Excavations carried out in the Cartoni estate, close to Monte Mario, have found a flint tool, some splinters of the same material and animal teeth. The remains date back to about 65,000 years ago and are the oldest finds in the area of Rome. In the Middle Ages Monte Mario was located on the Via Francigena; pilgrims referred to it as Mons Gaudii. The Via Francigena came from the Leonine City and continued towards La Giustiniana and then La Storta; then, having passed Isola Farnese, it continued north.
Origin of the name
The hill was known as Mons Vaticanus or Clivus Cinnae during the ancient Roman period. The current name, according to some theories, comes from Mario Mellini, a cardinal who owned a villa and several hamlets around the hill in the 15th Century. A second hypothesis derives the name from the word mare, referring to the fossil shells found there or to the fact that from some heights is it possible to see the sea. Finally, a third hypothesis is related to the medieval name of the hill, Monte Malo, due to the murder of the patrician Giovanni Crescenzio that took place there in 998.
Description
The eastern part of the hill is a nature reserve and on the west side lies the now upmarket district of the same name. Atop one hill is the church and convent of the Madonna del Rosario. On the hilltop, in the site of the 15th-Century Villa Mellini, rises the Monte Mario Observatory, part of the Rome Observatory, and the Museo Astronomico Copernicano. This location was used as the prime meridian for the maps of Italy until the 1960s. The side of the hill was the former site of the Villa del Pigneto, built by Pietro da Cortona. The ruins of the structure were razed in the 19th Century. The John Felice Rome Center, one of the four campuses of Loyola University Chicago, is located on the hill in Via Massimi. The other settlements on the hill include:
The built-up area of the hill include middle and high-bourgeois residential districts, such as Balduina, Trionfale, Belsito and Della Vittoria, as well as a more popular area, corresponding to the northernmost part of Primavalle. The part of Della Vittoria Suburb overlooking Piazza Nostra Signora di Guadalupe is called Monte Mario Alto and develops close to Colle Sant'Agata, where, in the 1920s, a cooperative of post and telegraph workers built the first settlement. Other popular housing units were added in the 1930s, while the full edification was completed between the 1960s and the 1980s. Monte Mario is also historically linked to the complex of the former Manicomio Santa Maria della Pietà, one of the largest and oldest mental health hospital in Europe.
Parks and green areas
Riserva naturale di Monte Mario: a nature reserve with an area of 204 hectares.
Riserva naturale dell'Insugherata: a nature reserve that hosts most of the herbs surveyed in Rome, whose name derives from the abundant presence of cork oaks. Its accesses are in the workshops of the Ospedale San Filippo Neri, in Via Andrea Angiulli and in Via Augusto Conti. It is an important biologic corridor between the urbanized area north of Rome and the Veii Regional Park, north-west of the Capital. The new delimitation of the Grande Raccordo Anulare has considerably reduced the protected area on the north side.
Parco regionale urbano del Pineto: it is a nature reserve, established in 1987 by the municipality of Rome, which covers about 240 hectares and provides an integral reserve area of 26 hectares. It can be accessed from Via della Pineta Sacchetti and Via Proba Petronia.
Linear Park: it occupies the route of the former Rome-Viterbo railway line and was inaugurated on June 14, 2014. It is the larges linear park of Rome and includes a pedestrian and cycle track linking the area of Monte Mario Railway Station, from the complex of Santa Maria della Pietà, to the Park of Monte Ciocci. The path, five kilometers long, has ten entrances integrated with the traditional mobility roads, intersections with four stations of FR3 railway line, three play areas for children and a skating rink, turnstiles between one road and another, to prevent entry to cars and mopeds; moreover, ten standpipes and more one hundred benches. The route has an average gradient of 1%.
