The best traffic-free bike rides around Macchia di Gattaceca e Macchia del Barco

Slightly hidden and covered by bush but still interesting to observe along the way

Mentana, 20 km from Rome, is a village in the Roman Sabina area known for its Sabina DOP extra virgin olive oil and the Macchia di Gattaceca Nature Reserve. The meeting between Charlemagne and Pope Leo III and the Battle of Mentana in 1867, led by Garibaldi, took place here. The village preserves historical monuments such as the Baronial Palace and the Capuchin Convent. The MuGa – Garibaldino Museum commemorates the heroes of the Risorgimento. Mentana is also famous for festivals dedicated to culinary specialties such as ciammella a cancellu and maccheroni a centonara, and for traditional celebrations such as that of Sant'Antonio Abate.

The nature reserve extends over about a thousand hectares between the Tiber Valley and the Cornicolani Mountains, in the Roman Sabina. The landscape is hilly, with pasture areas, crops and fragments of woods, remnants of the original forests. The area is known for its botanical value and for karst phenomena such as caves and sinkholes, including the Pozzo del Merro, one of the deepest in the world. The reserve also preserves historical evidence, from prehistory to the Middle Ages.

Gattaceca offers many trails to explore.

The Gattaceca scrub is always a spectacle of colours.

One of the several singletracks inside the Reserve, you enter from the side of the motorway facing Mezzaluna to exit on the provincial road that connects Monterotondo with Castelchiodato. It does not require particular technical skills, the only precaution in autumn and winter is that the bottom can be slippery due to mud and fallen leaves

Great for mtb stops or for barbecues

The town of Mentana developed starting from the 8th century following the abandonment of the ancient Nomentum, which had had a fair expansion as a wine production center and due to the presence of a spa (Aquae Labanae, in present-day locality of Grotta Marozza). Remembered in 408 as an episcopal seat, to which the diocese of Cures (near Fara in Sabina) was added in 593, in 741 it underwent a brief occupation by the Longobards and the town moved to a greater distance from the Via Nomentana, in a better position defensible. On November 23 of the year 800 it was the site of the meeting between Charlemagne and Pope Leo III. The castle of Nomentum was a possession of the important Roman family of the Crescenzi between the 10th and 11th centuries. In 1058 the city was destroyed by the Normans (Kingdom of Sicily) and the town shrank drastically, while the castle passed to the Capocci family; it was later included among the papal possessions and was entrusted to the Benedictine monks of San Paolo Outside the Walls. In the second half of the fourteenth century it was owned by the Orsini family and in 1484 it suffered serious damage from an earthquake. It then passed in 1594 to the prince of Venafro, Michele Peretti, and in 1655 it was handed over to prince Marcantonio Borghese who became marquis. The "windy 18th" of 1798[5] Mentana is admitted into the Napoleonic Roman Republic. On 3 November 1867 it was the scene of the Battle of Mentana, at the conclusion of the Risorgimento Campaign of the Agro Romano for the liberation of Rome desired by Giuseppe Garibaldi with the cry of "Rome or Death!" and began in September in the Viterbo area. Garibaldi's volunteers from 216 Italian municipalities and from nations such as Hungary and Russia were defeated by the Pontificals and the French who rushed to the defense of Pius IX while they were moving from Monterotondo to Tivoli on 3 November 1867. source :https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentana