Late-Roman Early Medieval Italy: First Station Roma

On March 29 our Medieval Archaeology class took a flight from Frankfurt to Rome (see pic.1 waiting for boarding at Frankfurt), where we landed about 9:15 AM at Fiumicino (cf.pic.2). To get us to our hotel, someone had the good idea to rent a bus instead of finding our way by train and subway. Three mini-buses were waiting for us, but it took a while to wait for the drivers and get our luggage and as one guy had'nt shown up for the trip, we only needed two.




Waiting for our plane

Frankfurt

Fiumicino

We drove North on the highway with destination via Salaria, in the far Northeast of Rome, where we had booked into Hotel  Romulus, a good name to begin a visit to Rome (pic.3)

Romulus 

 

Hotel Romulus just lies between the Tiber and Via Salaria, and below the hill of ancient Fidenae. In fact, the Urban Railway Station of Fidene lies just two hundred meters northward, but when I tried to take the train the next day, I found the railway and the Via Salaria barred by fences, so that I had to walk back through the residential area toward the military airport of Ciampino and then up the Via Salaria again. #
Hotel Romulus had a nice garden terrace restaurant, the choice of meals was limited, the rooms a little old fashioned and the nightly noise from the rail & road quite disturbing- as we had to leave the window open as the room was stuffy and it was already quite warm in March.

via Salaria

 watch the video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikhjTcmKPJM)

Fidenae 8km north of Rome on the hill just above the Tiber was supposedly a Latin or Sabine town, and a colony of Alba Longa. During the regal period, still under Romulus, according to Livy and Plutarch, it came into conflict when Rome expanded . A battle with the Fidenati supposedly took place around 746  BC, and Rome made Fidenae a colony and settled some 2500 coloni there. An article on  Fidenae's territory appears in academia.edu (Pietro Barbina, Letizia Ceccarelli et al. Il territorio di Fidenae tra V e II secolo a.C.). It traces the evolution of the territory and shows results of 2001 excavation and parts of votive  statues dated to the VI to IV c. - perhaps offered in a sanctuary of Minerva.
 http://www.academia.edu/266258/Il_territorio_di_Fidenae_tra_V_e_II_secolo_a._C

We were all waiting for our rooms to be made, because we arrived around 11 AM, and they were not ready before 1 PM(pic.5). It took us almost that time - 2 hrs - to sort out our room arrangements (because our travel agency had gotten 3 double rooms, 3 triple rooms and not enough single rooms) and draw up a list of our names and birthdates and check the passports (pic.6). Fortunately Lori (with yellow Rucksack ) had already bought day tickets for bus.and metro so that by the afternoon we were ready to venture into the city.

I had looked up hotel Romulus on the internet before our flight, and discovered  an interesting article on Via Salaria, which follows in post 3.

With Bus 36 from the hotel  to Tiburtina railway station., from where we took the blue metro to Termini (Rome's main station) where we went to the tourist office to get a map of Rome. From then everybody scattered to spend afternoon and evening by himself.
I  went straight to visit the Etruscan Museum at Villa Julia,  took a bus North past the Aurelian city walls - a piece of the so-called Servian wall is preserved outside the station -  towards Monte Pincio.I got out at the park of villa Borghese  to search for Villa Giulia, which has the biggest collection of Etruscan works from Vulci,Veji, Tarquinia, Caere and others. (see map)

  pic. 7  Parco Borghese


                                                 Villa Giulia (front)
                                                     Ville Giulia (court)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Villa Giulia (parkside)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

An extra post on Villa Giulia and Etruscan towns and necropoles might be of interest for those studying the Iron Age culture. In this you'll also find a map of ancient Etruria (Tuscia, later Toscana) Post