Andiamo Via Appia Antica

Today we went along the ancient Appian Way.

Yesterday we bought two Roma Pass tickets, which give 72 hours of free public transport, and the first two museum/attraction/whatever entrance fees free and thereafter discounted entries. We decided to start using them from this afternoon, so we looked for something that wouldn't cost too much for this morning.

We took a bus to the start of the Appian Way. Now that's a surprisingly long story, and the details probably won't interest you. Too bad. Main points: missed first bus, caught taxi to connect with second bus. Got on second bus, went for one stop before discovering you have to buy a ticket before you get on. Next bus on route was 20 minutes later. Took that bus to end of route, thinking we'd get a decent way along Appian Way, and could walk one way back. No. The bus turned off and travelled

Ruins seen from the bus stop.

maybe 7km further afield, through countryside to another town, before finally turning and waiting at its terminus. While waiting another 20 minutes until it was time to leave, we noticed a ruin across the road and in a field. We had time to look it up on Google Maps, and saw that it was one of the ruins associated with the Appian Way. Okay. Took the bus back to the start of the Appian part of its route, and finally we were underway.

We hired two electric bicycles, and headed up the road. First stop were the Catacombs of St Callisto, the biggest of the Roman catacomb sites. It housed the remains of 500,000 Christians who died from the 2nd - 5th century AD, including a few popes. In the tour today, we could see only one cavity that still held bones, but there is 15Ha and 20km of narrow passages lined with holes, cavities for the bodies. Some rooms retained artwork on the walls from more than 1500 years ago. No photos allowed though, and by the time we emerged, the gift/book shop had closed for lunch. So there is no proof they exist at all. Maybe we dreamt it.

Via Appia Antica

From there we cycled further on down the road, which was mainly paved with small flat square cobbles, but sometimes retained some big flat stone paving (seems like it's the older road that dates from 312BC) that is not conducive to cycling at all. Mostly there was an alternative track at the side of the road, but not always. Anyway, we finally made it to the ruins that we had seen from the bus. This had been a villa belonging to Quintilis, a huge expanse of rooms that had had heating and plumbing and a mini-amphitheatre and running tracks. We walked around marvelling, then made our way back to the start, with lunch at a cafe on the way at about 2.30.

No problems with the bus back this time. We got off at our next planned visit, the Capitoline

A famous thing in the museum

Museums. (We did mistakenly think it was the - or one of the - National Museums, but that was no biggie. In Rome, all museums have something significant.) We initialised our Roma Passes and got in for free, but we paid for a video guide each, an iPad with Jeremy Irons telling us what we needed to know. There was a lot of good stuff here, but the so-called 1-hour highlight tour took 2 hours, despite our ignoring the final few highlights and trying to jump ahead to the last one, the Dying Gaul. As it turned out, we had to go through every room to find it, so we saved no time at all.

From there we tried to find Vodafone again. I'm still not connected, while Stephen has his 4G but no phone number. They should have been open, apparently, despite it being a Sunday evening, but they weren't. So we just got a taxi back to the B & B for a shower and a sit down, before heading out to find a local place for dinner. Finally home for the night a bit before 9, so not too bad.

Caravaggio

The Dying Gaul

Constantine, from a colossus that must have been
10-12m high