This three-hour "Underground Rome" walking seminar provides a thematic exploration of the hidden, subterranean levels of Rome. Lying at times up to 10 meters (30 feet) below the modern city, much of ancient Rome is still being excavated today in the course of street work and other infrastructural improvements. This walk will look at some of the newest, most exciting discoveries, while also piecing together an educational narrative about urban layering, the relationship between the modern city and its history, and the cutting edge of Roman archaeology.

We begin with the Vicus Caprarius, a recently discovered series of houses and streets lying below an apartment building and cinema just a stone's thrown from the Trevi Fountain. Looking at the layers of architectural accumulation, we will trace some of the major periods of urban habitation in the city--from antiquity through the Medieval. We'll also talk about domestic Roman buildings. (One of the ancient apartments in this complex includes a toilet.) From here we'll stroll to Piazza Venezia where to visit the recently-opened subterranean spaces beneath the monument to Victor Emanuelle (Il Vittoriano). These include a bomb shelter used during WWII and, according to rumor and myth, a secret passage carved by Mussolini to facilitate his escape from Rome.

We will then move on to the Crypta Balbi, one of the best organized museums in the city, which occupies the subterranean crypts of a Renaissance palace. Here we will discuss a panopoly of ancient structures, from a theater to a street, and look once again at issues of stratification.

 This itinerary is usually led by an archaeologist, classical historian, or Medievalist. Although we will prebook all appointments to the sites, participants are responsable for buying their tickets at the time of the walk to the Vicus Caprarius (2 Euro), Il Vittoriano (6 Euro), and the Crypta Balbi (7 Euro). If there is time at the end of the walk, we might conclude with a glass of wine in an enoteca that has a piece of the wall of the baths of Agrippa in its basement.