Metro C – Piazza Venezia revisited

The tantalising prospect of digging up parts of the centre of Rome to see what lies beneath is a reality at the moment for the archaeologists at work on the new Metro C line that will cut through the centre of the ancient city. This is the third Metro line, the first (confusingly named line B) opened in 1955 for the World Exhibition. The current stretch will head through the archaeological minefield, the ‘centro storico’, and it’s no surprise that this project more than any other has been given an ever-distanced string of completion dates.

The most apparent area of activity is the Piazza Venezia, transformed into Rome’s makeshift centrepiece after the city became Italy’s capital in 1870, framing the vast monument to Victor Emmanuel II. Many of the finds here are rather young for Rome – the remains of the 17th century palaces that had to make way for the new square, notably the Palazzo Torlonia and the wing of the Palazzo Venezia known as the ‘Palazzetto’ (little palace) on the Ripresa dei Barberi, the street at the end of the Corso where the riderless horses of Rome’s famous races would slow down through a series of hanging curtains that would stop them careering into the palace wall. These races are best remembered by Gericault’s series of paintings of the subject.

The current upheaval is a reminder of the shocks Rome received during the 19th Century building work in the city, described in particularly scathing tones by the great travel writer Augustus Hare. In the introduction to his glorious work, Walks in Rome, he writes:

Twenty-two years of Sardinian rule – 1870-1892 – have done more for the destruction of Rome than all the invasions of the Goths and Vandals …. The old charm is gone for ever, the whole aspect of the city is changed, and the picturesqueness of former days must now be sought in such obscure corners as have escaped the hands of the spoiler.

Strong words, Augustus, and one dreads to think what he would say about Rome today, but the good news is that the obscure corners still remain unspoiled, and the thrill of finding them is possibly more exciting than ever before, with the added reward or escaping the hordes of people and traffic, and not simply the excesses of 19th Century architecture.