Description:
#abruzzotrekking1962 #fidenetrekking Monte Pellecchia (1,369.8 m a.s.l.) is the highest peak of the Monti Lucretili, in Lazio, located between the province of Rieti and the province of Rome, included in the territories of the Municipalities of Monteflavio (RM), Scandriglia (RI) and Licenza (RM): according to the cartography of the Lazio Region, the summit is divided between the territories of the three Municipalities. The proposed itinerary allows access to the long ridge of the highest relief of the Monti Lucretili, Monte Pellecchia (1369 m). Located in the central-northern sector of the mountain system, the mountain has an Apennine orientation with gentle morphologies without particular features along the western slope which contrasts substantially with the steep south-eastern slopes. Easy route that allows admiring in its completeness much of the Lazio-Abruzzo Apennine ridge however it is affected by periods of snowfall developing along the highest relief and partly less exposed to the climatic mitigation of Tyrrhenian influences. The starting point of the itinerary can be the center of Monteflavio (756 m) just past the village by car: from both locations the ascent to the Pellecchia ridge begins. This stretch between the village and the start of the mountain trail, although developing on a dirt road, presents considerable historical interest. The entire proposed route is part of the famous 'Strada della Neve', a road that connected these mountain areas with the Via Salaria and thus Rome allowing one of the cornerstone activities of the ancient local economy based on the collection, preservation and trade of snow. Activity known since Roman times, certainly attested in the nearby Villa Adriana in Tivoli, was strongly increased during the 17th and 18th centuries by the papal authorities through actual public tenders for the assignment of trade. Snow was collected and compacted in wells - snow wells - located along the Pellecchia ridge to then be loaded onto carts and transported to Rome. The activity lost value when 19th-century technology allowed ice to be produced in cities. This optional stretch, walkable in about fifty minutes, allows observing an agro-silvo-pastoral landscape set at medium-high altitudes (800-1000 m) in which an economy largely linked to semi-wild horse breeding prevails. Wooden stazzi (animal enclosures), haystacks and cultivated valleys are interspersed with abandoned shrubby pastures with blackthorn, laburnum and bramble and limited areas of coppice with hornbeam, elm and Turkey oak. About two kilometers from the village on the left side of the road rise the remains of the Madonna delle Carbonere church. We are at the base of Monte Mozzone, on the route of the ancient snow road. The remains of the rural church are probably related to the trade of this 'product'. It has been hypothesized that originally the structure could be a small shrine dedicated to the Madonna della Neve to which magical-religious functions and protection of the economic activity of marketing an 'ephemeral' product linked to weather events were attributed, on which a significant part of the local economy depended. Once the snow market was gone, the cult was refunctionalized for the protection of charcoal activity, from which the local toponym Madonna delle Carbonere. The itinerary continues following a constant gentle ascent that allows reaching about 1000 m altitude and crossing Colle della Caparnassa, the start of the route to the mountain ridge. The location is in the southern part of the Serre dei Ricci ridge, an area destined for reforestation with allochthonous species covering about 60 hectares. Conifers dominate such as black pine, cypress and Arizona cypress; the reforestation fairly well developed in the north-western portion is however strongly compromised in the summit area by excessive grazing and exposure to adverse weather agents. The dubious choice to plant non-native tree species is partly mitigated by the fact that the artificial forest represents a good 'catalyst' for the squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris meridionalis) easily observable here thanks to the conifers providing nourishment.
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Video length: 18:36