REQUALIFICATION OF CAFFARELLA PARK

COMENIUS PROJECT: CITIES OF EUROPE, YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
REQUALIFICATION OF CAFFARELLA PARK

Contents
1. Reasons for choosing the Caffarella Park.
2. Nature
3. Geology
4. Flora and Fauna
5. Ancient history
6. Modern history
7. Recent history
8. Our proposals

1. Reasons for choosing the Caffarella Park.
A spot of wild nature just around the corner, a jewel to be preserved and handed down to future generations, an indispensable green space, a place where history and culture come together in a unique way, the best part of the Regional Park of Appia Antica, but also the Park of horrors where a teenager was recently attacked and raped. There are many definitions for the Valley of the Caffarella, but it is the park where many of us played as kids and still go to from time to time. It’s a place of choice for our school that has already been involved in a few educational projects such as The Vegetable Genome Project.
The reasons that led a group of students from secondary school Augusto to deal with this portion of Roman territory are also environmental ones.
1. The Valley of the Caffarella is an area in front of Liceo Augusto, spreading between the IX and X Municipalities of Rome.
2. Here nature and history come together in a unique landscape that goes by the name of Roman countryside so beloved by poets such as Goethe, Byron, Stendhal, Andersen, D'Annunzio, etc..
3. This area has been preserved thanks to the action and effort of citizens who have saved it from decay and speculation, and both Roman and foreign schools have played a prominent role in it.
Today, however, both the interest and the commitment of volunteers is loosing lustre and the Caffarella risks of falling into decay. We can quote quite a few examples of that: the recent collapse of a Roman cistern; the heaps of waste carried by the river Almone streaking large areas of the park; the attempt to privatize some parts; criminal deeds. It is therefore necessary to renew interest and spur commitment to the Valley of the Caffarella because through its preservation the common social conscience may grow in a time in which it seems a bit blurred.
2. Nature
If you look at a map of Rome and its suburbs you can easily see that in the south-east of the city there is a green wedge that juts out from the Alban Hills towards the Aurelian Walls, i.e. up to the historic city center. And This is the Valley of the Caffarella a natural corridor between the city and the countryside that houses a historical and artistic heritage of immense value.
3. Geology
In its 2700 years of history Rome has almost completely lost its geological substratum. In fact, if you dig in the old city, before reaching the original rocks you have to drill a layer of more than 20 meters of "debris", which geologists classify under the term of "carry-overs." The original morphology of the city, carved by the erosive action of the Tiber and its tributaries, has been erased by centuries of repeated construction and collapse. In Caffarella instead the original geological substratum is preserved. The river Almone and its tributaries have carved an alluvial valley the slopes of which show the pyroclastic flows produced by the explosive eruption of the Alban Hills, known to geologists as the' Latium Volcano’. Just as in Rome, the river erosion has not affected some parts of the hills summit, so the hilly areas in the park of Caffarella have been spared from erosion but they are dotted with cavities caused by the collapse of tunnels from which limestone and pozzolana, the rocks of Rome, were extracted for centuries.
Before the construction of aqueducts, the Romans drank the waters of water springs, all of them transformed into holy spots by the pagan religion. In Caffarella there are numerous springs of mineral waters, slightly sparkling due to the presence of carbon dioxide: this is the true water of Rome. Most of the water coming out of our taps arrives from an area near Rieti more than 90 km from Rome. Unfortunately these water springs are polluted by fecal bacteria from the river Almone which pollute the layer where mineral waters come out of.
4. Flora and Fauna
The fauna and flora are of course related to the different ecosystems of Caffarella, and to the geomorphology of the site. The river Almone and its tributaries form wetlands that allow the growth of hydric vegetation (consisting of willows, poplars, reeds, horsetails, etc.). The valley also offers shelter to amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders, etc. ), reptiles (snakes, white lead, Cervone, lizards, lizards, etc.) and waterfowl (herons, mallards, moorhens, coots, etc.).If you go near the pond, where a cabin allows bird watching without disturbing the birds, you can get an idea of the great wealth of flora and fauna in this wetlands. But the north-facing slope of the valley also offers an amazingly preserved grove of oaks (Quercus daleschiamps) typical of a hilly landscape (over 500 meters). On top of the slopes circle birds of prey such as kestrels, buzzards and, at dusk, owls and barn owls hunt for small mammals (rats, mice, voles).
Carnivorous mammals have an ideal environment for their reproduction in this spot: foxes, weasels and martens move swiftly in the area, disturbed only by the smell of dogs walking in the park, marking with their urine small areas which should be fully protected.
High school Augustus has recently carried out an educational project in the park called the Vegetable Genome Project. It dealt with the conservation of the genetic heritage of a very old oak (Quercus ilex), a descendant of the one the Romans considered sacred according to legend. In fact in this site there was an oak forest that, as the myth goes, was sacred to the Nymph Egeria (the one who gave the laws of Rome to the King Numa Pompilius). Alinari ‘s photo confirm that even in the late 19th and early 20th century this oak forest was intact, but in 1944 the Germans cut the wood to make way for an anti-aircraft battery, and only a very old helm remained. In 2007-2008 when school pupils in class 1E and 1B decided to start a project, the tree had an estimated age of about 350-400 years: a very old living being whose memory had to be preserved. So it was. Acorns of the tree were harvested, planted and, after sprouting, they were kept at home for 3 years and then replanted near the Sacred Grove, just a few weeks before the old tree died. In this way a heritage directly descending from the Roman sacred woods was preserved, which otherwise would be lost forever. On the website of Liceo Augusto you can still watch the video of this project.
The Caffarella Valley is also a piece of Roman countryside, where farming, with small plots of land and an educational garden, is not only practiced but is one of the activities allowed by The Operation Plan devised by local authorities for the area. Here sheep farming is also practiced and cheese is made from the raw milk of three sheep flocks still grazing in the Caffarella as in the past millennia.
5. Ancient history
The Valley of Caffarella was well known since ancient times, it was situated between the two very important roads leading to the south of Italy: the Via Latina and the Via Appia Antica. Via Latina was a natural way through the Alban Hills along the valleys of the rivers Sacco-Liri-Garigliano towards Capua, the same track more or less of the modern motorway Rome-Naples. Its name comes from the Latin people whose territory the road crossed. The Appian Way was built by Appius Claudius Blind in 392 BC. It was built the way modern highways are built with large straight lanes and link roads to major local towns (Velletri, Privett, Norma, etc.).Where the track cut absolutely unfavorable ground it took a massive engineering effort, but the Romans could rely on construction materials available on the spot, large slabs of dripping leucitidica from Capo di Bove, and on slave labor. Via Latina and Via Appia Antica joined up in Capua (modern Santa Maria Capua Vetere), which was an important hub in Roman times. The construction of the Appian Way was later continued and reached Brindisi.
The existence these two roads led to the building along their sides of many graves, so that in Caffarella there are wonderful examples of Roman tombs, for instance the one called Annia Regilla (or temple of the god Redicolo), the Columbarium Constantinian and an impressive number of ruins. In fact according to the pagan religion the dead lived in the afterlife only if someone remembered them. Foot travelers (at the time this was the most common way to travel) from Rome to the South, possibly to Brindisi where he could get a boat for Greece or Asia Minor, often got tired and had to stop. The graves had seats were travelers could rest and thank the dead for the hospitality with prayer, so helping to keep their souls alive.
The Valley of the Caffarella was well known to the Romans also for other reasons:
• The god Almone (the river that runs through the valley) was worshiped here since it gave water and droughts at will. Almone Aeneid is remembered as the first local hero who died in the war between the Trojans and the Latins.
• Here we place the cult of Magna Mater whose origin dates back to the Second Punic War, when the Romans terrified of Hannibal’s raids, learned from an oracle that only if they took back the black stone (possibly a meteorite) from Pessinus (Asia Minor ) to the Palatine Hill, they would defeat Hannibal. So they did but the legend says that the ship that brought the black stone back ran aground where the Tiber River joins the Almone and only after a rite of purification it was possible to resume to journey towards the Palatine. Since then, the lustral ceremony was repeated by the Romans every year.
• The Valley of Caffarella was the place where the Romans grew fruits and vegetables. The Romans of course did not have freezers so they had to grow perishable goods near the city. In Caffarella several oligo-mineral water springs as well as the Almone, provided water for irrigation. But when farming became increasingly widespread water was no longer sufficient so the Romans built many tanks, three of which are still well preserved. In the second century. A.D. the valley was given as a dowry from Annia Regilla (from the Regulii family) to her groom Herodes Atticus who built the Pago Triopio which is known as the Egeria’s Nymphaeum.
When the Roman Empire collapsed the city was abandoned and it gradually shrank to encompass the bend in the River Tiber. Also Caffarella was gradually abandoned, the property was incorporated into the Church property and the church of St. Urban was built over the remains of the temple of Ceres and Faustina. After the year 1000 feudalism and the consequent fortification of the Roman countryside made the Caffarella extremely important for military purposes. In fact several towers were built (still visible near Via Valca dell'Almone and incorporated into the Vaccareccia) both to control the area and to allow rapid communication (by means of light signals) between the city and the countryside. At that time it was called the Caffarella Vallis Marmorea because of the great number of ancient marble ruins and collapsed buildings. For this reason it was used as a quarry for building materials.
6. Modern history
We need to skip a few centuries to make things easier and get to the XVI century when the valley was owned by Caffarelli, an ancient Roman family who resided in a large building on the Capitol hill in front of the Theater of Marcellus, the current site of the Town Hall, who gave its name to the valley. Caffarelli recombined the lovely complex of valleys, forests and slopes, rich in historical remains, into a functional farm with a large farmhouse at the very center which already appears in the maps of Eufrosino Volpaia in 1547. The farmhouse included the medieval tower built in the thirteenth and fourteenth century.
In 1675 the Caffarelli sold the farmland to the Pallavicini and these, in turn, in 1816, to the Torlonia. The Torlonia restored ‘La Vaccareccia’ (adding a large stable along one side of the house) and drained the valley for the last time. Many buildings show the Torlonia coat of arms, a crown surmounted by two comets.
Between 800 and 900 the Caffarella was used again as a quarry for building materials (limestone and pozzolana) as is proved by the caves carved out along the sides of the valley. One of the Torlonia daughters married a a Gerini, and then the ownership of Caffarella passed to this family.
7. Recent history
In early 1950s, Caffarella was placed under safeguard in accordance with Law 1497/39 for the protection of natural beauty. A joint committee of technical experts and politicians was then mandated to draw up A Landscape Territorial Plan, a charter that would indicate to municipalities and Superintendent whether and how to build in an area so protected.
It is so obvious for us that an area like this, located between the two most important routes of ancient times, should be protected, that we find it hard to understand what happened 60 years ago: while the commission established in 1955 tried to pursue the objective of safeguarding the area, such was the reaction of the landowners that it was dissolved. On 22 February 1960 a new commission published a Landscape Plan that allowed the construction of 4 million cubic meters along the Ancient Appian Way.
The Landscape Territorial Plan of the Appia Antica is now known as Plan Gerini: the heir to the Torlonia and principal owner of the Caffarella, apparently sponsored a project worthy of a patron, but in fact suitable for speculation. Gerini offered as a gift to the City Council the central belt of Caffarella, asking in return the concession for the construction of houses on the lateral bands.
If carefully read the plan shows that while the City Council would get the dumps, the marshes and reed beds, Gerini could built 1,300,000 cubic meters on the hills of Caffarella, along the Via Appia Antica, Via Appia Pignatelli, the Via Latina.
It was up to the city to decide whether or not to accept the Landscape Plan, sponsored by Gerini, within the city Urban Plan. The fact is that the Urban Plan of 1962 copied almost the entirely the one proposed by Gerini, reserving as a public park only the lands from the fifteenth km of Appia Antica.
Fortunately, the proposal shocked the world of culture, to the point that many intellectuals, including Antonio Cederna, Canotti Bianco, Corrado Alvaro, sent, a popular petition to the then Minister of Public Works James Mancini in which they asked not to approve the Plan as regards the Appia Antica. The Minister Mancini, an old guard socialist from Calabria, welcomed the appeal of the intellectuals, forcing the City Council to transform all this territory into a public park.
The City was forced to adopt "a variation on the Urban plan" upholding the Minister’s decision. Eventually on December 16, 1965 the Plan was also approved by the Minister of Public Works, with 2,500 acres of protected public green area along the Appia Antica.
Meanwhile, a slice of Caffarella was suffocated by concrete: the area between via Centuripe and via Macedonia where there was a wooden church of SS. Name of Mary, a farmhouse called Torretta and the football field Nova Spes. The area was owned by the Congregation of the Attorney General of Mary fathers. In the mid-'60s the congregation undertook the construction of the new church and a large hotel to house the pilgrims for the Jubilee of 1975. However, thanks to the 1965 Urban Plan the whole area had been destined as public park, so both the church and the hotel came to be in conflict with the urban regulations. Later the Marianists got the destination of the church services, on condition of selling the hotel to the city council that made it into a branch of the vocational school Duca D'Aosta.
In 1972 the process of expropriation started: first 75 hectares and in 1977 the bulldozers of the City Council occupied the Caffarella. Gerini sued the City Council to the Regional Administrative Court against the expropriation and lost, but he didn’t stop there. He appealed to the State Council in 1980, which rejected the expropriation of 1972 for lack of a detailed plan to use some areas, and the Caffarella was given back to its former owners.
In 1984 the situation of the Caffarella was as follows: all protection laws and constraints had expired; the land, coming under the provisions of the infamous Plan of 1962, could be built, 200 acres were private again; the City Council had neither the money nor the political will to make a new expropriation; there were also about 200 illegal farmers with gardens fenced up with bed bases, defending them with vicious dogs and three mushroom farms with no legal permit (where sometimes workers died in work accidents) dumped their waste outdoor; the area was covered with debris from the near city. (Those who needed to refurbish their bathroom or kitchen dumped their discarded tiles in Caffarella. Even the Municipality of Rome downloaded here 800 cubic meters of earth removed from the tunnel for the construction of line A, of underground which filled the ditch of via Cessati Spiriti and Largo Tacchi Venturi).
In this very difficult context a group of young people decided that it was necessary to take action and created the Committee for the Park of Caffarella, which later became an NGO and formed another NGO inside the Committee, the cultural association Humus.
We will dwell on these 27 years of social commitment just to point out some important dates:
• 1986: Following the complaint proposed by the Committee and signed by hundreds of citizens, the area under cultivation within wide Tacchi Venturi and the areas of the mushroom farm were expropriated and cleaned up.
• 1988: The Committee delivered more than 8,000 signatures to the Mayor Franco Carraro for the expropriation of the Caffarella and as a result of this, the Law for Rome capital allocated 26 billion lire for its public acquisition.
• 1988: the Regional Law 66 was enacted establishing the Appia Antica Park, which tends to protect the Via Appia Antica through the municipalities of Rome Ciampino and Marino and which included also the protection of Caffarella: But this law was so muddled and contradictory that only a court sentence, following the complaint of the Committee, would allow the appointment of the first president in the person of Antonio Cederna.
• 1996: the plan for the use of Caffarella, which allocated specific functions to every area of the valley and had the value of an Urban Plan, wass approved and signed by the Ministry of Culture and Environment, Region Lazio, City Council, Appia Antica Park Board.
• 1996: 10 billion euro were allocated for assistance, equipment and renovation of the Park within the funds allocated for the Great Jubilee of 2000.
• 1997: beginning of procedures for the acquisition of the first 70 hectares of Caffarella and its environmental remediation and the restoration of monuments with funding from the Jubilee of 2000.
• 2000: inauguration of the acquired and settled part of the park. About half of the 26 billion provided by law for capital Rome are used.
• 2002: The Committee met Mayor Veltroni and told him that there were many billions still available to continue the expropriation of Caffarella;
• 2005: new expropriation of 40 hectares as well as the farmhouses. It is a long procedure however, to get them in possession of the city Council and this must be done within two years from the date of expropriation (March 3, 2005), otherwise the property would return to the original owners. The Committee found out that the Foundation Gerini wanted to build a hotel in Vaccareccia and "privatize" the Caffarella.
• 2007: (Feb. 27) 4 days before the deadline the City Council entered into possession of the expropriated property as a result of the mobilization of citizens.
• 2007: bused upon a project set up by the park board the Region allocated money for the restoration of smaller farmhouses and Roman tanks, as well as funds for the restoration of the house of Vaccareccia.
• 2009: Appia Antica Park Board and the mobilization of citizens were able to block the project, supported by all parties, to move Romulea sports fields and buildings in the area of Caffarella between via Centuripe and via Macedonia.
• 2010: the City frees the smaller farmhouses expropriated from squats (the last of which was freed in January 2011) to allocate them to activities and information as required by the Plan for Use of Caffarella.
It should be stressed that both the NGO Caffarella Park Committee and the NGO Association Humus voluntarily manage the Information center of the Park of Appia Antica in Largo Tacchi Venturi open every weekend all the year round except July and August. From this spot every Sunday completely free guided theme tours can be taken, bicycles can be rented information and material can be obtained. Some measures to improve the access system, benches and picnic tables found in areas facing the town hall of the ninth municipality were made by the volunteering association with the funds raised from citizens free chosen taxation.
8. Our proposals
As we said in the introduction there is a need for a renewed commitment of young people to give new vigour to the work of preservation of the valley because it can be an important source of income for young people. Therefore we propose the following measures which we will actively try to enforce:
1. Getting rid of environmental degradation: although there is some attention from users of the valley it is necessary to start a full periodical cleaning of the areas facing the town hall of the ninth municipality, and to monitor the river Almone abusive adductions. In fact the river, which is the third River of Rome, originates from the Alban Hills, runs through the Roman countryside and rambles along the pyroclastic rocks (limestone and pozzolana Caffarella) carving the valley. Unfortunately, the abusive adductions along its course and the presence of illegal dumps heavily pollute the river: The data show that the river water is heavily polluted both by fecal coliforms and by inorganic elements. The materials from the dumps along the river bed are dragged downstream during the floods and they end up in tons of waste, some of which special, heaped up in Caffarella.
A major environmental restoration measure should totally cover the area off via Bitinia-via Macedonia-via Centuripe overlooking the park where, after the expropriation of 2003 no intervention to restore either the vegetation or the historical and artistic exhibits has been made. We know for certain that the Park board has received funds from the Lazio Region to restore only the entrance to the valley in this part of Caffarella, but this is not enough and it is absolutely essential that this part of the park gets adequate funding for its restoration and enhancement because here there is access to the lake devoted to bird-watching, the so-called temple of God Redicolo and the former mill house.
2. Organising an awareness campaign: We want to organize a campaign to raise the issue of environmental degradation both for the students and the local authorities: the City Council should set aside the right amount of money while the Province Council should establish strict control and carry out an inventory of illegal dumps along the Almone River. The elimination of pollution would also mean solving the problem of contamination of the aquifer thus making the numerous mineral water springs in the valley drinkable again.
3. Improving or setting up lighting: All areas of the valley overlooking the city should be lighted, through photovoltaic, environmentally friendly plants. This would make them safer even at night.
4. Improving safety: The safety of the valley should also be ensured by an increased presence of police forces (police, Carabinieri, Public Safety). The Appia Antica Park Guard are in our opinion clearly insufficient in number (15 people have to control 3000 acres of park!) therefore new staff should be hired.
5. Implementing educational activities: La Caffarella is an open air school and there could be thematic tours for all school levels thanks to activities set up by voluntary association and by the Park Board.
We therefore propose to encourage the following courses:
Primary school:
Educational garden, sounds of nature.
Junior high:
Human activities (agriculture and sheep rearing); history through the monuments and the different environments of Caffarella and the species that live there (the river and springs, and the wetland, the slopes, the hills).
Secondary schools:
Geography: astronomical observation (in the city light pollution, makes the observation difficult), geological stratification of the pyroclastic, river erosion, springs, and the flood plain.
Natural Sciences: study of animals and plants.
History of art and history: a comparison of different historical periods with different construction techniques: the Roman period, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque.
6. Increasing/improving recreational activities: more recreational areas both for adults (picnic tables, barbecue, and cultural activities such as theater that has already been successfully implemented at the former mill house) and for children (playground as the one in Largo Tacchi e Venturi or in the area ofvia Centuripe) should be provided in the park.
7. Using available funds: the money set aside 3 years ago for the restoration of the Roman cisterns and the smaller farmhouses should be spent straight away, as well as the funds for the restoration of the house of Vaccareccia that threatens to collapse.
8. Creating job opportunities: Finally, we believe that the Caffarella can offer great job opportunities for young people:
Farming: the existing law states that this is not a park like the many ones existing in Rome, but a country park, where the historical importance of farming and sheep rearing should be included and supported. Here graze 3 sheep flocks which produce milk and cheese and there is also an educational garden for schools. Caffarella is within the inner city, that is at a zero-mile from local markets. Environmentally sustainable farming and sheep rearing would be an enormous wealth both for the people who work there and for those who would buy the produce of organic farming and sheep rearing.
Hosting: Once restored the Vaccareccia, with its 3000 square meters, can provide income if made into a youth hostel (there are not so many youth hostels in Rome) both in winter (educational trips for school groups), and in summer as a conference center for scholars of art history, archeology and natural sciences (geology, botany, zoology, etc.).
Catering: The Vaccareccia may also house a restaurant with PDO products from Caffarella, a visitor center, a library, conference rooms, etc... so great job opportunities "on the spot" at a time when young people have few opportunities to stay in the place where they grew up and they love.

Bibliography
Humus_onlus Cultural Association and Committee for the Park of Caffarella The cultural heritage of the ninth Municipality of Rome, Fratelli Palombi Editori, Roma, 2010.
Committee for the Park of Caffarella (Eds.), Arches of History, Rome, 1999.
Committee for the Park of Caffarella (Eds.), The Valley of the Caffarella - History narration, Rome, 2002.
Committee for the Park of Caffarella (Eds.), The Valley of the Caffarella – Bits of nature, Rome, 2002.
City of Rome - Department of Agricultural and Environmental Policies - Department of Environment, Appia Antica Park Valley of the Caffarella.
A. Testa, Nineteen cubic meters of earth per hour. Thus disappears Caffarella, in: Paese Sera August 25, 1970.