The best hidden towns inside a nature park in the province of Roma
The province of Roma keeps a surprising amount of forest, water and rock behind the ring road. Volcanic craters hold lakes with steep wooded rims, the Aniene cuts through limestone above the Simbruini beech woods, and tufa, the soft grey volcanic stone, builds the walls and cellars of most of the older centres. Spring brings wild strawberries and broom on the crater slopes; autumn brings porcini, chestnuts and the smell of wood smoke through streets where the bars still fill at dusk. Eat what the parks produce: lake coregone, roast porchetta, chestnut flour, sheep's cheese from the high pasture, and the white wine grown on volcanic soil south of the city.
Almost everyone who leaves Rome for a day leaves for Tivoli, and the queue at Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana runs from the coach park to the ticket window through most of the warm months. It is a fair choice, since the gardens and the ruined imperial villa are among the best things in Lazio. It also means the same buses, the same restaurants and the same hour on the road, with the countryside beyond treated as scenery to be passed through.
The protected land does not stop where the coaches turn round. The regional parks continue along the crater rims of the Castelli Romani, up the Tiber valley north of the city, around the reed beds of Lago di Bracciano and deep into the Lucretili and Simbruini mountains, and there are towns living inside all of them. Fewer people go. What follows are the smaller ones, each set within a regional nature park, with the walking, the water and the food that comes with it.
Of the 15 communes we have mapped in the province of Roma, 10 qualify as towns inside a nature park: each sits inside a regional nature park. This list is the hidden ones, 6 in all, ordered smallest first. The smallest, Percile, has 219 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The best towns inside a nature park in the province of Roma and The prettiest villages inside a nature park within 90 minutes of Roma.
Percile
Why visit Percile
Percile sits sixty kilometers from Rome, on the border between the Roma and Rieti provinces. The name derives from gens Porcia, a Roman family of the area, and the earliest documented evidence of habitation dates between 314 and 335, in the biography of Pope Sylvester I.
The village occupies the rocky spur itself, walled stone houses and vaulted passages built to the shape of the ground; above it the slopes rise into oak and beech woods that belong to the wider park, climbing toward Monte Pellecchia. The relation between the two levels is the whole of the place: the settlement below, compact and defensible on its spur, and the water held above it in limestone basins fed by underground springs.
What the borgo protected on the ground, the park has protected in the hills. The population today is 219, spread across a comune territory of 24 square kilometers, which makes Percile a small fixed point inside a much larger stretch of protected woodland.
What to see in Percile
- Lagustelli di Percile. The walk up from the village runs through oak forest and ends at clear water held in two limestone basins between 674 and 704 meters, filled by underground springs.
- Centro storico. Medieval stone village on a rocky spur, with vaulted passages, surviving gates and the panorama from the upper terrace.
- Parco Naturale dei Monti Lucretili. Regional park covering oak and beech woods on the karst slopes around the village, with marked trails to the lakes and toward Monte Pellecchia.
How to get to Percile
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Roma is roughly 54 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through October are the best months at 575 meters. The Lucretili woods are green into June and the walks up to the Lagustelli are at their best when the karst basins are full from spring rain. July and August are workable; the village stays cooler than Rome forty kilometers downhill, but the open trails go silent in midday heat.
Nemi
Why visit Nemi
Nemi sits at 521 meters on the rim of a volcanic crater, the smallest of the Castelli Romani and thirty kilometers southeast of Rome. The lake below was the Speculum Dianae, the mirror of Diana, with a sanctuary on its northern shore that covered around 45,000 square meters and drew pilgrims from across Latium.
Emperor Caligula built two ceremonial ships on the lake, ninety meters of timber and bronze that sat on the water until they sank. Mussolini drained part of the lake between 1929 and 1932 to recover them.
They were destroyed by fire in 1944, almost certainly by retreating German troops. The Museo delle Navi Romane, built in 1940 to hold them, now shows scaled reconstructions and salvaged fragments.
Palazzo Ruspoli, a ninth-century castle restored by Valadier, anchors the centro storico. The wild strawberries grown on the inner slopes of the crater are sold from stalls along Via Roma and celebrated each June at the Sagra delle Fragole.
What to see in Nemi
- Palazzo Ruspoli. Ninth-century castle of the Counts of Tuscolo, restored by Valadier, with cylindrical tower and hanging garden over the lake.
- Museo delle Navi Romane. Lakeshore museum built in 1940 for Caligula's two recovered ships, destroyed by fire in 1944, now housing scaled models and fragments.
- Santuario di Diana Nemorense. Remains of the federal sanctuary on the lake's northern shore, once 45,000 square meters of temple, porticoes and theater.
How to get to Nemi
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Roma is roughly 52 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months on the crater rim, when the wild strawberries ripen and the lake holds its color. The Sagra delle Fragole runs the first Sunday of June and draws thousands. July and August push the basin into the low thirties; the centro storico stays cooler at 521 meters than the coast or the city, but weekends fill with day-trippers from Rome.
Trevignano Romano
Why visit Trevignano Romano
Trevignano Romano sits on the northern shore of Lake Bracciano, the volcanic crater lake thirty-five kilometers northwest of Rome. The town climbs from the lakefront to the ruined Rocca Orsini, the medieval fortress that once controlled the northern approach.
The Chiesa dell'Assunta, halfway up the hill, holds a sixteenth-century apse fresco painted by a follower of Raphael. The lake itself is the second largest in Lazio and supplies a portion of Rome's drinking water, which is why motorboats are banned: only sail and electric craft cross the surface.
Three communes share the shore, Bracciano, Anguillara Sabazia, and Trevignano, and Trevignano is the smallest and quietest of the three. The waterfront promenade fills on summer weekends with Romans escaping the city for a swim and grilled coregone, the lake whitefish.
Outside the summer months it returns to the residents.
What to see in Trevignano Romano
- Rocca Orsini. Medieval fortress ruins above the town, built by the Orsini family in the fifteenth century to control the lake's northern approach.
- Chiesa dell'Assunta. Sixteenth-century church on the hillside with an apse fresco of the Assumption painted by a follower of Raphael.
- Lago di Bracciano lakefront. Volcanic crater lake at 164 meters above sea level, swimmable and reserved for sail and electric boats; Rome's secondary water reservoir.
How to get to Trevignano Romano
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Roma is roughly 57 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June brings warm days and a quiet lakefront, the best window for swimming before the Roman weekend crowds arrive. July and August are hot, around thirty degrees, and the waterfront fills from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening; weekdays stay calmer. September and October return the lake to the residents, with water still warm enough for swimming into early October.
Subiaco
Why visit Subiaco
Subiaco sits at 408 meters along the upper Aniene, seventy-three kilometers east of Rome and forty from Tivoli. Nero built a villa here in the first century, damming the river into artificial lakes known as Sublaqueum, below the lake, and the name outlasted the villa and the emperor both.
The town that grew up here reads in layers going up the valley side: the river and the bridge at the bottom, the abbey partway up the hill, the fortress at the summit, and the cliff sanctuary further out along the cliff face that gave the hermit's cave its shelter, each one built at a different remove from the water and from the town center. What holds these layers together is a single life.
A man who came here as a young man to live alone in a cave gave his name to a monastery down the hill, and centuries later that same monastery's press put the first printed book on Italian soil into circulation. The fortress above answers to a different history, the abbots who ruled here as feudal lords, one of whom fathered a child who became one of the most written-about women of her age.
A river valley that supplied an emperor's pleasure lakes became, without much overlap, the ground where monastic life took its early shape.
What to see in Subiaco
- Monastero del Sacro Speco. Built into the cliff face of Monte Taleo, the sanctuary rises in tiers over the cave itself, and the frescoes by Conxolus and the school of Cimabue cover walls that follow the rock rather than a flat plan.
- Abbazia di Santa Scolastica. The only one of Benedict's twelve original monasteries still standing, sixth century in origin; its library holds three hundred manuscripts, including a copy of the Lactantius run off the abbey's own press.
- Rocca Abbaziale (Rocca dei Borgia). Set on the highest ground of the borgo, the fortress was raised by abbot Giovanni V in the twelfth century and later gave Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of the abbot Rodrigo Borgia, a birthplace in 1480.
How to get to Subiaco
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Roma is roughly 70 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through October are the months for Subiaco: the Aniene runs full, the cliff sanctuaries are open from morning, and the pilgrim road south fills with walkers on the Cammino di San Benedetto. July and August are warm in town and cool in the monasteries; the cave at the Sacro Speco holds twelve degrees year-round. November through March is the quiet pilgrim season, mist on the river and few coaches in the lots. Festa Madonna di Pompei Rione Colle falls in August.
Castel Gandolfo
Why visit Castel Gandolfo
The town sits at 426 meters on the rim of the Lake Albano crater, twenty-five kilometers southeast of Rome among the Castelli Romani. It stands on the site of Alba Longa, the city Aeneas's son Ascanius is said to have founded.
The lake below was formed by the fusion of two volcanic craters and reaches 170 meters deep. The Villa Barberini stands adjacent to the palace, acquired by Taddeo Barberini in 1631, its gardens running down toward the water.
Pope Francis kept the palace as a museum after 2016; Leo XIV restored it to residential use in June 2025 and resides in the Villa Barberini next door, while the Borgo Laudato Si', created by Francis in 2023, carries ecological education across 55 hectares of the same estate. A town built on legend, given over for a time to public viewing, and returned to private residence: three uses of the same ground, laid one on top of the other without erasing what came before.
What to see in Castel Gandolfo
- Palazzo Apostolico. The palace Carlo Maderno raised between 1623 and 1626 stood open as a museum from 2016, its rooms given over to display cases and visitors. In June 2025 it returned to residential use, the museum arrangement dismantled to make way for a household again.
- Ville Pontificie e Giardini Barberini. Fifty-five hectares of papal villas and gardens running down to Lake Albano, with the seventeenth-century Villa Barberini at their center.
- Lago Albano. The crater lake sits at 293 meters above sea level and covers five square kilometers, its rim shared between this town and Albano Laziale.
How to get to Castel Gandolfo
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Roma is roughly 35 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the open season for Castel Gandolfo, with the gardens open and the lake at swimming temperature from June. June and September are the calmer months and the historic papal-residence weeks. July and August fill with Roman day-trippers and Vatican tourists; the lake shore is busy.
Castelnuovo di Porto
Why visit Castelnuovo di Porto
Castelnuovo di Porto sits at 250 meters on a tufa spur between the Chiarano and Mola valleys. The first fortification went up before the year 1000 under the senator Alberico, and the medieval village grew around it in concentric loops that still shape the centro storico today.
The Colonna family took the fief in the late Middle Ages and built the fortress that occupies the highest point of the ridge, the keep from which the whole settlement takes its layout, houses and passages stepping down the slope in rings. The town's name preserves its administrative link to the river: this was the Castrum Novum of the bishop of Porto, the old diocesan seat at the Tiber mouth, a naming that ties a tufa hilltop village to an ecclesiastical authority seated on the coast.
The Borghi più belli d'Italia membership covers the centro storico and the fortress together, while Etruscan and Roman archaeology runs through the Veio park that surrounds both. The result is a village whose name records a bishop's jurisdiction, whose form records a medieval defense, and whose surroundings record two much older civilizations, all still legible on the same ridge.
What to see in Castelnuovo di Porto
- Rocca Colonna. Ducal palace inside the keep at the highest point of the ridge, used by Marcantonio Colonna after Lepanto and later by Christina of Sweden passing through to Rome.
- Centro storico. Tufa houses and vaulted passages along the concentric loops, with the surviving village gates still marking the old perimeter.
- Chiesa di Santa Lucia. Parish church inside the walls, with Renaissance frescoes and a baptismal font dating to the period of the fortress above it.
How to get to Castelnuovo di Porto
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Roma is roughly 37 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through October are the strongest months. The Tiber valley is green in spring and the rocca terraces open cleanest at low sun. July and August touch the upper thirties; the centro storico stays cooler than Rome twenty-five kilometers downhill but the Veio park trails go silent in midday heat.
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