We had an extra day in Rome after seeing all of the main sites, so we decided to check out the catacombs and aqueducts. They were a bit out of the city and took some planning to get to, but they were worth it. (Julia: Here's a picture of us having breakfast in bed at our airbnb... it was our only table!)
The catacombs are a series of underground tunnels that the early Christians used to entomb their dead. Romans were into cremation, which Christians didn't like because they wanted to keep their bodies around for the resurrection of the dead. Many people think that Christians actually hid in these tunnels to escape persecution, but that's not true. These tunnels were outside the city walls because burial was not allowed in Rome. The tunnels were very extensive, often having three levels, and could be as deep as 60 metres. This shows you that there were a lot of Christians in ancient Rome. One cool thing to see was all the graffiti that is still in the tunnels. The early Christians had a lot of secret signals to communicate with, such as an anchor representing the cross.
Close to the catacombs was a park that had a bunch of aqueducts from ancient Rome. These were used to transport water all over the city, and they are quite the engineering feat. The Romans sure knew how to build stuff. They look like massive connect four games, with their series of arches. Some are as high as 20 metres. We had a nice picnic lunch in the shade of the aqueducts.
One last note on food. It is awesome for me to be in Italy because I LOVE pizza and pasta. You can find it really cheap if you get out of tourist zones too. We found a little place near our air bnb where we got a large, thick pizza with multiple fresh toppings for 5 euros! Deliciosso!
- Andy
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