Exploring Rome by Bike

We try to make the most of our travel days by using them for school and planning, so on our train from Sorrento to Naples and then another train to Rome, that's how we spent our time.  Sometimes it works more efficiently than others.  As we are beginning to see the end of our adventure in the future, we are also experiencing some of our "lasts," one of which was our last train ride to a new location.

Mom and G reviewing school while waiting for the train to Rome

Disembarking our last train to a new city

We arrived in Rome earlier than we could get into our accommodation and so we found a place to camp out and grab a bite to eat between the train station and our apartment.  It was a grueling hot day and walking a mile with all our gear was not viewed favorably. When we were walking upstairs to our apartment we realized that we hadn't thought to check if it had AC when we booked it, and sure enough there was none.  This unfortunately made for several uncomfortable nights as the temperatures were unseasonably hot often hitting 95 during the days.  After getting settled in a bit, we headed to the area around The Spanish Steps for some dinner.  The steps are under construction, so no one can be on them, but it is still a fun area to wander.

The Spanish Steps

Sunday morning we attended an inspiring time of prayer and worship at The International Church Fellowship in Rome.  Our daughter enjoyed being with kids her own age and we all enjoyed the diverse fellowship.  Unfortunately we hadn't expected service to last more than two hours and were disappointed when we had to duck out a little early in order to make it to a bike tour we'd booked.

Look who's not shy about going up front at church in Rome!

It was a very hot day and we were excited about our tour to the Roman countryside to see the ancient aqueducts and catacombs.  The boys were thrilled too because our tour had us riding e-bikes, which made it much more enjoyable as less effort was required, and of course they could careen around racing each other more at higher speeds!

Rome consists of 7 hills and in its history has had 2 walls, one in 4BC and another built in two years between 271-273AD.  90% of this wall is still intact!  In 64AD, Nero's fire destroyed roughly 30% of Rome.  Today we can see that materials from the ruins were used to build on top of the foundations to expand and restore structures around the city.

Bike ride selfie

St. Sebastian Gate - entrance to Appian Way, the main road for military supplies

We were excited to tour the Catacombs after having been in the ones in Paris and knowing that they were inspired by those in Rome and Naples. However, the ones in Paris were much more impressive. The San Callisto Catacombs in Rome are the largest catacombs in the city, covering 15 hectacres and four levels. These tombs were built outside of the city and were built to show power. The tombs were dug into tuffa, which is soft and easy for digging but becomes hard once exposed to air. People could not reserve a spot in the catacombs because they would fill up based on time of death, and then that level or area would be filled in. However there were family tombs for those who would pay the grave diggers and workers as these people did not earn much money because the church was not allowed to pay them for burial work. The deceased bodies were sprinkled with lye or lime and squeezed into the tomb along with possessions and then the tomb was sealed with cement (which was invented by the Romans), and the deceased person's name and symbol were carved into the wet cement. In the 9th Century the Barbarians, Lombards, Visigoths and others attacked this land for treasures in the tombs and more or less looted the majority. The Catacombs were rediscovered in 1849 and today 90% of them are open. Because the catacombs were designed with the weight of the dead in mind, in order for the area to safely contain the weight of tour groups, reinforcements have been added to the structure over the years. Some people hypothesize that Christians may have lived down in these catacombs during the persecution, but due to the sulfur, it is most likely impossible. No photos were allowed to be taken, so unfortunately we have nothing to show for this part of our day.

We continued to bike down the Appian Way on incredibly rough cobblestone of all sizes as we passed ancient structures. We were all surprised when we arrived at a golf course with a magnificent aqueduct in the background! The aqueducts were also built out of clay and tuffa stone and even though the Romans were familiar with lead poisoning they still occasionally used it. This aqueduct is the only one of the 11 original aqueducts that is still working today. It took 12 years to build this aqueduct, which is considered a long time for the Romans who built The Coliseum in roughly 4-5 years. The Romans perfected the arch and knew that at it's highest it could be 27 meters and each arch goes 5 meters underground. It was necessary for the arches to be high in order for protection. The longest aqueduct in Rome is 110km, but there was an older aqueduct that was destroyed by the Visigoths in Rome.

Biking along a golf course with the aqueduct in the background

E-biking along the amazing aqueduct!

Our oldest so thrilled to be biking - finally! (He asks twice a day)

Of course any downtime on the tour was an opportunity for the boys to find jumps and race!

Remains of an aqueduct - water used to flow through that dark spot on the left side

Biking along sections of the ancient aqueducts 

Our tour ended by biking past The Colosseum!

To understand the significance of water in Rome it is helpful to know that at the time these aqueducts were built there were roughly 2 million people in Rome, not counting the slaves which were equivalent to 1/3 of the population - it was much more densely populated than current Rome. During that time there was 1000 cubic meters of water per person. Now water is pressurized, but back then gravity was the only way to make water work and to do that the Romans realized they needed to follow the terrain and zigzag their water systems through the hills, even though this would require the aqueducts to be longer it would be cheaper and more stable in the long run. Today, the water system in Rome continues to be a marvel as there are more than 800 fountains throughout the city that have fresh cold water pouring continuously from them. The water runs all of the time because there is more water than they will ever be able to be used here. In fact, our guide told us that he pays 9 Euro for water pipes a month, but doesn't have a monthly water bill. This was all hard for us to fathom after having been in Swaziland and knowing that our friends there are still suffering from a serious drought and water rationing.

After the aqueducts our tour took an unfortunate turn as one of the riders fell off his bike and sustained an immediate concussion, and no, it was not one of us. Our guide had to call an ambulance and Dad and another rider carried the man up out of the park to the main street where the ambulance could pick him up while Mom attended to his worried wife and kept our kids in tow. We then had two extra bikes to pull to a point where they could easily be picked up by our bike company.

We stopped at a farm for some local wine and cheese while the kids continued to race around and create jumps and obstacle courses to conquer. On our way back to the bike shop, Dad was able to jump online and secure the last spot on our home church's mission trip this winter to Swaziland, which was quite a feat as the trip sold out in about 15 minutes! We grabbed a quick bite to eat and laughed as we made a game of our evening walk home to see who could walk with their arms above their head the longest - this was quite a sight as we had to pass through sidewalk restaurants and many onlookers weren't quite sure what was happening!  A funny way to wrap up our crazy day!

This might arguable be one of our favorite parts of Rome - 1 of the over 800 fresh water fountains in the city!

Having a laugh while trying to keep our hands up as we walked home. That is a restaurant of people on the left. 

No trip to Rome is complete without a visit to the Trevi fountain which was built as an ancient Roman aqueduct termination. Here tradition says to throw a coin over your left shoulder and it will bring you back to Rome someday - certainly worked for Mom & Dad! Being the curious bunch we are we pondered where all that money goes as no matter what time of day you visit the fountain is packed with people throwing coins. Turns out the coins are swept up regularly and the proceeds are donated to a local food shelve with the annual proceeds exceeding $3 million dollars.  So next time you feel silly throwing your money into a fountain you can at least know its going to worth cause.

Trevi Fountain selfie

Trevi Fountain