Guests often ask me for hiking suggestions, so I put this list together for a group of guests who are planning to visit Capena next month. Note that you will need a car to get to the start of the walks. It’s difficult to do a decent off-road walk directly from Capena as most of the surrounding land is privately owned and there are no signed off-road footpaths.
Organisations:
These organisations usually lead walks of various lengths every weekend. They are usually very reasonably priced and led by a qualified hiking guide. You confirm your attendance and then meet up at a designated spot for the walk. This type of walk is a great opportunity to get to know the locals. In inimitable Italian style, they sometimes end with a meal or drink somewhere off the beaten track. Otherwise you take a packed lunch.
- Federtrek (national hiking organisation):
- Sentieri Verdi (organises local walks in Lazio):
- Viaggi in natura e cultura:
- Rome explorers: this meetup site is in English and has a programme of walks and excursions
Walk-planning apps
e.g. Pacer, Wikiloc, Komoot
These show local routes that others have done.
Hiking guides
Local Sant’Oreste-based guide, William Sersanti, leads walks every Sunday. See the Avventure Soratte Facebook page for up-to-date info. You can sign up for WhatsApp updates by sending the your name and surname and the message “OK INIZIATIVE” to +39 339 8800 286 via WhatsApp. Below is a photo of a recent local walk. A small fee is charged.
Hikes
The Parchi Lazio website has some good suggestions for walks (342 in total) – e.g. this one is for walks around Lake Vico, which you could combine with a trip to see Palazzo Farnese.
Lake walks: Lake Vico, Lake Bracciano, Lake Martignano, Lake Bolsena are all nearby
River Tiber walk from near Torrita Tiberina . Navigate to Poggio Mirteto station (stazione Poggio Mirteto) and find the road arrowed on this map. Drive down towards the river and park up in the car park. Then you can walk as far as you want along the River Tiber – it’s the opposite side from the Nazzano nature reserve (see below)
Nazzano nature reserve: there are several walks of various lengths in the nature reserve. It’s about 25 minutes’ drive from Capena. Here’s a map of the walks you can do there. It’s wetland and plenty of birds can be seen from the bird hides dotted along the routes.
Eremo di San Leonardo from Roccantica – here’s a blog I wrote on the walk and about the fascinating village of Roccantica. It’s not that far to the hermitage from Roccantica, but you can continue the walk beyond that point if you like
Via Francigena
The pilgrim route to Rome passes through Viterbo and you could do some sections of this. The official guide is here. The routes between Viterbo and Rome are covered by sections 41 to 45. The maps are here:
This link is to a BBC TV programme in English on the route from Viterbo to Rome.
Below is a dramatic walkers’ statue at Rocca dei Papi (Montefiascone) overlooking Lake Bolsena. Montefiascone is well worth a look. Here’s a blog post I wrote on the town.
The inspiring inscription on the statue reads, “Forget the steps you have taken, remember the marks you have left”.
Eremi di Sant’Oreste
Sant’Oreste is an interesting village a few km from Capena. Just for starters, Mussolini’s wartime bunker is located there! It’s open to visitors most Sundays. Here’s a blog post I wrote about it.
You can walk a loop between hermitages and there are some other walks in the Soratte Nature Reserve in Sant’Oreste. They are described here in Italian . If you head for the Cruscioff Pub Piazza Giosafat Riccioni, you will see signposts for the footpaths.
Hiking websites in English