What a disappointment! I had hoped to get onto the ancient Via Latina from the Via Demetriade, but the archaeological terrain with the remains of the road turned out to be closed off with a fence. And that fence happened to be locked. I therefore took a couple of photos…
In the summer of 2018 I made a highly enjoyable walk along the famous Via Appia and published an extensive report about it on this website. Part of my walk happened to be a small piece of the less well-known Via Latina. Back then I already decided that one day…
The Museo Nazionale Romano opened its doors as early as 1890. The immense collection of the museum is currently distributed across four locations: the Palazzo Massimo and Palazzo Altemps, which have been discussed previously, the Crypta Balbi and the Baths of Diocletianus. The baths can be considered the museum’s original…
The Palazzo Altemps was named after the German cardinal Mark Sittich von Hohenems (1533-1595). The cardinal’s mother Chiara de’ Medici was a sister of Pope Pius IV, who sat on Saint Peter’s throne between 1559 and 1565. Pius IV will chiefly be remembered as the pope who presided over the…
The nineteenth-century Palazzo Massimo is currently the main seat of the prestigious Museo Nazionale Romano, which is completely dedicated to Roman civilisation. The museum has much to offer to visitors, basically too much for a single visit. This means it is virtually impossible to write a post about the museum…
Those who enter the village of Grand in the Vosges completely unprepared, will perhaps wonder how on earth it ever got its name. With a population of less than 400 souls, Grand is anything but grand. But the name Grand has nothing to do with the French adjective for ‘large’.…
The picturesque town of Desenzano on the shores of Lake Garda once had an imposing Roman villa. Like all Roman villas, this villa was primarily an agricultural estate. The part where the buildings related to agricultural production must have stood has not been excavated. The residential part has, although the…
Jonvelle in the Haute-Saône is a village with less than 125 inhabitants. Its main attraction is the Musée des Vestiges Gallo-Romain, which is dedicated to the remains of a villa from the Roman age. Nowadays we tend to think of a villa as a large house in the country, but…
In Rome it sometimes happens that a building or monument is unintentionally given the wrong name. That name then sticks, even though people later realise that it is actually incorrect. A good example would be the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which was long thought to have been built…
Andematunnum was one of the principal settlements (oppida) of the Gallic tribe of the Lingones. This tribe had sided with the Roman during Julius Caesar’s Gallic War (58-50 BCE). Their allegiance to Rome is proven by the fact that Caesar had his legions winter in their territories[1], and by their…
Ancient Vesontio was the principal town (oppidum) of the Gallic tribe of the Sequani. Their name refers to the Latin word for the Seine river (Sequana), but it seems rather unlikely that the tribesmen called themselves Sequani too. Modern Besançon is a nice city with a beautiful cathedral. In the…
In the Vatican Museums, one can admire a wonderful collection of early Christian sarcophagi. Most date from the fourth century CE. This was a crucial period in the history of Christianity. In the middle of the previous century Christians still suffered persecutions under the emperors Decius and Valerianus. Around the…
The Sacred Area of the square that is called the Largo Argentina is one of the most picturesque spots in all of Rome. Here we find, apart from one of the most famous cat sanctuaries of the city, the remains of four Roman temples which once adorned the Field of…
About a mile outside the small village of Faverolles in the Haute-Marne, one can find the imposing remains of a Gallo-Roman mausoleum from the early Imperial era. It stood along the road leading from Langres, which was then called Andematunnum, to the valley of the river Blaise and then perhaps…
This post is basically an index of Roman ‘firsts’. Search this index if you are looking for the first time in history that the Romans staged gladiatorial fights, elected two plebeian consuls or used elephants on the battlefield. The links below will redirect to other posts where the events are…
Some tourist attractions are so new that they are not yet mentioned in any travel guide. This was the case with Spello’s Villa dei Mosaici, which opened its doors to the public as late as March of 2018. The great thing about Italy is that one just has to stick…
The early history of Spello is poorly documented. The area of the town, which started as a settlement of the Umbrians, has been inhabited since at least the seventh century BCE. During the Roman era, Spello was known as Hispellum. It cannot have been more than a village, likely highly…
The Italian region of Umbria is a modern creation. Historically, the region where the Ancient Umbrians lived, ‘the oldest of the peoples of Italy’[1], was both much smaller and much larger. It was smaller because the western part of modern Umbria was in the hands of the Etruscans, who lived…
It took us a while to find the ruins of Carsulae, one of the most interesting archaeological sites in all of Umbria. This is a place where history becomes tangible and people from the twenty-first century can walk in the footsteps of Roman travellers, soldiers and traders. Carsulae was a…
The area around Spoleto has been inhabited since at least the eighth century BCE. Rich grave finds from several necropolises demonstrate that there must have been a settlement here of some importance. Excavations in 2008-2009 in the Piazza d’Armi, north of the railway station, have for instance uncovered the tomb…