Aurunci Natural Park Information

The Aurunci Mountains Natural Park is right in between Rome and Naples at approximately 80 miles (129 Km) from Rome and 55 miles (88,5 Km) from Naples. The park is easily reached from Rome (north) with the A1 Roma – Napoli. The motorway exit is Cassino and driving towards Formia the first two villages within the Aurunci Park are Esperia and Ausonia; by taking the exit to Pontecorvo the first village is instead Pico. From Naples (south) the motorway (A1) and the exits (Cassino and Pontecorvo) are the same.

From Gaeta the simplest is to take the Appia SS7 from Vindicio (Formia) to Itri which just is few miles out of the park’s boundaries. From Itri, travelers can either choosse one of the many paths leading to the wilderness of the Aurunci Mountains or drive further inland into the park to Campodimele or other villages.

            Click on Photos to see the photografies of the Park

Aurunci Mountains Park Background: The park occupies the territories of southern Lazio from the Tyrrhenian Sea shores close to Gaeta’s Gulf and shared in part between the provinces of Latina and Frosinone. The mountains stretch between the Liri-Garigliano river (which in Roman time was called river ‘Clanis’) plain, the Tyrrhenian sea coastal line and Ausoni Mountains towards north-west.

The karst origin of their mountains’ peaks characterizes the immediate countryside landscape with light-coloured lime stones that often forms large heaps. In reality, the Aurunci and Ausoni Mountains represent and single geographic entity with well defined natural and cultural characteristic in common. Until the 1700s the area including the Lepini, Ausoni and Aurunci were known and defined as one territory under the ancient name on Mounts Volsci.

There are many monumental and archeological sites in the park. Some of them are truly remarkable like the ancient section of the Roman Via Appia, the ancient Appian Way between the town of Fondi and the village of Itri . Travellers will have to climb on the scenic Mt Redentore to admire the little but amazing view from the statue of Christ the Redeemer. Interesting is also Campello’s ancient ruins in the Valley of Campello Vecchio right in the middle of the Aurunci Mountains not far from Itri.

Campello is still studied these days and it is considered a ruin of a small community of the Lombard, the German tribe that invaded the Italian peninsula during the Dark Ages in Latium. These mountains have inhabited for millennia by small, isolated mountain communities, mostly shepherds who left marks of their presence. Particularly fascinating are the ancient shepherds’ routes with the interesting old “snow wells” used up to 50 years ago’ to gather snow for water and to keep food cold during the hot Mediterranean summer. All along the shepherds’ path travelers will find old huts where the shepherds still use to shelter their animals. The routes cross beautiful valleys and mountain plateaus with a large number of natural springs among patches of dense forest.

            Click on Photos to see the photografies of the Park