Not everyone knows that, while in Trentino orienteering was developed thanks to Vladimir Pacl, in Lazio a group of orienteers was established in ENEA, former CNEN (National Committee for Nuclear Energy). In 1967 Sergio Grifoni and Valerio Tosi, returning from a nuclear project in Norway, involved colleagues and friends in this new sport known among the woods of Halden. Engineers, physicists and mathematicians in ENEA, excited about orienteering, decided to meet every Friday for a race organized by themselves in the Roman countryside that surrounds Casaccia, the historic home of ENEA.
From this nucleus were born, over time, other clubs, one of the first being Mezzaluna, founded by Terenzio Goffredo Biserna. He together with Maria Giovanna Sechi was eager to get orienteering out of the fence around ENEA in order to enlarge the sphere of participants in other parts of Lazio.
The occasion to start this activity was given by the collaboration offered by the Circolo Sportivo Mezzaluna in Mentana that, in addition to the traditional sports riding, tennis, swimming and ice skating, wanted to offer orienteering to their members. In particular, the cooperation manifested itself in 1986 with the release of the first color map of Lazio, the Mentana – Trentani map, and in 1988 by the formal affiliation with the FISO of the Orienteering Section of Circolo Sportivo Mezzaluna. Around the year 2000 the section left the Circolo Sportivo Mezzaluna and acquired the name Orientisti Mezzaluna with its registered office in Rome at the residence of the president.
Goffredo, showing from the beginning what was to be the main vocation of the club, offered to map the area around the ice palace in Mentana. This was followed by the design and construction of numerous maps: Monte Fogliano and Monte Venere close to Viterbo, Prato di Campoli close to Frosinone, Monte Gennaro, Macchia Trentani and Tuscolo in the surroundings of Rome and with maps of the Simbruini mountains: Campaegli, Prataglia, Monte Livata, Camerata Vecchia, Filettino, Valle Pietra and Punta Leccino of Jenne. Still seven of these maps are owned by Orientisti Mezzaluna, who uses them to organize competitions, courses and promotional activities. In the year 2013, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the club, an exhibition of the many maps made over the years was organized.
In 1992, with the arrival of Maria Silvia Viti, a professor of physical education, the interests of the association was also directed towards promotional activities such as the organization of the provincial and regional stages of the Student Sports Games and the preparation of courses for teachers.
Mezzaluna has also yearly organized a Regional Championship and participated in the organization of National level events such as the 1988 Italian Championships in Monte Livata and Coppa Italia in Monte Fogliano 1989.
In the ninties the Swedes Maria Nimvik and Mikael Stern, who moved to Frascati for work, have not only made a significant contribution in the production of base maps obtained with aerophotogrammetric methods but have also approached the association to Sweden by making contacts with the orienteering promoter Peo Bengtsson.
Clearly, the cooperation with the Swedes is in the DNA of the club. In 2005 came two new members, Barbro and Urban Gullberg, Swedes that decided to live in Grottaferrata in the golden years of retirement and they have brought a contribution to the club in terms passion and skills.
Thanks to the cartographic expertise of Urban and Goffredo the ambitious project of revision of six maps (Monte Venere, Campaegli, Macchia Trentani, Rocca di Papa, Prato di Campoli and Tuscolo ) and the construction of two new maps (La Molara and Prataglia) has been completed.
In our sport numerous and well-made maps are an essential prerequisite for the success of competitive activities and promotion. It takes expertise on the ground as well as with the computer to produce a map. The cost of this professional job is high but thanks to the voluntary work of its members Mezzaluna is able to offer these facilities to the orienteerers in Lazio.
The small but active Orientisti Mezzaluna have social activities and meetings ended with an appreciated dinner.
In pace with time Mezzaluna has in 2014 launched this website dedicated to all orienteers who want to keep up with its activities.