Not far from Palestrina, following the ridge of the Prenestini Mountains, you will find a Natural Monument that includes the magnificent Cannuccete forest in the municipality of Castel San Pietro Romano.
The forest consists of ancient specimens of maple, turkey oak, and hornbeam trees that escaped being cut down thanks to a restriction that has been in place for centuries to protect certain springs. These springs fed the ancient city of Praeneste through an aqueduct, part of which was underground.
The trunks of these trees provide shelter for the rich birdlife present, consisting of unique species such as the green woodpecker, the great spotted woodpecker, the wryneck, the nuthatch, tits, and various nocturnal birds of prey such as the tawny owl and the scops owl. Local tradition has it that the musician Pierluigi da Palestrina loved to sit under a colossal oak tree, perhaps seven centuries old.
