Explosion in a farmhouse in Rome, two anarchists dead: "They were preparing a bomb"

Two people have died following a detonation that occurred on Friday, March 20, 2026 inside the Aqueduct Park, a large green area of about 240 hectares in Municipality VII of Rome, included within the perimeter of the Appia Antica Regional Park.

The victims have been identified as Sara Ardizzone and Alessandro Mercogliano. Both were well-known figures in the Roman anarchist scene, considered “pro Cospito” militants and believed to be close to the core of the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI).

Ardizzone had faced legal issues related to her activism: on January 15, 2025, during the preliminary hearing of the “Sibilla” proceedings in Perugia, she made spontaneous statements identifying herself as “openly anarchist” and “an enemy of this State”. For several activists involved in that investigation, a non-prosecution order was subsequently issued.

Mercogliano, on the other hand, had been sentenced to five years in prison in 2019 in a case related to the Turin insurrectionist scene.

The judicial investigations are ongoing and include technical assessments of any triggers, residues, and materials found at the scene. The competent prosecutors are examining various hypotheses: an accident during the handling of a rudimentary device, the explosion of defective hazardous materials, or possible environmental co-factors. The results of the expert assessments are awaited to formulate definitive conclusions.