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When it rains and soil runs off, the rain, the soil and all else go downhill. |
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Without bulldozers, it's easier to rebuild on top of the previous building's remains than excavate ... collapse a one-story building and you can end up with a pile of debris nearly two meters high spread over its footprint. |
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Each year an inch of dust falls on Rome: leaves, pollution, sand, the shedding from buildings abraded by the wind. |
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When building a new structure it's often easier to create a foundation by filling the walls of the previous structure on the site with concrete and building upwards. |
And so one finds the Piranesi etching showing cows grazing on top of the Forum, with only a column or two sticking up from below. For any number of reasons, ancient cities grew up, literally.The city you see today is often as much as 10 meters above the old, occasionally even more.
Lest you forget, the old city remains!
onsider that Rome may once have contained
more than 40,000 insulae (apartment buildings), dozens of baths, hundreds or thousands of
palaces and town houses, uncountable monuments, temples, pyramids. No one carted them
away. They're all still here, today. Some in the form of dust ... some in remarkably good
shape, but 10 or 20 or 30 or more feet below ground.
ere, a few representatives of the hidden
Underground Rome:
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San Clemente, a Dagwood sandwich of a site. From top to explored bottom a 12th century church, its 4th century predecessor, a first century apartment house and temple and below that a public building of some sort. Below this, yet another level, unexplored. San Clemente is just down the street east of the Colosseum. (Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano and Pza S. Clemente.) |
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Nero's Golden House (Domus Aurea), of course, is a superb example of subterranean Rome, newly restored in part. Reservations required. |
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Most will satisfy their curiosity about Underground Rome with a tour of San Clemente, the Scavi or the Domus Aurea. Others may be interested in taking their interest further. There are at least a few sources of tours of the subterranean. We've used none of these so can provide no rating based on personal experience. Like tours of the Scavi and Nero's palace these need, usually, to be booked in advance: All preceded by 011-39-06 from North
America
The Atlantic ran an interesting article on the subject a few years ago. You should find Subterranean Rome of interest. Ranking
the Top Attractions | Suggested
Itineraries Vatican: Sistine Chapel, Museums and St. Peter's Complete Index of Articles on Rome/Italy Our Favorites Trip Tips and Tools Copyright © 2001 E.J. Gehrlein Traveling
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erhaps the least
well-known sightseeing aspect of Rome is its underground remains. Somewhat off the beaten
track, and often only for visitors with no sense of claustrophobia, much of Rome's remains
are out of sight ... perhaps more in total than remain above ground.
hy so much underground?