Roma

Rome

photography — Forum Romanum, Roma, Italy. Public Domain.

The eternal city Rome has underground all over. Obviously, it is all man-made, as the city is built on the swamps of the river Tiber. But the underground of Rome is impressive, enormous in size, variety and age. Most underground sites listed here are actually 2,000 years old, of Roman Age.

We thought about listing only a single website, as there are actually hundreds of sites which are managed by a single institution named Associazione Culturale Roma Sotterranea (Cultural Association Underground Rome). The sites are owned by the municipality or private owners, the Roma Sotterranea association manages the tours. The best way to do such a tour is checking their website and booking the tours which are available in the days when you visit Rome. This is actually quite the opposite of a normal cave tours, where you go to a place and take the next tour. This is partially a result of Corona restrictions, but also of the number of underground sites. In other words, there are hundreds of sites, and last time we checked they offered tours into 30 different sites located all over the city. It’s completely impossible to man ticket offices at so many different spots. And most sites are guide only a few times per week. So we decided to list the highlights, the extraordinary sites, and all sites which are not managed by them.

There are a few sites, like the Colosseum, which actually have regular open hours. They are typically open for tourists for the above ground part, and the underground part is either part of the visit or must be booked separately.