Meeting with the driver and guide in hotel.
The famous "Ancient Appian Way",was called Regina Viaurum, because of the splendid Monuments which stood on either site of it. It was built by the Censor Appius Claudius in 312 B.C., and went as far as Capua, later extended to Benevento and Brindisi. All the Consular Roads were lined with the handsome tombs of Patricians, most of whom were cremated and their ashes preserved in urns. Because they were buried, uncremated in underground caves hallowed out of soft tufo stone.
It is now generally accepted that Catacombs were not where the early Christian Community hid from persecution, but they gathered to honour their dead, particularly martyrs and Popes, usually by staging banquets.
Along this road several Monuments have been identified: The Little Church of Domine Quo Vadis; The Catacombs of San Callisto, situated on four levels and extending for several kilometres (not yet completely explored) and famous for "The Crypt of the Popes"; The Catacombs of San Sebastian and the Basilic; several Jewish Catacombs, very similar to the Christian in construction and decoration, except for symbols and inscriptions, which are mostly in Greek; Catacombs of Santa Domitilla including Christian and no - Christians tombs; The Circus of Maxentius and the Tomb of Cecilia Metella.
Return to hotel.
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