The area between the extreme eastern edge of the municipality of Rome (which extends to the foot of Tivoli and includes the medieval village of San Vittorino), Gallicano nel Lazio, Poli and San Gregorio da Sassola is characterized by an impressive quantity of gorges or river gorges, in some ways similar to those between Rome and Viterbo.
As in upper and middle Lazio, in the Tiburtino-Prenestino countryside the rivers and streams often encounter tufaceous soil, which is easily eroded, forming canyons, sometimes very deep, crossed by imposing aqueduct bridges from the Roman era.
Among the many gorges in the area there is one that deserves a particular mention, because it has long stretches that are particularly adventurous and very little explored.
This is the Acqua Rossa gorge, an exceptional gorge that starts from the Ponte Lupo waterfall, a waterfall about 50 meters high, the highest in the province of Rome, and which, between tuff walls that are sometimes very high, descends towards the the immense aqueduct bridge of Ponte Lupo.
About 3-4 km downstream from Ponte Lupo, after the Roman Selciatella bridge and a beautiful, but often dry, waterfall downstream from the bridge, you arrive at the Sorgente dell'Acqua Rossa, a relatively well-known and frequented place, and made easily accessible from a very well marked path.
And up to this point we have talked about the stretch already known to seekers of "secret places". However, the Acqua Rossa gorge hides further surprises and these are found in the stretch between the Acqua Rossa waterfall and the Via Zagarolese.
Last summer, after reading a post by Luigi Plos, the author of a series of hiking guidebooks about "hidden places in reach of Rome" (https://www.luigiplos.it/la-cascata-a-valle-delle-sorgenti-dellacqua-rossa/), who had ventured a few hundred meters further downstream from the relatively known Acqua Rossa fall, I also went to discover that stretch of gorge that was practically unknown (I imagine that Luigi Plos was the only one to go so far downstream) and accessible only by aquatrekking.
So, after having traveled a few hundred meters along the river bed, in a very narrow gorge surrounded by very high and precarious tuff walls, with very protruding sections that threaten to collapse at any moment, I arrived at the splendid waterfall mentioned by Plos, a waterfall that flows into a rather deep pool.
But already looking at the photos in Luigi Plos' article I had understood that there must be more further down the valley.
And I saw this wonder:
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