A bike path named after Pasolini
I’m writing during an important week for the Sentiero Pasolini: the Latium Region has decided to support this beautiful cycle and pedestrian path. The battle, which lasted three years, of volunteers, enthusiasts, lovers of Rome, cycling, and nature has reached a first official goal after many disappointments and indifference.
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian poet, writer, film director, scriptwriter, actor, and playwright. A controversial and multifaceted character, he criticized the bourgeois habits of the nascent consumer society and is one of the most important Italian intellectuals of the 20th century.
A path is a romantic concept, a journey through time, a link between different places, a way of connecting with nature and mankind, a spiritual journey, or a journey of growth in a symbolic sense. But on a practical level, it is, above all, an infrastructure. Those who decided to support it on a political level are well aware of this and have considered it.
In fact, due to unauthorised construction and increasing traffic, there are fewer and fewer public green spaces where we can walk, run, cycle, or reflect in a beautiful open space. However, the hunger for these places is growing, sometimes even unconsciously, and we find ourselves looking for them as an intimate need, more or less confessed. It is certainly the need to regain at least the freedom to choose how to occupy the world, not tomorrow, but here and now.
The Pasolini Trail is special: it links Casal Bernocchi, not far from the motorway junction, to Ostia Antica, the ancient port of the Empire; it is 17 kilometres, almost entirely immersed in the greenery of the Tiber, a river of immense historical, cultural, and natural value. Its strategic importance for cycling and cultural tourism has finally been recognised, as the Sentiero Pasolini (Pasolini Trail) was ranked third out of 1,382 places in Rome by the FAI ( a non-profit organization to protect the Italian cultural and artistic patrimony) this year.
A link to sustainable international tourism
It was November 17, 2018, when I walked the entire Sentiero Pasolini for the first time. I had been involved with a small group of intrepid cyclists and a Russian delegation. The initiative was the work of Sven Otto Scheen, an imposing man with red hair and informal, sporty clothes, like those often worn by suburban Romans.
Yet Sven is anything but a character from the suburbs. He triggered the virtuous process, the collaboration between people, international associations and territories that led to the establishment and recognition of the Sentiero Pasolini (Pasolini Trail). In the Roman world of bike enthusiasts, he accompanied everyone, almost personally, in the discovery of the cycle route and/or path that connects Rome to the sea, often by bike, some on foot or even in procession.
A Swedish national, he deals with tourist cycle routes, and we have been sharing the same companies and colleagues in Rome for more than ten years without ever having met. I knew that he had become a small entrepreneur in the sector; then I saw the birth online of the sharing of his dream: the Pasolini trail.
It was 17 November 2018 when I walked the entire Sentiero Pasolini for the first time. I was part of a small group of intrepid cyclists and a Russian delegation. The initiative was the work of Sven Otto Scheen, an imposing man with red hair and the casual, sporty clothes often worn by suburban Romans.
But Sven is anything but a suburbanite. He was the catalyst of the virtuous process, the collaboration between people, international associations, and territories that led to the creation and recognition of the Sentiero Pasolini (Pasolini Trail). In the Roman world of cycling enthusiasts, he has accompanied everyone, almost personally, in the discovery of the cycle route and/or path that connects Rome to the sea, often by bike, some on foot, or even in procession.
A Swedish national, he works in the field of tourist cycle routes, and we have been sharing the same companies and colleagues in Rome for more than ten years without ever having met. I knew that he had become a small businessman in the sector; then I saw on the Internet the birth of the sharing of his dream: the Pasolini Trail.
Casal Bernocchi: the start of the Pasolini Trail
You can easily reach Casal Bernocchi, the starting point of the Sentiero Pasolini, by taking the Roma-Ostia Lido train. At the moment, due to anti-pandemic measures, you can always take your bike on this line, as it is considered a natural social distancer.
The station plays an undeniable role in determining our zero kilometres. In the eighties, in order to get one, the families who moved into the new houses had to occupy the tracks. But that wasn’t enough. There is a story about the legendary theft of a mammoth’s head to remove the restriction on the area. At that time almost no one owned a car, public transport didn’t even reach these areas, there were no shops selling basic necessities and the school had been converted into a garage.
The history of Casal Bernocchi is the history of the transformation of the Roman countryside. Even in ancient times, there were several settlements along the Tiber, Rome’s main supply route. At the mouth of the river there were also salt pans, which from ancient times were a source of wealth essential for an agro-pastoral society. The Via Ostiense is the Roman consular road that led to Ostia and still does. Today the ancient road is anything but passable on foot or by bicycle, and neither are its asphalted alternatives.
In 2016, it was discovered in these areas a mausoleum with a thermal complex with mosaic floors and even a cemetery with skeletons still joined together.
This is just the latest in a series of archaeological discoveries of international importance that have revealed a genuine rural village in the vicinity of Ostiense. The production facilities, which date back to the 4th century B.C., were perhaps specific to the Tiber navigation services and belonged to a resting station.
Afterwards, the area lost its logistic-military importance and became a place of rustic villas, those manor houses dedicated to agricultural production and otium. The remains of three Roman villas have been found between Casal Bernocchi and Malafede. The discovery of a lead fistula along the Via Ostiense has made it possible to attribute one of these villas to Lucius Fabius Cilone, senator of the Empire, proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis, and friend of the Emperor Septimius Severus.
Casal Bernocchi was officially inaugurated in 1961 as a complex built by INA-CASA, a major player in those years. The apartments were distributed according to a system of rank and became the residence of civil servants, lowlifes, and gangsters.
The quality of the materials and design is better than in the first official Roman villages, thanks in part to funds from the post-war aid program known as the Marshall Plan or ERP, the European Recovery Program. But the concept of a satellite, a center isolated from urban life but also profoundly different from an agricultural village, remains, making the settlement a conglomeration of buildings alienated from their context of origin and construction.
The name was recovered later by tracing the last owner of the land before the building upheaval and a farmhouse: Countess Bernocchi. A recovery of a memory in a romantic-historical sense that represents the km0 of this cycle path: the Sentiero Pasolini.
Centro Giano: first stop on the Pasolini trail 0.2-3.5 km
Cross the street (Via Ostiense) using the pedestrian crosswalk, follow the sidewalk to the right, and at the traffic light, go back to the street, cross the underpass, and immediately turn right onto Sentiero Pasolini, which is narrow here between the underpass and a gate.
We are in Centro Giano, so called because of the legendary existence of a temple dedicated to one of the most ancient gods of the Roman tradition. Janus was the god of beginnings, passages, doors, and mornings, sometimes called creator, sometimes father, two-faced and procreator.
The heart of the area is made up of a farmhouse from the ancient Roman countryside with two buildings used as stables and others for agricultural use. The aim is to preserve them as evidence of the evolution of the Roman countryside and to transform them into a place for social gatherings. The competition, open only to non-profit organizations, did not include the cost of restoration, which all the buildings need, and the winners have all declined the assignment.
We are immediately greeted by the typical vegetation of the area, with a thick and spectacular reed bed, which is thinned by volunteers to keep the path clean and tidy. These grasses are one of the original plant species of Rome, where 45% of the 1,300 plant species are related to the river environment. All this encourages many species of animals to populate the banks of the Tiber.
Although the river in Rome, unlike many European rivers, is full of fish, including roach, eel, carp, and even mullet, it is often mistaken for an open sewer. Various species of birds are attracted by the abundance of fish and wildlife. As you cycle along, you may see herons, mallards, cormorants, little egrets, moorhens, gulls, and, on rare occasions, kingfishers.
On the other side, under the path, you can see some small houses built illegally between the fifties and sixties by some workers, mainly immigrants from the south, looking for work. There are no social facilities, except for a church. This area is, therefore, unattractive to young people and during the week, walking along this part of the Sentiero Pasolini, it is very quiet, with some noise coming from the old craft shops along the embankment.
Dragoncello and Dragona: second stage, Sentiero Pasolini (3.5-10.5 km).
Continuing along the Sentiero Pasolini and then along the embankment, you come to a reinforced concrete structure. It’s an interesting element, large and round, with a strange mechanism. It must be a drainage pump that, instead of working like most of those along the Tiber, pumps water from the ditch to take it to the fields. It dates back to the 1920s, when the whole area, which was then ceded by the noble Altieri family to the Micara and Corsetti families, was reorganised with a complex system of canals, ditches, roads and farmhouses for agriculture and cattle breeding.
We now enter the territory of Dragoncello and continue along the embankment and the Sentiero Pasolini (Pasolini Trail), a problematic stretch. The embankment belongs to the state and for reasons of public safety it should remain accessible, which it is, but the presence of a flock of sheepdogs makes this stretch unsafe, especially for cyclists. Turn left here, past a horse-riding centre and the foot of Monte Cugno.
Experts now agree that the legendary city of Ficana once stood on this hill, where the farmhouse of Dragoncello, owned by the Micara family, is located. It was destroyed by the Romans around the 7th century BC in order to control the Tiber and the salt marshes at its mouth. In fact, excavations have shown continuity with the royal and republican periods. It is therefore probable that the settlement was simply Romanised. It also seems that this settlement was directly connected to Alba Longa and was therefore originally inhabited by the Latin population.
This is the only area with a series of hills overlooking the river; its geomorphological structure determines its strategic role in relation to Rome, the river and the sea. The importance of this position was not lost on Pope Gregory IV in the 9th century, who founded the outpost of Curtis Draconis here. He built the fortified village of Gregoriopoli on the coast, causing the population to abandon the ancient and decadent Roman city of Ostia.
In doing so, he secured Rome and its countryside against the constant attacks of Saracen pirates. The first papal holiday villa was built in the area, inaugurating a tradition that would continue for centuries in the Alban Hills.
There are various theories about the word Draconis, which gave rise to the two modern place names, linking it to the herb Tarragon Dracuncunlus, the diminutive of the Latin word ‘draco’, meaning snake, and even to the fight against paganism. The latter, which may still be present here, was linked to the snake as a symbol of medicine, then defeated by Saint George, the representative of Christianity, and the reptile became a simulacrum of evil.
The whole area where the Sentiero Pasolini enters, that of Dragona, was bought by Antonio Corsetti at the end of the 19th century. One of his two sons, Francesco, subdivided the land, and the district was born. The road from the riding school climbs to take us through these houses and then goes down again. We then enter an old garbage dump, and from there, we return to the top of the hills that characterise this area. They are called the Monti di San Paolo (St. Paul’s Mountains) because of the medieval presence of the monks of San Paolo Fuori Le Mura.
We soon cycle through the beautiful Parco del Drago (kept clean and lively by local volunteers) to the Corsetti farm. As the name and the family crest suggest, this farm was born from the passion of Antonio’s other son, Carlo, and is still in the family today. The Sentiero Pasolini crosses their property, the Dragone estate, so check the opening times.
Ostia Antica: third stage Pasolini Trail 10.5-17.5 km
The Pasolini itinerary continues along the embankment where, after about 200 metres, you can see the Bagnolo pumping stations. These hydraulic works are part of a complex historical system of canals and ditches that help to control the flow of water in the Tiber basin. This particular plant, built in the 1990s, has four machines that pump the water collected in the Canale Nuovo Bagnolo directly into the Tiber. The pumps are controlled by an automatic system and can lift about 10-11 cubic metres per second.
Inside the canal, a section of the ancient Ostiense and four pillars of the aqueduct of the same name, dating back to Trajan’s time, have been found. The area towards the Ostiense seems to have taken on the mysterious name of Bagnoletto, a district that doesn’t exist on paper, but which already looms over the city. The Bagnolo canal is the border of the territory of the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica, whose territory is completely protected.
Walking along the Tiber, ever closer to the sea, we can fully appreciate the nature, the legendary roots of the city of Rome. In fact, Virgil narrates that Aeneas, a refugee from the Trojan War, landed here at the mouth of the Tiber. Here the fertile, and still partly marshy, land smiled upon him, giving his descendants a future and the fame of Roman civilisation. The link between the city of Rome and the salt mines, at the time an immeasurable treasure for an agricultural-pastoral society, was certainly very important. But it wasn’t only the salt mines that determined the importance of this city; rather, its location on the Tiber and the sea made it an indispensable part of the capital, the first city in the world with a million inhabitants. Ostia was the port where goods from all over the empire arrived for the eternal city, the place where they were stored and shipped down the river to the capital at the right time.
The Pasolini Trail often passes through neighbourhoods whose history has been erased. The anonymous streets are home to buildings of dubious quality and value. These are areas where, often decades after amnesties, there is a lack of infrastructure, and they become hotbeds of environmental and human degradation. The Pasolini trail has put the communities of these areas back in touch with each other, it has given them a green and social space, a beautiful path where they can walk, run, and cycle while observing nature. It is giving them back an identity, a history: ours.
This international route is an attraction and a resource for all Romans and internationally, giving pride and dignity to the individuals, communities, associations, and institutions that are committed to its maintenance. The beautiful signs along the way and the FB group dedicated to the Pasolini Trail are proof of this and are available to all.
On the other side of the river is Fiumicino International Airport, a city that takes its name from the artificial canal built by Emperor Trajan. Not far away is the octagonal basin, which over the centuries has replaced Ostia and Claudius as the main port. These places, together with the Isola Sacra, are part of the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica and are, therefore, part of our public heritage.
At this point, the scenery is so beautiful that I often ignore the signs for Via dei Due Rami and Ostia Antica and continue on a single track along the embankment for as long as possible.
The Sentiero Pasolini ends at km 17; it’s impossible to leave the Tiber without taking a few photos. Turning left into via Gherardo, you can easily reach the entrance to the Archaeological Park, which never ceases to amaze us with its vast territory and countless ancient and recent discoveries. Read what to see on a private tour of Ostia Antica.
Parco Pasolini: fourth stage and missing section of the Pasolini Trail
The Pasolini Trail bears an important name. The themes that we have dealt with, crossing these territories, were very dear to this man. Pier Paolo Pasolini defies all stereotypes as a director, writer, and human being. His work is still difficult to watch today, uncompromising in its constant social criticism. He was a modest and generous man, loved and respected by all, and yet he was murdered.
The name of this cycle and footpath carries this message, this criticism, this desire for integration. In reality, it is the ideal final stage: the one that doesn’t yet exist. If it were possible to continue along the Tiber, in four kilometres, the Pasolini path would reach the park dedicated to this man, where his body was found. It is a literary park, another fascinating story of redemption.
The Idroscalo, the rubbish dump where Pierpaolo was killed in 1975, was in a shameful state of disrepair, and in the nineties, there were already plans to build on it. It was Lipu (the Italian Association for the Protection of Birds) that saved this strip of land from economic interests. And it was their volunteers who cleaned up and reclaimed the area, creating the Lipu Oasis Mediterranean Habitat Centre, a true reconstruction of a Mediterranean lagoon like those that characterised the Lazio coast centuries ago.
It is home to ferruginous ducks, mute swans, little grebes, marsh harriers, black-winged stilts and purple herons, among the two hundred species of birds identified. And so, thanks also to the municipality of Rome, a series of bibliographic and literary itineraries linked to Pier Paolo Pasolini have been created. I would like to mention his last poem, Saluto ed Augurio (Greetings and Best Wishes), where he tells us, ‘I want to talk to a fascist, before I, or he, are too far away’, words that are an example of inclusion, of social participation, a worthy ending to a post dedicated to the cycle lane, to the path, to its redemption and to the dream called Sentiero Pasolini.
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