Every design for Ciampino

Ciampino sits between Rome and the Castelli Romani, at the foot of the northern slope of the Colli Albani — a hinge between the capital and the hill towns. In Roman times this was farmland along the Via Appia, dotted with country villas; the best known belonged to Quintus Voconius Pollio, and ruins such as the Villa dei Valerii and the Torre della Marrana still mark the ground.

Rome wraps around it to the north and west, with Grottaferrata to the east and Marino to the south, and the Marrana dell'Acqua Mariana runs through on its way to the Almone. The town takes its name from Giovanni Giustino Ciampini, a seventeenth-century prelate, scientist and archaeologist whose farmhouse here appeared on the old maps. The railway to Frascati and its tunnel came next, then the airport, then rapid growth; Ciampino stopped being a frazione of Marino and later gained the title of city. The Monumento agli Aviatori D’Italia honours the flying that shaped it.

For anyone landing in Rome on a cheap flight, Ciampino is the first ground under the wheels. For the people who live here, it is simply the place that means home.