Thinking about an unconventional visit? Explore San Clemente with Daniella! This underground site touches on all sorts of themes, from ancient religions, to Medieval art, and the history of excavations in Rome.

The Celian Hill is not on most tourists' itinerary...  Spangled with churches and a large park, the Hill still retains some of its sleepy, Medieval flavor.  During ancient Roman days, however, this was a bustling neighborhood, full of middle-class and proletariat housing together with stores so full of merchandise that their owners piled goods for sale on the sidewalk... 

Around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, is the Cinema Trevi. Faced with excessive humidity, the movie theater's owners probed deeper and deeper to discover the root of the problem. Their explorations led to the birth of an archeological area approximately 27 feet under the modern street level. Referred to as Vicus Caprarius or “Goat Alley” in Latin, the site contains two Imperial Roman apartment buildings and lots of natural running water!

On the Via Latina, near the Sepulcher of the Scipios, is the Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas. Columbarium comes from the Latin columba, which means “dove.”  A columbarium was literally a dovecot, where birds were raised for their eggs and as food.   When cremation burials became common, ash-urns were deposited in small niches that were carved into tombs walls.  The niches produced a dovecot effect, which gave this type of tomb its name.