Wonderful photos "stolen" some days ago by a passer in the course of an excavation campaign during some interventions in the quadrant south of Rome. Before to focus on what the archeologists and the workers found, I would like to remind how it is a wonderful example of how many things could be found in Rome. You need just to dig, and a for local tour guide like  me it is simply a pleasure.

What you see in the photo is a section, about 8 meters long, of the Via Laurentina, one of the several roads that led directly to Rome. The study of the basalt shows us how a part of what was dug is a more modern remake related to the original, that probably is date back to the first century a.D.. In spite of all the certainties we have about the ancient roman world, even today, sometimes we have doubts and questions to answer. In this case, for example, we still do not know well the source of this road. The road that joined Rome to the ancient and almost mythological Laurentum (a city founded, according to tradition, from a from this Pico, one of the kings of Alba Longa), doesn't find any clear evidences in the literary sources.

Probably it ran it for about the XII roman miles, from the Aurelian Walls up to the location of Laurentum, located about X miles far from the city. What is certain is that the story of the Laurentina Road is intertwined with that one of Pliny the Younger, a writer and a wise roman who claimed to possess his estate (which is likely the remains are embedded in the park of Castel Porziano), just in the soil where stood the ancient city! A mix of news, some history, a little fantasy and mythology for a way that, still today, is an important road linking Rome to everything that is to the south.

The Laurentina Road was a way that, in scope and in the era of the purely christian, was used and still is by the faithful and pilgrims to reach the area of the Tre Fontane, where St. Paul would have met his martyrdom. Amazing to think how, in spite of everything, in the picture you can observe only a section of the roman road, anonymous loads, however, a thousand-year history. From a legendary city such as Laurentum, to the estate of one of the men in the Rome of he first century a.D., up to the Eternal City of Christianity and of the christian martyrs. All of this, and it is a sin, is no longer visible because the road has been buried again, to allow the continuation of the yard. Maybe one day it will be brought to light, who knows. Certainly, however, the Via Laurentina, in this case, is a road whose story resurfaces sometimes from the ground...