Nerola
Among the things to see in Rome we must mention Nerola. It’s a small medieval village located in a picturesque place on a high mountain between Rome and Rieti along Salaria highway. The village surrounded its ancient and imposing castle that from the highest point of the hill dominates one of the pass through which the ancients Sabini reached and settled in the flourishing plain of the river Tevere and founded towns including Cures, the ancient capital.
Nerola is placed in the North of Rome, between the river Tevere, the Sabini mountains, the Lucretili mountains, the valley of Rieti and the Umbria region. According to an ancient tradition the name “Nerola” derives from a famous Roman Emperor Nero, whose effigy has been taken as emblem by the municipality.
During the past Nerola was considered a strategic point because it was at 450 meters of altitude. That is the reason why during the Longobard and Saracen invasions it was chosen as means of defence by the Church. Precisely because of these invasions Benedetto Crescenzi, the Lord of Nerola, built in the year 1000 the beautiful castle that dominates the country to this day. The castle had changed owner many times, but in the 15th century became a property of the Orsini family. It was the wife of Prince Flavio Orsini, Anne Marie Tremille, who around 1680 brought in France the “water of Nerola” or “Nerolì”, an oil extracted from wild orange flowers that is used nowadays in pharmacology and in cosmetics.
The olive trees cultivation characterizes the Sabina region. The ancient inhabitants of Sabina had begun to cultivate olive trees long time before the founding of Rome.
Horace, Virgil and Terentius Varro had already spoken about olives and olive oil of Sabina.
Today the oil of Sabina has obtained the recognition of the Protected Designation of Origin (DOP Sabina).
