Marino (Latin: Marinum or Castrimoenium, Marino dialect: Marini) is an Italian comune with 46,676 inhabitants located in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in Lazio.
Situated south of the capital, on the Alban Hills in the area of the Roman Castles, nestled between Rocca di Papa, Castel Gandolfo, and Grottaferrata, the town was a significant military outpost on the Ager Romanus throughout the Middle Ages, a popular vacation destination,Touring Club Italiano, Red Guides - Lazio (2005 edition), p. 788. and an important commercial hub due to its strategic position on the highway between Rome and Naples, which was frequented until the reopening of the faster Via Appia Nuova around 1780..
Primarily associated with viticulture, Marino is the birthplace of the eponymous white wine with Denominazione di Origine Controllata status, and its name is tied to the renowned Wine Festival, the oldest event of its kind in Italy.Onorati, 2004, p. 1. It has a distinctive dialect, different from that of the Roman Castles, the Marino dialect.
Geography Territory
The municipal territory of Marino, spanning , is the sixth largest among the municipalities of the Roman Castles, following Velletri (113.21 km2), Lanuvio (43.91 km2), Rocca di Papa (40.18 km2), Rocca Priora (28.07 km2), and Lariano (27 km2).
Some modifications to Marino's territory were made under the rule of the Colonna family: in 1453, a dispute arose over boundaries with the territories of the Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata,. which was definitively resolved only in the 17th century with Marino relinquishing all claims to the locality of Castel de' Paolis, which had belonged to the abbey since the 11th century despite being located within Marino's territory.. In 1399, during a brief period of direct ecclesiastical rule over Marino under the pontificate of Pope Boniface IX, the castellany of Marino was combined with that of Genzano di Roma, which at the time included the deserted territory of Ariccia.. Another short-lived territorial expansion occurred during the Napoleonic occupation (1807–1814), when Grottaferrata was incorporated into the canton of Marino..
In 1833, Marino's territory measured 1932 rubbia,. equivalent to (calculated as 1.848438 hectares per rubbio), which included the current territory of Ciampino, which became independent in 1974. A further reduction in municipal territory occurred between 1993 and 1994 during the brief existence of the autonomous municipality of Boville. The reintegration of this municipality, comprising the frazioni of Castelluccia, Cava dei Selci, Due Santi, Fontana Sala, Frattocchie, and Santa Maria delle Mole, was mandated by the Constitutional Court with ruling no. 433 of 6 September 1995, because:
The territory of Marino, like that of the entire Alban Hills area, was subject to the activity of the Latium Volcano between approximately 600,000 and 20,000 years ago.Regional Park of the Roman Castles, The Natural Environment of the Regional Park of the Roman Castles, pp. 3-8. The soil is predominantly composed of volcanic material, with abundant characteristic minerals such as peperino, whose extraction was a hallmark of Marino until the 1960s.Paolo Marazzi, Albana Stone, in . To a lesser extent, sperone stone and tuff are found, more frequently in the Tusculan-Artemisian area.
According to the Geological Map of Italy compiled by the Italian Geological Service, most of Marino's territory is geologically composed of "pyroclastic explosion breccias, with lapilli, leucocratic and ultramafic projectiles, biotitic pyroxenites, xenoliths of leucitic lava and substrate (Middle Pleistocene clays, marls, and Paleogene sandstones, Mesozoic limestones transformed into marble by metamorphism), facies with cineritic upper layers, in stratified layers and more or less consolidated banks, rapidly thinning away from emission centers," in other words, peperino formed from consolidated lava emitted by the volcanic crater of Lake Albano.
Santa Maria delle Mole, Fontana Sala, and the locality of Tor Messer Paoli are situated on banks of lava flows, in this case overlying leucitic-tephritic and nephelinic lava. The Coste district in the center of Marino and the locality of Santa Fumia, located at the southern borders of the municipality with Castel Gandolfo and Rome, are on soil composed of lava masses. Monte Crescenzo, finally, is characteristically composed of "welded lava, scoria, agglomerates, and stratified lapilli," typical of an eccentric eruptive vent. The Pantanelle locality, at the northern borders with Grottaferrata and Ciampino, is composed of alluvial material, likely transported by the Patatona ditch.
Seismic classification: Zone 3 (low seismicity).
Hydrography Although the municipality of Marino is not traversed by significant watercourses, numerous small torrential streams, known as "marane" or "ditches," flow within its borders. The most historically significant is the Patatona ditch, also called "Pietrare ditch" or "San Bonaventura." This watercourse originates in the territory of Rocca di Papa, enters Marino's territory through the Barco Colonna, skirts the Peperino Quarries district, and continues toward Ciampino, where it meets the Acqua Marciana ditch from Grottaferrata,Italian Geographical Institute, Map of Italy, Sheet 150 (Velletri II SW), survey 1873 (3rd edition). together continuing through the urban area of Morena, originally to reach the Tiber via the Cloaca Maxima, but since the post-war period, it has been diverted further south near Magliana.. Its waters were supposedly fed by the legendary Caput Aquae Ferentinum,. a sacred spring dedicated to the dea indiges Ferentina, near which the Locus Ferentinum was located, and where Tarquinius Superbus had the Ariccian delegate Turnus Herdonius drowned during a dramatic meeting of the Latin League in 651 BC.
Other watercourses, relevant for understanding the hydrogeology of a territory undergoing dense urban development, include the Fiorano ditch, originating in the hamlet of Cava dei Selci and flowing northwest; the Scopette ditch, starting in the Boscare locality near the hamlet of Santa Maria delle Mole and continuing east as the Fioranello ditch; the Giostra ditch, flowing east from Colle Granato near the hamlet of Frattocchie; and the Montelungo ditch, flowing east from Mezzamagna near the hamlet of Castelluccia to join the Torre ditch or "Priests’ ditch" from the hamlet of Pavona in the municipality of Castel Gandolfo.
Orography
There are no true mountain peaks in Marino's territory, as the maximum elevation never reaches 600 metres above sea level. The highest elevations are recorded in the eastern part of the municipality, near the borders with Rocca di Papa at the slopes of Monte Cavo (949 m above sea level), an ancient volcanic crater active during the "second phase" of the Latium Volcano, approximately between 270,000 and 100,000 years ago.Regional Park of the Roman Castles, The Natural Environment of the Regional Park of the Roman Castles, p. 7. The localities of Costa Caselle and Prato della Corte reach and above sea level, respectively.
The center of Marino, situated "on a small peperino hill" vaguely shaped like an "L," reaches its highest elevation in the San Rocco locality at above sea level, gradually descending to above sea level in the Villa Desideri district, above sea level in Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, above sea level at Palazzo Colonna, and finally above sea level in the Paolina locality.
Other notable elevations are found in the southern part of the municipality, near the borders with Castel Gandolfo, along the edge of the flooded volcanic crater represented by Lake Albano (also active during the "second phase" of the Latium Volcano): the Villini locality is at above sea level, while the nearby Monte Crescenzo, likely a secondary volcanic vent, stands at above sea level.
The rest of the territory is shaped by the gentle slope of the volcanic terrains of the Alban Hills toward the vast plain of the Ager Romanus. Regarding the elevation of the municipal hamlets, Santa Maria delle Mole is at 147 metres above sea level, Cava dei Selci at above sea level, Frattocchie at above sea level, Fontana Sala at above sea level, Due Santi at above sea level, and Castelluccia at above sea level.
Climate The climate of the Roman Castles has been considered healthy since antiquity, due to their hilly position at generally moderate elevations. The temperature range between the center of Marino and, for example, Rome Urbe, is virtually negligible, although Marino experiences slightly less humidity.
In the Castles area, minimum temperatures range between 9 °C and 12 °C, while maximum temperatures are between 15 °C and 22 °C. The most significant temperature variations occur in autumn and spring, while regarding precipitation, the Roman Castles fall within the mesomediterranean zone, with a peak in November and a marked decrease between July and August, totaling an average of 942 millimeters. However, the highest precipitation is recorded in the area near the Lazio coast in a south-southwest direction, gradually decreasing inland due to the barrier posed by the Alban Hills, a phenomenon known as orographic lift.
The Castles are typically affected by sirocco and libeccio winds, coming from the Tyrrhenian Sea from the south and southwest, respectively, but occasionally the "ponentino," a westerly wind characteristic of Rome and the coastal areas of Central Italy, also appears. In winter, tramontane and gregale winds blow from the north and northeast across the vast plain of the Ager Romanus. During this period, occasional snowfalls may occur, though they are generally brief and without significant accumulation.
Climate classification: Zone D, 1966 HDD (12 hours of heating daily from 1 November to 15 April).
Etymology The origin of the toponym "Marino" is unclear. In the 15th and 16th centuries, scholars commonly believed it was linked to a hypothetical Roman villa belonging to Gaius Marius, supposedly located at the site of the current historic center (indeed, archaeological finds compatible with a Roman-era villa were discovered in the 19th century in the Borgo Garibaldi district).. Among others, Pope Pius II, in a passage of his "Commentarii" regarding his trip to the Alban Hills in 1462, supported this theory. Other hypotheses include a derivation from "Marianum" in the sense of a place dedicated to the Virgin Mary (the Sanctuary of Santa Maria dell'Acquasanta has rather ancient origins, dating back to around the 6th century),. or from "Maranum", related to the "marana" or Patatona ditch, or even to the name of an ancient feudal lord, Marino or Marina, whose memory has been lost.
It is also unclear when this name first appeared in history, as suspected interpolations. in the "Liber Pontificalis", dated to the time of the empire of Constantine I (306–337) during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I (314–335), and in the "Chronicon Sublacense", dated to 1090,Giuseppe Ciaffei, Historical Profile of Monte Compatri, p. 31. are generally discounted. The first certain document mentioning Marino is thus a notarial act from 1114, drawn up by a certain "Tedemarius abitatoris in castri qui vocatur Mareni" ("Tedemarius, resident in the castle called Marino").
History
Ancient Era (900 BC–476 AD)