Particular museums

The museum of Vallepietra was born to tell the story of the village but also to collect the incredible cultural heritage of the votive offerings of all the pilgrims who have gone to the Sanctuary of the Holy trinity or Santissima over the centuries.

The museum is divided into rooms dedicated to particular aspects: the room of sacred furnishings and vestments which tells the story of the local noble families, that of the Confraternities, that of the priests who succeeded one another in Vallepietra and finally that dedicated to the ex voto and the memories of pilgrims.

Next to the museum there is a documentation center which collects images and films documenting the history of the sanctuary of the SS. Trinity of Vallepietra.

A real peculiarity is the part of the museum dedicated to the Weeping of the Spinsters - Pianto delle Zitelle, a laude by Francesco Tozzi which dates back to the 1700s and which is sung by the 'spinsters' every year in a representation that takes place on the morning of the feast of the Holy Trinity.

This evocative representation with the Madonna dressed in black and the spinsters dressed in white traces the last hours of the life of Christ.

Museum of Time

In Saracinesco there is an interesting open air Museum of Time that consists of seven instruments for measuring time, located in various picturesque corners of the countryside.

You can see: an equatorial sundial, a pastoral sundial, a horizontal sundial, a vertical sundial with declining face – resulting in non-symmetrical hour markings, an analemmatic sundial (variable gnomon position and hour markings in an elliptical pattern), a Lambert solar clock (similar to analemmatic but with hour markings in a circular pattern).

The most interesting work is a reproduction of the famous globe of Matelica. This spherical sundial from Roman times, with diameter of about 30 cm, was built in the second century. A.D. by scholars from Greece.

Through a series of concentric incisions you can determine the time and fractions of an hour with a accuracy of only 10 minutes, as well as data on the day, month, season and zodiac sign.

In the plains of Saletti of Ponzano Romano is the mineral spring Acqua Forte, with water particularly rich in iron.

At the beginning of the twentieth century a bottling plant was built that was left abandoned after the interruption in 1922.

The complex has been restored and is now a museum.
 

The Pisoniano Hemp Museum is located in a building along the main street of the town and was born from a collection of two twin brothers, Settimio and Domenico Bernardini.

The brothers who collected ancient tools and tools for processing, hemp artifacts and many precious oral testimonies.

After a highly successful exhibition in 1997, the collection has become a museum by investigating the naturalistic, cultural and anthropological aspects of this plant.

Until a few decades ago, hemp was grown and processed in the Aniene Valley to make fabric, used for sheets, bags, ropes, etc. and the museum was created to preserve, promote and enhance these traditions.

Route of the Museum
In the rooms it is possible to find the whole cultivation and working process: from the preparation of the soil and the sowing (which took place in March in the canapines near the small rivers of the valley) to the summer harvest, first of the female plants and then of those male.

We then move on to processing, spinning, warping and weaving.

The museum, and is spread over three floors dedicated to hemp in nature, the production cycle and the anthropological aspects related to hemp in domestic use and in rural everyday life).

The multiple uses of hemp should be remembered, from its ancient use as a textile fiber to pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and construction use.

A section is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci's machines, with an extraordinary series of reproductions of the inventions of the Italian genius, and shows Leonardo's creations in relation to the use of textile hemp for fabrics and ropes.

The Museum of Roman Ships of Nemi was built to recover ancient Roman ships.

Since the Middle Ages it had been known that at the bottom of the lake were the boats of Caligula that made up the artificial island where the emperor had his festive palace in honour of Diana.

Over 30 years the ships were recovered and are on display in a museum specially built for them.

The museum caught fire during the Second World War and is now rebuilt along with scale models 1: 5 of the Roman ships.

Inside there is also a section dedicated to the findings of the area of Colli Albani.
 

The National Museum of the Roman Area Campaign for the Liberation of Rome is run by the city of Mentana and collects material on the Risorgimento and of Garibaldi.

Inside the museum is a Library on Italian Resurgence and in the garden there is the Altar-Ossuary National Monument for the 300 volunteers who fell in the 1867 campaign in support of Giuseppe Garibaldi.
 

An ancient Palazzo Borghese in Mentana houses the Museum of Theatrical Masks and puppet theatre staged by Giancarlo Santelli.

Giancarlo Santelli is one of the most important artists of the Italian followers of the Italian traditions of building masks for film and theatre.

Santelli was also the promoter of puppet shows realised by himself and staged plays by great classical authors.

The museum contains hundreds of masks made from natural and synthetic materials for the most important promotions of the Greek and Roman theatre and of the Commedia dell'Arte.
 

Gianni Rodari Exhibition and Festival in Manziana is a a permanent exhibition dedicated to this famous author of children's literature.

Gianni Rodari was a writer, educator and journalist, author of numerous short stories for children and teens. He was one of the greatest storytellers and has spent many years of his life in Manziana.

Every year a festival renews the attention and attracts more fans.