece and the East.
Today this ancient road is visible for some kilometres, in magnificent landscape. The witnesses of history on either side of it are among the most interesting in our history. Tombs, mausoleums, boundary stones and pines. Then yet more pines, and brambles among the polygonal masses of lava. And the sun at midday, while the songs of birds become notes in the pentagram of Ottorino Respighi. A little before Albano the routes of the Appia Antica and the Appia Nuova join; then they separate and join again for a few metres between Genzano and Velletri.
In some stretches the old volcanic paving stone unexpectedly re-appears. , only to disappear a little further on, among vineyards. Among the indifference of men who work on the land. The via Appia runs through all the towns on the south-west side: Albano, Ariccia, Genzano, and Velletri. Beyond Albano, there is a great viaduct more than three hundred metres long and sixty metres high, which spans the valley of the Parco Chigi and leads us right into the main piazza of Ariccia. When dusk comes, and the sun sinks beyond the sea and colours are lit with the intensity of dying fire, the panorama from the bridge of Ariccia sweeps along the Campagna Romana as far as the sea, and the closing of the day flushes with red Palazzo Chigi and the Chiesa dell' Assunta.
In speaking of the Castelli Romani the union with Rome is inevitable. Historically, these territories are Roman. Alba Longa, the pre-Roman city which, together with the Sabines and the Etruscans, founded the City (Urbe), was almost certainly Castel Gandolfo. The city of Tuscolo with its theatre overlooks the whole area of Rome, and a little below, where today we see theso called Colle delle Ginestre at Grottaferrata, was Cicero's villa. In the Middle ages the first "Castelli", castles of Roman gentlemen, were are built and later the splendid VilleTuscolane. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century the Roman upper middle class also decided to build summer residences here. Some towns, such as Grottaferrata, which sprang up around the Abbazia di S. Nilo, became autonomous comunes and elegant residential areas. As has, in fact, the whole area, hill after hill. The Lazio volcano has now slept for millennia, but the energy of the place is live and felt
in its people and the beauty of nature nourished by many minerals that make up the earth.
The
question is: will the great volcano continue to nourish life and to act as protecting deity for this magnificent countryside, full of nature's splendour and millenia of history?
