– Castelli Romani – Albano Laziale and Nemi –
The Castelli Romani are truly a discovery for a tour near Rome, different, unusual and fascinating at the same time. Thanks to our always talented licensed and passionate guides of archeology, you can visit Albano Laziale and Nemi, among antiquities, landscapes and typical Roman cuisine.
– The amphitheater of Domitian
Domitian’s amphitheater, oval in shape, was built in tuff stone by the workers of the Second Parthian Legion in the first half of the third century AD, for the recreation of the army. The plant contained up to about 16,000 people and allowed to climb the imperial stairs to admire the view, as did the emperor and his court, from the “Pulvinar”, the imperial podium.
– The Roman Cisternone
The Roman Cisternone was supposed to supply the entire “Castrum” with water and was designed by the architects of the Second Parthian Legion, approximately in AD 202. The cistern is divided into five naves, built partly by digging in the rocky bank and partly in masonry, and is covered with hydraulic mortar to make the walls waterproof (opus signimun). You enter inside by going down the original stairs of 2000 years ago: a feeling of immense (it can contain 10,000 cubic meters of water) and incredible architecture if we think about the period in which it was built and the fact that it is still fully functional.
– The Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Rotonda
The circular-shaped sanctuary of Santa Maria della Rotonda (they call it the pantheon of the castles), in reality it has the round shape only inside, while on the outside it has a square plan with secondary walls that demonstrate the presence of a larger building . Tradition says that in 768 some Greek nuns, who fled the persecution of the iconoclasts, had reached Albano carrying the image of the Madonna and Child; Madonna who, still today, is venerated with devotion and whose feast is celebrated every year on the first Sunday of August. The Sanctuary preserves part of the original mosaic in white and black tesserae with figures of nereids, tritons and marine animals, some bas-reliefs from the Roman era and an interesting lapidary, as well as a series of 13th century frescoes.
– Museum of Roman ships in Nemi
The Museo delle Navi Romane in Nemi was built to house the hulls of the two large ships of Emperor Caligula, recovered between 1929 and 1932 on the seabed of Lake Nemi. The two ships, measuring respectively m. 71.30 x 20 and m. 73 x 24, unfortunately they were destroyed during a fire in 1944. The museum was definitively reopened in 1988 with a new layout: the left wing, the one dedicated to ships, houses miniature reproductions of the two destroyed boats, the on-board equipment, finds of naval carpentry, ceramics, some of the surviving decorative elements of the boats , and votive objects; in the right wing, the section dedicated to the territory, we find remains belonging to the local protohistory and the Alban area, finds dating back to the Bronze Age and evidence of the Roman Republican and Imperial Age.
– Lunch overlooking the lake of Nemi
Lunch with a view of Lake Nemi, the truly tasty typical Roman cuisine and, finally, on the terrace of a lake-view bar enjoy coffee with excellent tarts with Nemi strawberries. We return to Rome from the Via dei Laghi admiring the celestial water as the color of the sky. An unforgettable day dedicated to the culture, art and tradition of the area, because Art & Tradition Tours wants to make each of your guided tours unique.
