All Roads Lead to Rome

Today we left the city center to visit the ancient Christian catacombs. We got to drive right through the ancient aqueducts that brought water into Rome, then along the ancient city wall (yes, everything here is "ancient").

We literally drove right through the aqueduct.

Driving along the ancient city wall.

There were no pictures allowed inside the catacombs, sadly! They were pretty awesome though. They were over 60 feet deep (four levels) and spread across about 90 acres.

The catacombs first started in the second century. The Romans would generally cremate their dead, but the Christians wished to bury theirs. Because of persecution, they had to leave the city and hide their burials. 500,000 people were buried there, including 16 popes.

Not my picture.

The tombs were regularly raided by Barbarians, and sadly the bones and remains were pulled out of their crypts and dug through. 

Christians also used the catacombs as secret meeting places. The sulfur in the air that deep made it too dangerous to live there, though.

Posing

Nearby was the Domine Quo Vadis church (the name means "Lord, Where are you Going"), where St. Peter saw a vision of Christ as he fled Rome. Peter was escaping the persecution of Nero, when Christ appeared. Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" to which Christ replied, "To Rome, to be crucified again." This gave Peter the courage to return to Rome, where he himself was later crucified.

Supposedly the footprints of Christ.

Peter

At the bottom you can see where it says, "Venio Roman iterum crucifigi."

The whole area was really lovely. It was tree-lined and quiet without nearly as many tourists as we've seen elsewhere in Rome. We had a picnic lunch and the kids got to run around a bit.

Heading home we went along the Appian Way. The Appian Way is one of the oldest and, in its time, most important ancient Roman roads. 

Our Mercedes on the Appian Way!

It was fun getting out of the city a bit! We had a nice day out.