You don't need to drive to the Alps to watch a forest change colour. In Tuscia, a little over an hour's drive from Rome, above the village of Soriano nel Cimino, stands the ancient beech forest of Monte Cimino: trees more than two centuries old, lava boulders the size of houses and, between October and November, a canopy that turns from green to gold, then to copper. It is the closest autumn foliage to Rome we know, and from the villa it is a half-hour drive through the chestnut woods. For two, it is also the easiest way to begin a romantic weekend near Rome: the woods in the morning, dinner in a hill village in the evening.
A forest on the World Heritage list
On 7 July 2017 UNESCO added the Monte Cimino beech forest to the site "Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe", which brings together the great beech woods of half the continent. In Italy it also includes the Casentino Forests, the Foresta Umbra on the Gargano and the beech woods of the Abruzzo National Park.
Here pure beech covers about 60 hectares, 57.5 of them protected by UNESCO, and climbs all the way to the summit of the Cimini hills, at 1,053 metres. The trees are around 150 years old on average, and some are well over two hundred. Holly, cyclamen and snowdrops grow in the undergrowth; roe deer, pine martens and wildcats live among the trunks.
The mountain is an extinct volcano. The trachyte blocks scattered through the wood are what remains of the eruptions, and they give the place its fairy-tale feel.
When to go: colour comes between October and November
The town of Soriano names October and November as the foliage months. Peak colour usually falls between late October and early November, but there is no fixed date: it depends on the heat, the rain and the first cold nights. Check recent photos before you set off and, if you can, pick a sunny day after a few chilly nights.
Go in the morning. Low light between the trunks is at its most beautiful, and the forest is still quiet. At the top you are at a thousand metres: even when the plain is sunny, bring an extra layer.
The walk: an easy two-kilometre loop
You don't have to be a hiker. From the car park up top, at the edge of the beech forest, the loop "The old-growth beech forest of Monte Cimino" sets off: about 2 km, roughly a hundred metres of climbing, an hour at an easy pace. You walk among the largest beeches, pass the rocking stone and, with a short detour, reach the summit. It suits children who are used to walking on earth and roots; leave the pushchair in the car.
If you want more, waymarked paths lead down towards Soriano and towards Caprarola. Wear shoes with a good grip: in autumn the leaves hide stones and roots, and after rain it gets slippery.
Sasso Menicante, the stone that moves
Just below the summit sits the Sasso Menicante, also called Sasso Naticarello or the Trembling Rock: a trachyte boulder of about 250 tonnes balanced on a surprisingly small point. Local tradition says it rocks if you push it the right way, and links it to a passage by Pliny the Elder about a stone on the Cimino that could be moved. Giving it a shove is a ritual; for children it is the moment they will remember.
