Rome residents seek refuge from heat in catacombs

Rome is enduring another sweltering summer, with temperatures regularly climbing above 39C, but relief from the heat can be found beneath the city’s streets, in its cool underground archaeological sites and catacombs.

The Eternal City is home to the sites where temperatures can fall as low as 10C, offering visitors both a respite from the heat and a chance to explore layers of Rome’s ancient history, Caliber.Az reports, citing Independent.

Roman summers are typically hot and humid, but this season has been particularly intense. Despite the conditions, visitors have continued to arrive in large numbers, with Rome’s historic centre seeing an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 visitors each day in July.

That has meant huge crowds gathering at landmarks such as the Colosseum under the scorching sun.

Churches are a traditional refuge, thanks to their thick walls, marble floors and high ceilings. But for a truly cool escape, visitors can head below ground, where temperatures remain pleasant — and sometimes downright cold — throughout the year.

The cooler conditions are only part of the appeal. Rome’s underground archaeological sites offer an opportunity to see remnants of the city as it existed when it was known as caput mundi, or the capital of the ancient world.

By mid-June, the heat was already intense when I waited with my guests in a small patch of shade for our timed entrance to the Domus Aurea. When our guide arrived wearing a puffer jacket, scarf and beanie, I initially assumed she was being overly cautious. Around 40 minutes into the tour, however, I understood her choice of clothing and wished I had worn more than long sleeves.

The partially excavated remains of Emperor Nero’s infamous palace are located underground, largely as a result of the Roman practice of damnatio memoriae, the deliberate removal of unwanted figures from history and public memory.

After Nero died in 68 CE by noble suicide, his enormous palace, which is believed to have covered up to 300 acres, was buried under millions of tonnes of rubble and remained hidden for around 14 centuries.

Today, guided tours take visitors through a network of interconnected rooms containing surviving fragments of frescoes, marble and mosaics. A virtual reality experience provides an especially vivid impression of the palace in its original form.

The main drawback is limited access: the site is open only from Friday to Sunday, while tickets are often snapped up soon after they are released.

The archaeological complex beneath the Basilica of San Clemente is no less fascinating. It contains a 4th-century early Christian church and a temple dedicated to the god Mithras.

Other places where Romans and tourists seek relief from the heat include the Roman House beneath Palazzo Valentini, the catacombs along the Appian Way, and the Vatican Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov