Via Appia Antica
Last day in Rome - a little sad but we are also looking forward to coming home soon.
This morning we took a bus heading south east out of the city to a section of the ancient Roman road The Via Apia, or the appian way. We walked back into the city on this road just as Paul would have done all the way from Naples into Rome. Beni and Craig got some nice drone footage of the road and the country side. All along the road are Roman ruins, toppled columns with Inscriptions, remains of aqueducts and some ancient palaces and villas. As you get closer to the city there are ancient but still lived in villas that are privately owned and have beautiful extensive gardens. Then you pass catacombs over which have been built churches through the years.
We toured one of the catacombs, Saint Sebastian. The lowest level of these catacombs are BC and have pagan images and drawings over the burial places. The second and third levels date to the 1st and 2nd century and there are many with Christian symbols and inscriptions. We were glad that they didn’t let us down there without a guide… I’m afraid we would still be wandering around trying to find our way out… 7 miles of catacombs. No photography was allowed. Craig’s begging did not move them to change their policy.
After that long walk we had lunch at a place near our hotel where they know us now and break out the “American Champaign” or diet coke, when they see us coming.
Our final site in Rome was a visit to the Capitaline Museum at one end of the Roman Forum. A HUGE museum which we could not absorb very well but wandered and looked at a few items we knew of (see pics).
We took one last walk to Trevi Fountain and are now trying to get packed as expertly as we were when we left, which is never easy LOL.
