Hidden Rome by Car: the Appian Way, Catacombs and Aqueducts

Appian Way (Via Appia Antica)

The Appian Way was the road that held the empire together, running from Rome to its furthest settlements. Appius Claudius Caecus, censor of Rome, built the first stretch to Capua near Naples; it was later extended more than three hundred miles to Brindisi on the Adriatic, making it the widest and longest road then in existence. Romans called it the queen of roads, and it was begun in 312 BC. It has also come down in better condition than most Roman sites: large flat stones, pressed into place by two thousand years of rain, wheels and feet.

Catacombe San Sebastiano

This cemetery is named for the martyr Sebastian, who is buried here, and was originally called ad catacumbas, near the hollows, after the tuff quarries in the area. That name was later applied to every underground Christian cemetery, which is where the word comes from. It was also known as the Apostolic Memorial, from the celebrations for Peter and Paul held here for a period in the early centuries. From the first century the site was heavily quarried and built on. The caves and tunnels were reused for pagan and Christian wall tombs and for smaller niches holding urns, and at least two houses stood above ground, notable for their painted interiors.

Parco Archeologico dell'Appia Antica

The Parco degli Acquedotti sits on the edge of the city and is among the most interesting open spaces in Rome, and among the least visited. The aqueducts were built to carry fresh water from the mountains and the countryside into the city, and the fact that they are still standing is the argument for Roman engineering in a single view. A few miles from the centre, the park holds long runs of the Aqua Felix and stretches of the Aqua Claudia. Wide meadows, umbrella pines and enormous ruins cutting across them. At weekends the grass under the arches fills with Roman families having lunch, and you can walk it or hire a bike.

Terme di Caracalla

The Baths of Caracalla were built between 212 and 216 under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, known as Caracalla, and were among the largest thermal complexes of the ancient world. Only the brick walls and the collapsed vaults are left, and they are still enough to give you the scale of the place.

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Fiume Tevere

The Tiber is the second longest river in Italy after the Po, roughly 250 miles long and between seven and twenty feet deep. It rises in the Apennines at Monte Fumaiolo and reaches the Tyrrhenian Sea at Ostia. Most of Rome lies on its east bank; the west bank, including the island, was Region XIV in the administrative division Augustus made of the city.

Trastevere

Trastevere sits downriver from the Vatican and works as a city inside the city, with its own identity and a well-developed Roman contempt for gentrification. Civic pride runs strong through the medieval maze of squares and cobbled alleys. Locals here support the neighbourhood football club as readily as the capital's famous one, which tells you most of what you need to know. None of that makes it unwelcoming. Sitting on the steps in Piazza Trilussa or ordering a coffee at a bar counter is enough to be part of it.

Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere

One of the oldest churches in Rome, recently restored, which has brought back the twelfth-century mosaics by Pietro Cavallini, including his Life of the Virgin, along with later frescoes and marble. The gilded octagonal ceiling holds Domenichino's Assumption of the Virgin, painted in 1616 and 1617. The church goes back at least to the third century and has a reasonable claim to being the first official Christian place of worship in the city.