Monte Mario - Parco Mellini

Viale del Parco Mellini. (Open Map)
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Description

Walk along the Via Trionfale, near the Church Santa Maria del Rosario (1650) and you find, opposite the church, the entrance to the Viale di Parco Mellini that leads to the top of Monte Mario (139 m), geodesic point of Rome meridian. 

Here was the oratory of the Holy Cross (oratorio di Santa Croce), now destroyed, built in 1350 on the occasion of the Jubilee exactly where pilgrims would see the city. From the belvedere, called “Vialetto degli Innamorati” (Lovers Lane), you can enjoy a great view of the city, appreciated by Wolfgang Goethe. 

The panorama reaches the Colli Albani and offers a view of modern Rome with the Flaminio district and part of the Foro Italico.

To complete your visit in this place, go to the Astronomical Observatory that has its seat in the ancient Villa Mellini, built at the end of the 1940s and since 1935 meant for being the seat of the Observatory and the Astronomical and Copernican Museum.