# The waterfall Rome built, in 271 BC > The Cascata delle Marmore is 165 meters over three drops and it is not natural: Rome cut the Curiano channel in 271 BC. The water runs on a schedule. URL: https://myitalia.it/stories/the-waterfall-rome-built Last updated: 2026-09-02 The Cascata delle Marmore falls 165 meters over three drops and it is not a natural waterfall: Rome cut the Curiano channel in 271 BC to send the Velino over the edge into the Nera. ## Built in 271 BC, for drainage The falls exist because Roman engineers dug the Curiano channel in 271 BC to drain the stagnant waters of the Velino out of the Rieti plain and into the river Nera. The 165 meter drop in 3 stages is the side effect of a public works project. That reverses the usual order of things. The landscape here is the outcome of the engineering, not the setting for it, and every subsequent century has adjusted the same system rather than admired it untouched. The consequence is visible on the ground: sluice gates sit at the top of the drop, and they decide what the falls look like at any given hour. ## The water runs on a timetable Outside the scheduled release hours the water goes to a hydroelectric plant and the 165 meter drop falls to a minimum flow. Turn up at the wrong hour and you will see a wet cliff. The release times change month by month and differ between weekdays and Sundays and holidays. The park publishes them as a seasonal calendar, which has to be reread before each visit rather than memorized once. We are not printing a timetable here for the same reason. Any release schedule copied into a travel page has a shelf life of weeks, and this is the single detail that determines whether your trip was worth making. ## €12, and the €6 winter ticket that tells you something The full ticket is €12 from age 10, with €10 reduced for ages 5 to 9 and for over 70s, free under 5, and €6 on winter days with no water release (2026). Prices on this page are in euros. That €6 rate is the most informative number on the price list. It exists because the park knows that on many winter days there is no release, often with the flow limited to weekends, and it prices the visit accordingly. Groups of 15 or more pay €10, the Umbria Green Card rate is €8, the internal shuttle costs €4, and 24 hours of camper parking costs €20. Residents of the comune of Terni, people with a serious disability and licensed tour guides enter free. ## How to plan a visit that works Check the release calendar first, then buy the ticket, in that order, because a €12 ticket on a no-release day buys a view of rock. That sequence is the whole practical content of this page. If your dates are fixed and they fall in winter, look for the weekend, when releases are more likely, and take the €6 rate as the honest signal of what a no-release day is worth. The shuttle at €4 matters if you plan to see both the upper and lower belvederes in one visit, since the two are connected by a climb rather than a stroll. Terni is the nearest city and the comune whose residents enter free, which tells you how the park is treated locally: as municipal infrastructure with a gate, rather than as a monument. ## What the sources do and do not say The 271 BC origin comes from the park operator's own material, and we did not find a second institutional source open to confirm it, so it is carried here at medium confidence rather than as settled fact. Nothing on this page is derived from the many articles that call the Marmore falls natural. They are wrong in a way that matters, because the release schedule only makes sense once you know a Roman channel and a power station are upstream. For the region, see [Umbria](/regions/umbria) and the Cascata delle Marmore page for the practical detail. ## FAQ ### Is the Marmore waterfall natural? No. Roman engineers created it in 271 BC by cutting the Curiano channel to drain the stagnant water of the Velino in the Rieti plain into the river Nera. It falls 165 meters over 3 drops and it has been a piece of hydraulic engineering ever since. ### Why is there no water at the Marmore falls? Because outside the scheduled release hours the water is diverted to a hydroelectric plant and the 165 meter drop is reduced to a trickle, controlled by sluice gates at the top. The release times change month by month and between weekdays and holidays. ### How much does the Cascata delle Marmore cost? €12 full from age 10, €10 reduced for ages 5 to 9 and over 70s, free under 5, and €6 on winter days with no water release (2026). The internal shuttle is €4 and residents of the comune of Terni enter free. ### When does the water get released at Marmore? On a seasonal calendar that the park publishes and changes month by month, with different times on weekdays and on Sundays and holidays. In winter the release is often limited to weekends, which is why a €6 ticket exists for days with no release. ### How high is the Marmore waterfall? 165 meters, in 3 successive drops. The 271 BC origin is the reason that height exists at all: Roman engineers cut the outlet that sends the Velino over the edge of the cliff. ## Sources | Fact | Source | Confidence | Valid until | |---|---|---|---| | La Cascata delle Marmore, alta 165 metri su tre salti, non e' naturale: la crearono i Romani nel 271 a.C. scavando il canale Curiano per far defluire nel fiume Nera le acque stagnanti del Velino nella piana reatina. Per questo l'acqua non scorre sempre: fuori dagli orari di rilascio viene deviata alla centrale idroelettrica e la cascata resta ridotta al minimo, regolata da paratie in cima al salto. | [Parco della Cascata delle Marmore - Comune di Terni](https://cascatadellemarmore.info/come-funziona/) | medium | 2099-12-31 | | Al Parco della Cascata delle Marmore il biglietto intero costa 12 euro dai 10 anni in su, 10 euro il ridotto (5-9 anni e over 70), gratis sotto i 5 anni, e scende a 6 euro nelle giornate invernali senza rilascio d'acqua; la navetta interna costa 4 euro e i residenti nel Comune di Terni entrano gratis (2026). | [Parco della Cascata delle Marmore - Comune di Terni](https://cascatadellemarmore.info/biglietteria/); [doc 2](https://cascatadellemarmore.info/orari-e-aperture/) | medium | 2027-06-30 | ## Image https://media.myitalia.it/media/region.umbria.v2.1600.jpg Author: Enrico Strocchi from Forlì, Italy. License: CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castelluccio_di_Norcia_-_Fioritura_(30893706097).jpg ## Other languages - it: https://myitalia.it/it/storie/the-waterfall-rome-built.md - es: https://myitalia.it/es/historias/the-waterfall-rome-built.md - fr: https://myitalia.it/fr/recits/the-waterfall-rome-built.md - de: https://myitalia.it/de/geschichten/the-waterfall-rome-built.md