From Tolfa Mountains to the sea

This itinerary leads to the sea which, when the weather is good, can be seen on the horizon.
From Tolfa we head to Allumiere which was, in the past, an important mining site for alum, although this activity has long since ceased.

The route takes to the old station of Allumiere, in Farnesina, thus called because in the 16th century lay priests – the “farnesiani chaplains” – arrived from Rome. Their name comes from the powerful Farnese Roman family. This community built a small church (chiesetta), which over the centuries was replaced by the imposing building whose ruins can be admired to this day
Not far away is the town where the farm labourers stayed during harvest. Today this doesn’t occur anymore but still, in some periods of the year, old houses give hospitality to families of coalmen.
Coalmen, poor figures who today are anachronistic, for a long time characterised these territories, drawing a meagre living from the land. As the itinerary heads down towards the sea it follows, for a part of the way, the picturesque dead Orte-Capranica-Civitavecchia railway line. This was built in the 1920s, and was used to carry cattle and alum, but hasn’t been used since the beginning of the 1960s because of a landslide. The wild nature of the setting, which has been used as a backdrop for many western films, obliges visitors to slow down and enables them to look around: on one side stretch the Tolfa Mountains, covered by a thick shrub, and on the other the land slopes and descends rapidly to the sea
The territory changes and with it the flora which becomes more gentle, passing from a twining of durmasts, beeches and undergrowth to a more sparse vegetation, where brush and cultivated land make their appearance. Civitavecchia can be seen in the distance, as it merges with the backdrop of the sea. Before reaching it, however, a detour can be made towards the Terme Taurine (baths), an old thermal centre from Roman times.

Information
Circolo Ippico il Paddock
Via del Marano/Vicinale snc – 00059 Tolfa

This horse-riding centre is affiliated to FITETREC-ANTE, the Federation of Equine Tourism.
This sports club which has a working area, an area for training horses, boxes, stalls and paddocks, is in the middle of the Tolfa Mountains, not very far from their namesake town. This is worth a visit in itself for its old medieval centre, built in stone, and the remains of great Rocca dei Frangipane (fortress).