Orienteering in Rome, Italy

On March 9, participated in an orienteering meet in a city park in Rome, Italy. The event happened on a sunny and warm Sunday morning. From where I was staying, I traveled by subway on the Metro B and then took the 310 bus from Bologna metro station. An Ukranian man living in Italy that I met on the bus gave me guidance to which entrance in Villa Ada to go to. At the meet, there were many participants from local schools, as this was a promotional event. And there were many competitors from other clubs. The fastest time was by the athlete Alessio Tenani (MA category) of the Forestale club and by Maria Novella Sbaraglia (WA category) of the Subiaco club.




I was given permission to run the Long course, and given a map but no control card, as I was told I would be participating as "Categoria Fantasma", aka Ghost Category, in which my name and time are not being recorded.

Did the course in 45 minutes, mostly for lost time finding control 4, due to the parallel trails that confused me, and I ended up to the wall on the north.

Interesting thing is that the bridge that was just adjacent to the start point, well, I found out days later on an exploration of the park, it is actually the shelter of a group of three africans that set up a couple of beds and their personal belongings.





Results:






In a subsequent visit with plenty of time to find all the mapped features in the park, found that there were plenty of signs of human habitation in the park. Here they are:

A nice cliff, with a tent and personal belongings of a current inhabitant. It is protected by a perimeter of dead branches thickly placed to not invite intruders, dogs, and dog owners.


The bridge with the africans lodging under it.


The existence of two parallel walls gives opportunity to stealthly pitch a tent or shelter with plastic sheeting. Found one in this spot. Conveniently located near an entrance to the park.


The most amazing shelter was in this spot. Here, it was a permanent structure, with wood beams and clear plastic sheeting. The man living there spoke italian with a roman accent, lives there with three dogs. To the west, the dotted perimeter is a beatiful bamboo grove. Just south of the bamboo grove, along the dirt road, the hollow green small circle denotes a distinct tree. But this is no ordinary tree: it is a Sequoia sempervirens.


On the side of a cliff there was an old abbandoned tent. One cave in a clearing had definite signs of habitations, with a bed and a mirror. Things seemed pretty neatly organized.


This little house on the northern side of the park was inhabited by a group of Romanians, who had beds, a mirror on the wall, and a laundry line. The nearby water fountain (map feature) made it convenient to wash clothes.


This cave had signs of past human habitation, not current. What is remarkable is that this cave is relatively remote, away from trails or park entrances.


At a Special map feature, there was an interesting stone pillar in reference to "Tommasi Francesco Pilota 1942" (trans: a pilot from 1942). Have no idea who this person was.