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Michele Angileri

Fosso Santo Chirico

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The steep eastern side of Monti Lucretili is covered of lush woods and spots of rock walls where eagles (the few survived in this part of Italy) make their nests. Medieval villages, silent and clean, look like white islands in a sea of green. Farmgrounds are down, aside the streams rich in water coming from karst springs. A little above the olive groves go up on hillsides, to stop where forest begins.

In this typical landscape of Sabina we find the steep canyon of Fosso Santo Chirico.

Name	Fosso Santo Chirico
Area	Lazio, Monti Lucretili
Nearest village	Civitella di Licenza
Elevation loss	140 m
Length	300 m
Highest cascade	30 m
Rock	Limestone
Rating	3
Shuttle	Possible, not indispensable
Explored by	Michele Angileri, Andrea Pucci; june 7th 2009 Canyon was formerly descended by climbers from Tivoli, while repairing the pipeline that goes through first 2 cascades

I remember ...

In 2009 I was pleasantly surprised by Fosso Santo Chirico, especially because I had thought that there was no more significant canyons to be explored near Rome. So I concluded the page about Fosso Santo Chirico with these words:

No big canyons, no long and tight narrows are still hiding in the vicinity of Roma: that's what the sweet rounded shapes of the hills covered by dense woods seem to say. However there are valleys I had never seen: forgotten valleys becoming wilder since they were abandoned by farmers, shepherds, loggers, hunters, ...
The paradox: despite population growth, while countryside is being covered with concrete, wild nature is rising again a few kilometers away from Roma ...

I don't think there are big things hiding in these wild mild valleys. I am looking for a wild candy, mossy cascades and/or green pools surrounded by lush woods.
Something like Fosso Santo Chirico.

There's still something to find for me in the vicinity of Roma, near home.

But in the following 15 years I looked at the areas near Rome with a more careful eye, and other surprises came, one after another. Gorges of all kinds, long, short, easy, difficult, narrow, wide, with or without water, ...
And 15 years after the exploration of the Fosso Santo Chirico I can conclude this page with the same sentence, still relevant: there's still something to find for me in the vicinity of Roma, near home.