La Via Appia Antica and our Roman Day of the Dead

The Via Appia Antica has existed as a road since the fourth century B.C., so it is undoubtedly the oldest road we have ever walked.  While a bit bumpy, it is still used today.

Our journey started as we dis-embarked from the bus at the intersection of Via Appia Antica and Via Cecilia Metella.  Of course, we immediately stopped into the Appia Antica Cafe for a coffee, a beer, and a sandwich.

Thus sustained, we began walking back towards Rome along this 2,400 year old road.

Our first stop was the tomb of Cecilia Metella, daughter of a Roman official, erected around 50 BC and expanded over the next 1,500 years into the battlements shown.

Inside, there is a small exhibit showing Roman burial artifacts, and an underground viewing area of the tomb of Cecilia Metella and a 260,000 year old lava flow which provided some of the material for paving the Appia Antica.

Next stop, the ancient chariot racing grounds pictured below.  This seems to be pretty typical of the walk - pretty countryside and scattered ruins.

The most impressive stops on the Appia Antica are the catacombs.  These ancient burial grounds served first Romans, then Christians.  They were set outside of the city due to Roman law forbidding burials within the City.  Popes, martyrs (even Saints Peter and Paul), and hundreds of thousands of Christians were interred here.  We visited the Catacombs of San Sebastiano, located underneath the basilica of Saint Sebastian, a church built by Emperor Constantine.

Even more than St. Peter's in Rome, this small church shows one of the things that makes Catholicism unique.  The church is dedicated to the martyr Saint Sebastian, a Roman army officer who converted to Christianity and was subsequently killed by his comrades, first shot with arrows and then whipped to death, our son tells me.  In a small chapel on one side of the church, a marble statue of Saint Sebastian appears.

Immediately across from this in another small chapel, one of the arrows that was supposedly removed from Saint Sebastian is displayed.  We had seen many such examples in churches around Rome, but for some reason this small church created a linkage between the relic and the Saint for me.  Of course, I am doubtful of the credibility of such claims, but it is an interesting facet of this religion.  Here is said arrow:

We wandered along the Appia Antica a bit more, then headed back into town on the bus.  We ended up at the Bocca della Verita, the "Mouth of Truth" - the world's oldest lie detector.  You put your hand in the mouth, answer a question, and if you lie, the marble mouth will bite your hand off.  So, we now know for sure that our son did not eat the entire box of cookies at his grandmother's house and that it must have been my wife that did it....unless of course that trick of crossing the fingers works even with the Mouth of Truth.

Alas, the reality is that this is simply an ornate manhole cover from the Roman sewer system.  But, just like the arrow in San Sebastiano, if you can keep the story going long enough, it pretty much becomes real.  Either that, or I am going to burn in Hell, prodded by the arrows of a thousand devils.

This marble slab sits at the entry of the medieval church Santa Maria in Cosmedin.  Under this church is a small catacomb which you can visit for a donation of 1 euro.