The permanent exhibition on the ground floor of the Bussolini farmhouse, placed in the centre of the old estate named Casella, is an important part of the didactic experiment which takes place in the Park and it is supported by a multimedial programme which describes the environmental and anthropological aspects of the place.

The Bussolini farmhouse, remarkable example of Roman countryhouse with dovecot, staircase and external oven, mentioned in the Gregorian register of land properties in 1819, is particularly suitable to host relevant didactic and cultural activities, thanks to its central position in the Park and the landscape.

The territory, an accomplished crossover between the microeconomy of the estate and the macroeconomy connected with the river, has been studied by means of the statute of Nazzano, of the papal registers of land properties, and the bills of sale. The everyday life in the estate and along the river, with the traditional occupations, is described in the exhibition by means of archive documents and oral witnesses: peasants and breeders, wood dealers, millers, boatmen, ferrymen, the people who dragged the boats counter current. The farm, halfway between the village and the river, with its once extremely fragmented cultivations, is crossed by a way which once linked up the village with the ancient harbour of Nazzano, or "passaporto", now out of use. The end of the harbour activity interrupted the traditional agricultural-pastoral relationships between the river banks. The Tevere with its harbours (Nazzano was only one of the several harbours on the navigable stretch between Orte and Ripetta) represented the most important economical resource of the area: it connected the villages and supplied Rome with foodstuffs produced by the farms (oil, wine, cereals) and raw materials (wood, travertine, gravel). The river meant unity and exchange, but also separation of the different communities; the prohibition against the people from the villages for the maintenance of the banks caused many conflicts. Local interests (fishing, cut of the albucci, irrigation) mixed up with general demands of maintenance and efficiency of the river (trade, navigation, haulage of the boats).The symbolic value of unity and separation represented by the "denied" river is also to be found in the different tales of "saints thrown in the river". The saints, with their ritual sacrifice, bless the good relationships between the communities. Almost every harbour is dedicated to a "foreign" saint (S. Antimo in Nazzano, S. Vittore in Otricoli, S. Egidio in Filacciano) who has close relationship with the river. This reminds of the symbol of the thaumaturgist god Aesculapius, the snake which comes on a sacred boat and runs aground Isola Tiberina. The statue of the saint, thrown into the river or arrived counter current on an ark which reminds of the god’s sacred boat, blesses the river and the human activities related to it.

The exhibition, by means of objects collected in the villages which are typical of those hill estates, panels and computer simulations, describes the cultivation cycles, the main features of the agriculture, but also the interactions between cultivation and wilderness, between pastoral and agricultural as well as commercial activities. It also focuses on the traditions and ceremonies of the brotherhoods which keep the cult of the saints alive.

The permanent exhibition is the result of the scientific cooperation among the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions of Rome, the State Archive of Rome, the Provincial Administration of Rome (Departments for Parks and Exhibitions) and the City of Nazzano.

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