While singing in Lichfield, one of the choir members gave us a brilliant steer for an interesting site.  He probably won’t read this, but thank-you Alistair for a truly brilliant suggestion!

As I have said before,  Rome is layer upon layer of archeology and nowhere is this more apparent than at the Basilica de San Clemente.  This church is pretty enough on first viewing: 12th century, lovely floor amazing mosaic in the apse …

But it hides an amazing subterranean secret – two secrets, in fact.

Underneath the 12th century church is a fourth century church – and more.

You can only book online and you only get 30 minutes but it is so worthwhile.

The stairs down to the earlier church start from the shop. They are quite steep and there is a mystery room off to the side, with no mention of what it might have been.

None of this quite prepares you for the size of the church underground. It’s huge, as big as the church above, but somehow feels bigger. The ‘outside’ walls are an archeologic puzzle of random masonry, interspersed with ninth century frescos.

Photography is ‘strictly’ forbidden, probably to protect the frescos, so no pictures of those. I plead guilty to photographs of the stones (but without flash!).

The floors were mosaic and fragments remain here and there

Some of the frescos are significant (for example, Christ in purgatory) with written evidence of the transition between Latin and Italian (barely legible). But there is an even more fascinating secret beneath this fourth century church: a temple to Mithras AND some Roman houses.

Down again

with a change in temperature and a much spookier feel.

The passageways are narrow and really confining – slightly claustrophobic. But still fascinating:

The Mithras cult, based as it was on the sacrifice of Mithras, is seen by some as a precursor to Christianity. It was a highly secret sect and the place of worship was always underground. This was a late third/ early fourth century place of worship, preceding the church above it.

A few steps up and there are bits of Roman road and various houses, with a spring running through one of them:

Narrow passageways, narrow stairs, it’s confusing and intense, with very little explanation.

The Roman houses would have been at ‘street’ level – in fact, at the same level as the Colosseum. As time moved on and buildings were used as foundations for subsequent projects, street levels rose until, in the 12th century, they had to raise ALL the street levels.

And you can see that it continued to happen because you have to walk down from modern street level to get to the 12th century church.

Layer upon layer upon layer.

Totally incredible.

When we emerged from the site the sun was shining from an intensely blue section of sky. Ominous grey clouds discouraged us from a walk to thw Villa Borgese, so we chose the Caracalla Baths, arriving there to find that I had lost my cards and driving licence. Retracing our steps, running through the Basilica site and then returning to our breakfast cafe took time and energy.

To add insult to injury, it also rained again – in short but heavy bursts – such that I was squelching again.

And no, I didn’t find them – very irritating but not insurmountable.

Lunch was in Trastavere (after a change of clothing and footwear), at a place focused on resurrecting traditional Roman recipes – the city not the historical people. Mozzichi. It was tiny but delicious.

I had the chestnut tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and wild boar guanciale. Gently sweet, silky smooth tagliatelle in a sufficiently chunky mushroomy sauce, garnished with shreds of salty, meaty guanciale and chestnut halves. Roger had the black truffle and porcini mushroom tagliatelle, which he wouldn’t share, so I can’t offer any commentary on how it tasted. His facial expressions and muffled groans told a story of deliciousness, though. Neither photographed well (to say the least):

BUT! They were wonderfully fragrant and flavourful. No black pepper grinders. Instead, the chef came out to grate black truffle onto Roger’s pasta: he was more than generous and the heady scent of truffle carried to my side of the table, so no complaints!

Desserts were also good. Roger still on the pannacotta

while my tiramisu was decently layered…

An interesting day, part sun and part heavy showers.