Set like a jewel in the Aventine Hill, with breathtaking views of the Circus Maximus, the Palatine Hill and the Celio, stands the Municipal Rose Garden of Rome, 10,000 square meters of pure delight and poetry.

This garden was the cemetery of the Jewish Community of Rome from 1645 to 1934, when it was merged with Verano in the Israelite sector, after numerous burial remains had been dismantled and reassembled at the new site, but it was equally certain that much of the Jewish community's legacy still remained in the depths of the original site.

After the transfer to Verano, the green area now used as a rose garden was forgotten, until it became a "war garden" during the Second World War.

In 1950 the President of the Jewish Community agreed to establish the new Municipal Rose Garden in this area (the previous one was on Colle Oppio, severely damaged during the war).

Two stems with the Tablets of Moses were then placed at the entrance, and the paths were designed in the shape of Menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum, an ancient symbol of Jewish culture.

The rose garden is divided into two sectors: the largest one houses a collection of 1,200 varieties and species that traces the history of the rose from antiquity to the present day.

The other hosts the roses that participate in the international competition "Rome Prize", which takes place every year, naturally, in May, the traditional month dedicated to the queen of flowers.

The competition took place for the first time in 1933, at the old rose garden of Colle Oppio, in the presence of the American countess Mary Senni, the proud creator of both the rose garden and the competition, and was inspired by the Bagatelle competition, near Paris.

The annual competition among new rose varieties is one of the oldest in the world.

In addition to this, our rose garden boasts a large collection of spontaneous roses, as well as ancient roses, which - as experts well know - are the only ones giving off an intense scent.

Among the most famous roses in the collection it is worth mentioning the Rosa Primula, originally from the Middle East, with leaves that emit a strong scent of incense; Rosa Eglanteria, so dear to Shakespeare, which gives off an intense scent of green apple; the Rosa Sempervirens, also called the Rosa di San Giovanni, because it blooms around June 24th; Rosa Moscata, which takes its name from a Tibetan goat from which the perfume Musk is obtained; the Rosa Pteracantha, originally from China, with the thorns in the shape of a bird's wing, a unique rose with four petals; the ancient Rose Kazanlak, from which the expensive essence is extracted and used as a base for the finest perfumes; the Rosa Arvensis Splendens, which reaches a height of five meters and smells of myrrh, and then the oldest of all, the Belle Portugaise, from the ripe old age of about ninety, a pastel pink visiting card of the splendid setting of the Municipal Rose Garden of Rome.

It must be said with no doubt that the Aventine Hill has a deeply floral "DNA".

In fact, as early as the third century BC, the first temple dedicated to Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, stood right here.
At a short distance from the Circus Maximus, between the end of April and the beginning of May, the Floralia, the celebrations dedicated to Flora, were held.

After more than two millennia, we can continue to dream among the petals, essences and colors of the Aventine.

I'm waiting for you!

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Today there is a splendid basilica near Piazza di Spagna, which today is in the heart of the city, but which in medieval times was an inaccessible place and located outside the town, precisely between the fracts. This is the reason why the Basilica of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte bears this very peculiar name.

In it, next to the altar, we find two marble angels, a late work by the great Gian Lorenzo Bernini

They were sculpted around 1669 on a commission by Pope Clement IX Rospigliosi, and were intended to decorate, together with eight other angels, the ancient bridge that crosses the Tiber in front of Castel Sant’Angelo.

Of great scenographic effect, these two angels bearing the symbols of the Passion of Christ, should have constituted a sort of celestial procession along the access path to St. Peter's Basilica.

It happened, however, that the Pope considered them too beautiful to be exposed to rain and snow, and he decided to give them to his beloved nephew, Giacomo Rospigliosi, to be taken to Pistoia, his hometown.

After their transfer to Pistoia, for about sixty years, there were no more news of the two angels.
They reappeared, just as mysteriously, only in 1729 at Palazzo Bernini.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini's nephew, Prospero, donated them to the Basilica of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, which was opposite the family palace, and therefore also the parish of reference of the family itself.

For centuries the fratte have given way to the city, but the angel with the Crown of Thorns, and the one with the Title of the Cross are still there, with those wings made of that marble that no one, like Gian Lorenzo Bernini, could life and lightness.
Their incredible beauty and poignant expression are a real pearl set in the center of Rome.

Rome is inextricably linked to water: the Tiber, the aqueducts, the baths, the lakes, the proximity of the city to the sea, the ancient cisterns, the naumachias, the Cloaca Maxima, the thousands of fountains (there are more fountains than churches !), the noses (small drink-fountains in the streets), many little decorative fountains...

Sometimes, however, it can happen that you come across the fountain you don't expect.

We are on the Palatine Hill, the most important of the Seven Hills, the place where the city was founded.

Here centuries of history and construction have been stratified.
In the 16th century, the Farnese family built on the ruins of the Emperors palaces a residence immersed in a garden of delights, rich in rare exotic plants, as well as aviaries where one could admire gaudy peacocks and colorful parrots; ancient statues that were reused in that place, in a setting of surprising water games.

We are surrounded by the splendor of the Horti Farnesiani, on top of the Palatine Hill, a place from which you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the Capitol City.

As we wander around the ruins of the Domus Tiberiana, making our way through bushes and centenary trees, suddenly - descending a flight of stairs - we meet a real surprise: the Nymphaeum of Rain.

A cascade of pouring water, immersed in semi-darkness; a real ghostly apparition inside a largely forgotten place, unknown to most, almost erased by earthquakes, by centuries, by abandonment and - as if that wasn't enough - by the demolitions carried out by archaeologists who, between the nineteenth and the twentieth century, brought to light the ruins on which the Farnese gardens had been built.

Among the few structures that survived the many adversities previously described, we can still admire the portal with the lilies, symbol of the Farnese family, the recently restored Nymphaeum of Mirrors, the Aviaries, the Teatro del Fontanone, as well as the main object of this article: the Nymphaeum of Rain.

It was a refuge in which the wealthy owners went to shelter from the summer heat; a dark, cool, shady triclinium, to protect themselves and their guests on the days when the "ardores solis", the flames of sun, proved all their power.

Imagine this place, so pleasant to see, scattered with statues and frescoes, in a cool, mild temperature.

A magical place, where even the ear could enjoy the sound of an artificial waterfall reproducing the sound of abundant rain, creating a subliminal effect inside the grotto, artificial itself, which, even in the middle of August , offered the sensation of stepping out of time and finding oneself in a dimension able to provide relief and serenity.

The Nymphaeum is fed by the overlying Fontanone, a system of overlapping basins from which the water overflows, flowing into small waterfalls and then collects in an invisible channel that creates the rain effect in the artificial cave below.

A magnificent fountain, which still today triumphantly overlooks the Roman Forum from a terrace where, in the Farnese times, a number of hidden jets inside the floor created water tricks to cheer and surprise the lucky guests.

However, the exact location has remained a fascinating mystery for centuries, and scholars determined to find it have meticulously and passionately sifted the hill.

We know that, as early as 1526, the Roman antiquarian Bartolomeo Marliano descended into a tunnel on the Palatine, telling that he had seen "a temple adorned with sea shells and stones composed together ..." where, at the top of the vault, it was possible to recognize the image of a white eagle.

We also know that in the nineteenth century the famous archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani was convinced that the site seen in the sixteenth century was precisely the Lupercale.

However, it must be said that there has always been a lively debate around the topic.

Some scholars are perplexed, and believe that this cave is nothing more than a splendid nymphaeum, or perhaps a triclinium.

From here, in ancient times, the Lupercalia festival began, linked to the totemic symbol of the city, the she-wolf.

From here the wolf priests started running around the hill, whipping the ground, the women and any person who came within range.

This fertility rite dedicated to Luperco (ancient Latin god identified with the wolf sacred to Mars) took place on February 15.

But now let's come to the present day, or almost.

In 2007, during the restoration of the House of Augustus on the Palatine Hill (reopened to the public in 2008), a sensational discovery was made: the Italian archaeologist Irene Iacopi claims to have found the Lupercale, the mythical cave we are talking about.

But how does the find happen? Thanks to a technological tool that has only been in use for a few years, a probe equipped with a laser scanner that, penetrating the belly of the Palatine, is able to transmit data of exceptional importance to the surface.

On that occasion, 27 feet below the ground level a golden dome emerges, decorated with a mosaic with glass paste, pumice stone and exotic shells.
The dome is relevant to an environment that sinks up to sixteen meters underground.

The hundreds of photos recorded and reworked by the computer also show us, on the vault of the dome, a white eagle on a blue background, exactly like the one described by Marliano in the sixteenth century!

But while Marliano descended into the cavity personally, through a tunnel that he had found, today archaeologists are still forced to use the technologies described above, since they still have not managed to find the entrance to the site.

It seems, therefore, that it is precisely the cave of the she-wolf (but will it have been a she-wolf? I'll talk about it soon), origin of Rome, a sacred place, revered and decorated for centuries, apparently up to the fifth century.

In the aftermath the abandonment, the Christianization of the city and, in the same place as Lupercale, the construction of the churches of San Teodoro and Sant’Anastasia.

I look forward to seeing you on the Palatine Hill for an unforgettable tour dedicated to the origins of our beloved Rome!

Just think of the importance of the Tiber and the Aniene, the ancient aqueducts, the spas, the thousands of fountains, the Cloaca Maxima, the naumachies, the lakes that surround the city, the proximity to the sea, the villas that use water for the whim of wealthy and cultured cardinals, as in the case of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este.

Talking about an aquatic Rome is easy, just look around yourself on a beautiful sunny day.

But .. what happens in the dark?

The darkness and dungeons in the capital reserve the most beautiful surprises.

Today I would like to tell you about something that very few know: a labyrinth of underground lakes in the belly of the Celio Hill, a stone's throw from the Colosseum.

Under the church of Saints John and Paul and the ruins of the Temple of Emperor Claudius, thirty feet underground, in silence and darkness, we can admire the clear emerald-colored lakes spectacularly framed by colored stalactites.

For some years now, a team of speleologists has been exploring this system of ancient quarries, excavated since the 4th century BC, which has an extension of over one mile.

Here the water has a constant temperature of 10°C, 50°F.

Since 2004 an attempt has been made to document this small and very ancient geological world, and among the many emotions that this brings to the people who are dealing with it there is, for example, that of finding the cracks in the rocks where the ancient workers placed their lamps, but also very old electric cables, which remind us how these spaces were widely used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War.

In Rome surprises never end, and we could draw up an endless list of them.

Also under the San Camillo Hospital, in Monteverde, in 2013 an extraordinary underground lake was rediscovered in a twenty thousand square feet cave, thirty feet high, which in the past was used as a warehouse for food to support the needs of the above hospital, while - during the Second World War - the same cave became an air-raid shelter.

It is said that there is a direct connection between this lake and the Tiber.

If, on the other hand, we decide to move to the historic center, we will discover that at the end of the 1930s, excavations conducted in the cellars of the Apostolic Chancellery Palace made it possible to discover a Roman sepulcher, which now lies on the bottom of a splendid emerald-colored pond, under twenty feet of pure water.

A pond that probably formed thanks to the obstruction of the Euripus canal, at the time of the construction of the Tiber walls.

We can, for the time being, stop here.

However, I will soon resume the topic to talk about other aspects of the wonderful aquatic Rome, and about many underground sites, all to be discovered, to go back in time and feel eternal, like our beloved city.

A place that we can now define famous all over the world for this tasty specialty. Many are prepared to wait in disciplined long lines, in order to arrive at the coveted counter, beyond which the two huge oil pots sizzle , from which the crispy, golden and swollen fillets come out as from cornucopias ...

The chronicles report that the Pontiff, every day, sent his secretary to the very popular fish-place, giving him the precise task of returning with that precious little bag, even if this required queuing for hours, and that the Pope's need of codfish was not limited to Friday, when Christian worship prescribes not to eat meat.

A gastronomic pleasure that the journalist and art critic Antonello Trombadori "codified" in these verses:

"To see if the fillet is well done

color, crunchiness and frying,

you must be able to feel the taste with your eyes

and imagine its flavor

go to the Librari, if you want to see them

and if you want to learn art and talent

of whitening the cod with flour"

A plate that can be served to a Pope.
On the other hand, Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, was deeply Roman; his figure and his role during the Second World War are still being deeply examined by historians, but there has never been any doubt about his love for his city and the Capitoline traditions.

He was the first pontiff to use radio and cinema to spread his message, but he did not compromise on gastronomy: for that he loved to "fish" (it is appropriate to say it) in the most ancient Roman traditions.

Among the most incredible architectural works of antiquity, the Domus Aurea must certainly be remembered, the mythical residence that the emperor (not so good) musician commissioned to the architects Severo and Celere, immediately after the fire that destroyed Rome in 64 a.D.

 It was a huge and luxurious 80-hectare mansion, built on three hills, and equipped with a large artificial lake (which was located in the place where the Colosseum stands today).

Among the wonders of the Domus Aurea, the latest mystery is the discovery of the Coenatio Rotunda: Nero's revolving dining room.

For centuries it was known of the existence of this very modern room for rich banquets, but decades of archaeological researches on the Esquiline and Palatine hills had not given any results.

Suetonius, in his "Lives of Cesars" , spoke about it as the "main dining room of the Domus Aurea", and described it as a "room that rotated day and night, imitating the movement of the world"

“PRAECIPUA CENATIOURUM ROTUNDA, QUAE PERPETUO DIEBUS AC NOCTIBUS VICE MUNDI CIRCUMAGERETUR” ("Special round dining room, continuously revolving day and night, imitating the world")

For centuries it was believed that this was a fairy tale linked to the legend of Nero's madness.

 In June 2009, following excavations resulting from a collaboration between the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome, the École Française, and the Center Camille Jullian of Aix en Provence, the archaeologist Francoise Villedien brought to light on the Palatine admirable remains of the machine that allowed the room to rotate.

It is a unicum: a circular tower of 12 feet in diameter, 36 feet high, found after two thousand years in the bowels of the Palatine at a depth of 45 feet, after having walked sixty-two steps in the Barberini vineyard, which belonged the important Roman family.

This structure can be compared to a ship's engine room; it supported a circular wooden platform of at least 40 feet in diameter, with a sort of gazebo, which rotated moved by a hydraulic system that used the Claudius aqueduct, which at the time served the Palatine.

 It was the main room where Nero received his guests.

The ceiling had holes from which flower petals and perfumes descended to inebriate the guests.

This incredible structure became a prototype for Renaissance towers and military fortresses.

 Anyway, when we think about the modern era, there are many rotating public places even in the contemporary world.

Without leaving Rome, let's speak, for example, about the restaurant built on top of the so-called EUR Mushroom (Il Fungo), built in the late fifties for the Olympic games.

 At first, it was conceived as a sightseeing place, with a revolving floor, to allow visitors to enjoy the 360 degree panorama of Rome while comfortably sitting at the table.

 Coincidences?

If you are curious about this memorable finding of Imperial Rome, I suggest you a visit to the Palatine Hill, the cradle of Rome, a place of breathtaking beauty and charm, full of surprises, which you can discover with me, if you wish, to go back in time and feel the eternity wrapping this city.

Who knows if the villas of Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise will still be there in twenty centuries?

This one, which is perhaps the most famous keyhole in the world, is located on the highest part of the Aventine hill, between the Giardino degli Aranci (Orange Garden) and the villa of the Priory of Malta, therefore in the Circo Massimo area, but you never can't get there by chance. 

We are talking about the exciting view offered by the lock of the gate of the Priory of the Knights of Malta, by looking inside it.

The emotion that pervades the unaware tourist is taken not only by the everlasting charm of spying on something or someone, but also by the panoramic view that, peering inside, you can discover: the Dome of San Pietro in a new and different perspective, surrounded from the hedges of the eighteenth-century garden of the Priory.

Sunset is perhaps the best time for this visit, which, anyway, offers a unique sensation at all times of the day.

The area, very quiet and peaceful, really makes it a pleasant walk outside the big tourist paths of the capital. 

But did this keyhole appear by chance?

Many wonder about it, but the answer is obviously no.

Most likely, this keyhole whose optic is well calibrated in the direction of St. Peter, is the result of a brilliant idea by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who in 1765, at the request of Cardinal Rezzonico, had the task of renovating the entrance creating, furthermore, a spectacular rococo square, sumptuously decorated with coats of arms and trophies.

The majestic entrance door to the square is the one from which, in fact, you can 'spy' on St. Peter in the distance.

Nearby the famous door there is the Municipal Rose Garden, a splendid garden swollen with nothing short of spectacular roses.

A little further on, however, is the famous Giardino degli Aranci, a park with a panoramic terrace that allows an unforgettable view of the Eternal City. 

But there was a time when the cat had a different main role in its family: to keep mice away from home.

For this reason, beautiful cats, but above all those good at following their feline instincts, were welcomed open arms in Roman houses, which, as it is well known, rest on millennial stratifications of this city, and therefore would be, if not adequately derated, easy breeding ground for rodents.

The "Carnacciaro" made the happiness of these feline Roman workers.

The Carnacciaro was an ancient craft, which, moreover, was exercised in Rome until the early 1940s, in conjunction with the outbreak of the Second World War.

This worker sold the "carnaccia" pomace, which in Roman language meant offal discarded by butchers, mainly intended for pets.

The carnacciari, before starting their tour in the early morning, boiled and flavored the offal with spices, then put them in their bags, touring the neighborhoods of Rome and distributing them shredded to domestic cats.

The carnacciari lived with the tips of the cats owners.

The chronicles tell that, at that time, the domestic cats had learned, at the sight of the carnacciaro, to rush to call their owners persistently meowing, as they were now aware that the lunch would not have been given to them but in presence of their owner, who had the task to tip the Carnacciaro.

In addition to living with the tips of the owners of the cats, the Roman carnacciari also lived from the sale of the cats themselves: when on the street they noticed a young and handsome stray, they attracted him with food, and eventually put it in a large bag that they carried with them, in order to sell it to families looking for a valid "rat-chasing associate". All in all it was a positive perspective for the cat himself, who thus went from stray living to the so-called "safe place", repaid with three meals a day.

The carnacciaro, unlike many other itinerant professions, did not shout its own motto to attract attention, also because he mainly worked in the early morning, merely whistling in order to attract the attention of cats.

The outbreak of the Second World War saw, together with the end of other itinerant trades, also the end of the carnacciaro.

Meat was scarce, many butchers had closed down; mobility was no longer completely free as in time of peace.
And so even cats, in their way, paid their bitter tribute to the painful war event.

According to tradition, Jesus replied: "Venio iterum crucifigi" (I come to be crucified again).
Peter understood the message and, retracing his steps, faced martyrdom and was crucified upside down in Nero's Circus.
In the ninth century, in this very place, a chapel called "Santa Maria delle Piante" was built, by virtue of a stone on which the footprints of Jesus were imprinted.

The church that we can admire today is the seventeenth-century reconstruction of this chapel.
On its perimeter one can observe the footprints of Christ (very large indeed).
However, the original footprints can be seen in the Chapel of the Relics, which is located in the nearby Basilica of San Sebastiano Fuori Le Mura.
In the same chapel there is another interesting relic: one of the arrows that martyred Saint Sebastian at the time of the emperor Diocletian and his persecutions against Christians.
Francesco Petrarca, in a letter to Cardinal Colonna recalls the stone with the footprints of Jesus' feet as an "adored vestige".

Although, nowadays, the traffic that surrounds it does not highlight it and does not pay particular attention to it, the heraldic symbols of the Borghese stand out on it: the eagle and the dragon.

There was, on the same site, a bronze statue of St. John the Evangelist, unfortunately disappeared after it was damaged by a lightning in the 19th century.

The monolithic obelisk above it, the tallest in the world, was found in 1588 in the Circus Maximus and erected here on the orders of Pope Sixtus V.

According to popular rumors, bathing your hands with the water of this fountain allows you to ward off the evil eye and the witches; operation to be done on the night of St. John's Feast, which is traditionally held on June 24, the day on which tradition places the birth of the Saint.

Such celebration was strongly linked to pagan traditions connected with the summer solstice.

The night before June 24 is usually considered the shortest of the year, and at that time it was also considered the one in which witches wandered around the city in search of souls.

During this festival, in addition to the traditional drinks, which were certainly not moderate, it was the custom of the Romans to indulge in big eats of snails.

Of course, many cheerful songs and dances were an integral part of the festival, in addition to very, very much noise in order to hunt the witches, who were thought to gather on the lawns in front of the Basilica in order to collect herbs for their spells.

All this uproar was only extinguished towards dawn, just before the Pope celebrated Mass in the Basilica, then officially concluding the function with the long-awaited rite of throwing gold and silver coins to the people from the Lodge of Blessings.

There was a base of an obelisk centrally superimposed on it, which Augustus had brought from Egypt.
The obelisk had the function of a gnomon, that is, an "indicator arm", because on the top stood a sphere with a tip, reaching a height of one hundred Roman feet, which is today's 110 feet.

The shadow of the sphere projected on the dial indicated the time, day and month.
In addition, at sunset on September 23, on the day and time of Augustus' birth, the shadow fell on the Ara Pacis as a tribute to the emperor.

The solar clock, conceived by the mathematician Facundus Novius, remained in operation only about half a century, because, as Pliny writes, it collapsed due to an earthquake and the floods of the Tiber, which were depositing large layers of slime on the plates of the dial.

So , everything was lost?
No. First of all, the obelisk came to light in five pieces, and was recognized for the one used as a gnomon by the Augustan inscriptions engraved on the base, which recall the conquest of Egypt.

It was restored with the fragments of red granite from the Colonna Antonina, which had been discovered in small parts not recomposable as early as 1703, and between 1790 and 1792 it was erected in Piazza Montecitorio in front of the Palazzo dei Tribunali, now the Chamber of Deputies.

And then it was decided to reactivate its gnonomic function, superimposing a globe with lots of heraldic symbols of Pope Pius VII, and pierced so that a ray of sunshine conveyed to the ground could pass through it, indicating the time on special strips to be placed in the pavement of the square.
But those strips did not arrive, and the bells of Montecitorio continued to tell the time.

Only recently the gnonomic function of the obelisk has been restored.

On June 7, 1998, with the inauguration of the new layout of Piazza Montecitorio, twelve guide-flints were in fact planted on the steps in front of the building, and the obelisk began to mark the hour again.

The Tiber, after having driven Rome's rise to the role of planetary power for centuries, was practically abandoned in the Middle Ages.

No longer came from all over the world, loaded with precious goods, the merchant ships, which, had given way to pirates who infested the Mediterranean.
However, Romans were still waiting to see ancient treasures emerge.

It was thought that the Tiber would return those treasures to those who had sought them with constancy and determination.

Over the centuries, this hope was nourished and confirmed by a large amount of findings: marble works, coins, ancient weapons ...

For centuries, the "river seeker" was a real job.
Many churches, in Rome and in the world, are rich in precious pieces "fished out" in the Tiber.

However, one of the most famous legends about the mysterious treasures kept in the Tiber, is that of the presence in his bed of the Menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum of the Temple of Jerusalem, which the Romans took possession of in the sacking of 70 AD.
It was solid gold made, weighed about 77 lbs., And remained visible in Rome in the Temple of Peace until the second century AD.

It is believed that it was robbed in the fifth century by the Vandals of Genserico.

Where is it now?

There are various theories about it, but the most credited is the one which the Roman people have handed down for centuries: the ancient and precious Menorah has been lying for centuries on the Tiber riverbed, between the Tiber Island and Ponte Rotto (the Broken Bridge)

In the mid-eighteenth century, the Jewish Community of Rome asked for permission to dig the Tiber bed in search of the precious object of worship.

In the nineteenth century, Giuseppe Naro dredged the Tiber, with the permission of Pope Pius VII, on board a special ship, with which he "fished" 44 precious findings near the Tiber Island, among which, however, there wasn't any golden candlestick.

On September 10, 1830, the poetry of the great Giuseppe Gioachino Belli tells the story in this graceful sonnet (unfortunately not translatable into English, but it is still a good opportunity to appreciate the writing and sound of the old vernacular language of Rome):

The most advanced aerospace technologies could, today, help to understand if the ancient legends have a background of truth.
With the help of satellites, in fact, today it is possible to locate sunken objects even hundreds feet below the surface of water, and no larger than a very common melon.
Basterebbe volerlo, o, per dirla con Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, “ssi lo vonno…”

In the opinion of experts, the underground building located in Porta Maggiore, dating back to the 1st century AD, was the tomb of the family of the Statili, considered very close toEmperor Augustus. For others, however, the underground Basilica was the site of mystery, neo-Pythagorean cults (its measurements all have a relationship with the number three) or orphic.

The latest findings of Superintendency of Rome tend to endorse both interpretations sequentially.

Very soon a new light will illuminate the internal stuccos of the Underground Basilica of Porta Maggiore, while in the teaching room, located on the ground floor, augmented reality will allow visitors to look closely at the decorations.

Since its discovery in 1917 (it was accidentally found during the consolidation works of the above railway tracks), the Underground Basilica of Porta Maggiore has always fascinated archeology scholars and more. The small building (40 feet long by 30 feet wide, for a total of 1,220 square feet in total), has the classic central nave scheme with side wings divided by pillars plus the apse at the bottom.

Three are the rooms in this ancient and mysterious building in Rome: Dromos (access from the ancient via Prenestina, a long sloping corridor that led from the surface to the Basilica underground), Vestibule (the entrance, decorated with polychrome stuccos) and Basilica (with the three naves and the apse entirely decorated with white stuccos).

Scenes from the Greek-Roman repertoire (the labors of Hercules, the kidnapping of Ganymede, Hermes and Alcestis, Medusa, Baccanti etc.) and objects used for religious rites (canteens, lustral amphorae) appear in the decorative apparatus of the Vestibule and the basilica hall. , etc.). The interpretation of the apsidal basin with the representation of Sappho in the act of launching himself from the cliff of Lefkada in the presence of Apollo and Faonte is very debated.

Currently, instead of the villa, there is Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, with its gardens. The door, which once was in another location, was built in the second half of the seventeenth century, together with four others now lost. Probably, the year of construction is 1680. On the surface of the same we find engraved alchemical symbols, as the Marquis was fond of hermeticism and esotericism.

According to tradition, the alchemical formula of the transmutation of the vile lead into gold, or perhaps part of it, would be represented on the door. This formula would have been learned by the Marquis following the discovery of some papers belonging to other alchemists; findings which are actually indecipherable cards.

It was for this reason that the Marquis decided to report these signs on the portal of the villa, hoping that someone could decipher them.

The symbols which can be found here are the alchemical one of the sun and gold (on the architrave), the seal of Solomon; the symbols of the planets (on the jambs), with their corresponding metals, and a series of indications in Latin: Saturn-lead, Jupiter-tin, Mars-iron, Venus-copper, Moon-silver, Mercury-mercury.