Vermicino is a village and civil parish (''

frazione A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidat ...

'') of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

municipality of

Frascati Frascati () is a city and in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with science, ...

, in the

Province of Rome The province of Rome () was one of the five provinces that formed part of the Lazio region of Italy. It was established in 1870 and disestablished in 2014. It was essentially coterminous with the Rome metropolitan area. The city of Rome was t ...

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

. In

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

its name means "''little

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

''", in an unused form.

Geography

Located near

Ciampino Ciampino () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It was a ''frazione'' of Marino, Italy, Marino until 1974, when it became a ''comune''; it obtained the city () status (being therefore officially known as Cit ...

(4 km away) and

Morena Morena or MORENA may refer to: Places * Morena, Madhya Pradesh, a town in central India * Morena (Lok Sabha constituency), Madhya Pradesh * Morena (Vidhan Sabha constituency), Madhya Pradesh * Morena, San Diego, California, a neighborhood * Mo ...

(2 km away), close to the south-eastern suburb of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

; Vermicino, as ''frazione'' of Frascati, is part of the

Castelli Romani The Roman Castles (Italian: ''Castelli Romani'') are a group of ''comuni'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome. They are located a short distance south-east of the city of Rome, at the feet of the Alban Hills, in the territory corresponding to the ...

. A minor part of its territory, a strip in the central area, belongs to the municipality of Rome as part of the Zone XVII "

Torre Gaia ''Torre'' (plurals ''torri'' and ''torres'') means ''tower'' in seven Romance languages ( Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Italian, Occitan and Corsican) and may refer to: Biology * Muir-Torre syndrome, the inherited cancer syndrome * ...

". In the north of the village there is a locality, mainly composed by some scattered houses, named Selvotta, considered part of Vermicino. The main road crossing Vermicino is the historical one of '' Tuscolana'', linking Rome (20 km away) and Frascati (2.5 km away). Other main roads are ''Via di Vermicino'' (in which is located Selvotta) and ''Via di Passolombardo'', that links the village to the motorway's exit of " Roma Torrenova", on the "South Rome Branch" of the A1. The village is also 4.5 km away from

Rome Ciampino Airport G. B. Pastine–Rome Ciampino Airport is the secondary international airport serving Rome, the capital of Italy, after Leonardo da Vinci–Rome Fiumicino Airport. It is a joint civilian, commercial and military airport situated south southeas ...

, 5 from

Grottaferrata Grottaferrata () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, situated on the lower slopes of the Alban Hills, southeast of Rome. It has grown up around the Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata, founded in 1004. N ...

and circa 3 from the Roman suburban villages of Borghesiana and Finocchio. The nearest railway stations are Tor Vergata (near Frascati),

, and

History

Origins

Vermicino owes its name to an event that took place in 1183, when the troops of Archbishop Cristiano of Mainz came to the rescue of the Counts of Tusculum, besieged by the Romans. The archbishop's troops died after drinking the water from the source poisoned by the besiegers, according to this version "vermicina" would therefore be poisonous.

Overview

In the middle of the original village there is a

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

, built in 1731 by the order of the

Pope Clement XII Pope Clement XII (; ; 7 April 16526 February 1740), born Lorenzo Corsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 July 1730 to his death in February 1740. Clement presided over the growth of a surplus in the papal ...

and designed by

Luigi Vanvitelli Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an ea ...

. From the 1970s Vermicino grew as part of the urban expansion in southern Roman surroundings.

Alfredo Rampi's incident

On June 10, 1981, a 6-year-old child,

Alfredo Rampi Alfredo Rampi (11 April 1975 – 13 June 1981), nicknamed Alfredino (Little Alfredo), was an Italian child who died after falling into a well in Vermicino, a village near Frascati, on 10 June 1981. Incident Around 19:00 on 10 June 1981, 6- ...

, fell into an

artesian well An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...

located in a rural field in Selvotta, and died on June 13. Originally a local item of news, the attempted rescue became a national media event from June 12, due to an 18-hours-long

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film * ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film *'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...

broadcast by the main TV channels of

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

, unified for the event. The broadcast had attracted millions of Italian people to follow the events, and also Vermicino was crowded by a multitude of people. Also the

Italian President The president of Italy, officially titled President of the Italian Republic (), is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The presid ...

of that period,

Sandro Pertini Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1978 to 1985. Early life Born in Stella (province of Savona) as t ...

, came to Vermicino. The media emphasis to that event connected, in Italy, the name of the semi-unknown ''Vermicino'' to the tragedy of Rampi's family."Vermicino, i tre giorni che sconvolsero l'Italia"
article on the ''

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

References

External links

Vermicino page on a "Castelli Romani" website

Municipal website of Frascati
{{authority control Frazioni of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital Castelli Romani Frascati