CASTELGANDOLFO & CATACOMBS / TOP TOURS IN ITALY Rome Limousine Service, Rome Tour & Shore Excursions

Castelgandolfo Tour & Catacombs

Roman Castles
A 7-hour car and walking tour in the natural and artistic beauty of the small medieval villages outside Rome.
The small region of the Colli Albani, with a vast historical and cultural heritage, is well known for its splendid landescape with its volcanic lakes and charming hills covered with olive groves, vineyards and woods. The towns of this region are historically connected with Rome, it is from here that the legendary founders of the city left in the 8th c. BC, as it is in this region that the Roman aristocracy, after the conquest of the area in the 4th c. BC, built luxurious villas in the republican and imperial ages. In medieval time the towns were endowed with castels, monasteries and defensive walls, to become again meta of vacation from the renaissance time when famous architects and artists built wonderful country residencies.

The tour includes car pick up from the hotel, transfers to Castelgandolfo, Aricca, Rocca di Papa, Grottaferrata, typical restaurant (meals not included in the price), Frascati, and back to hotel.

The tour is for individuals as well as for small groups; and it includes private guide, private car transfers and site tickets.

Rome's Catacombs
Eighteen-hundred years ago, no one was allowed to be buried within the walls of Rome. While pagan Romans were into cremation, Christians preferred to be buried. But land was expensive and most Christians were poor. A few wealthy landowning Christians allowed their land to be used as burial places. These became the Catacombs.
The 40 or so known catacombs circle Rome about three miles from the center. From the first through the fifth centuries, Christians dug an estimated 360 miles of tomb-lined tunnels with networks of galleries as much as five layers deep. The Christians burrowed many layers deep for two reasons: to get more mileage out of the donated land and to be near martyrs and saints already buried there. The tufa — soft and easy to cut but becoming very hard when exposed to air — is perfect for the job. Bodies were wrapped in linen (like Christ was). Since they figured the Second Coming was imminent, there was no interest in embalming the body.
When Emperor Constantine became a Christian in 312, Christians had a new, interesting problem. There would be no more persecuted martyrs to bind them and inspire them. Thus the early martyrs and popes assumed more importance, and Christians began making pilgrimages to their burial places in the Catacombs.
Finding plates and utensils from ritual meals in the candlelit galleries led romantics to guess that persecuted Christians hid out and lived in these catacombs. This romantic legend grew. But Catacombs were not used for hiding out. They are simply early Christian burial grounds. With a million people in Rome, the easiest way for the 10,000 or so early Christians to hide out was not to camp in the Catacombs (which everyone, including the government, knew about), but to melt into the city.
The underground tunnels, while empty of bones, are rich in early Christian symbolism which functioned as a secret language.
The catacombs have a Web site focusing mainly on San Callisto, featuring photos, site info, and a history.

The tour is for individuals as well as for small groups; and it includes private guide, private car transfers and site tickets.

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Castelgandolfo


Rocca di Papa	Rocca Priora

About Rome...
The city's history extends nearly 2,800 years, during which time it has been the seat of ancient Rome (the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic, Roman Empire), and later the Papal States, Kingdom of Italy and Italian Republic. Legend has it that Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war, Mars. Rome is sometimes called "the Eternal City." The civilization of ancient Rome originated in the 8th or 9th century BC, when northern tribes migrated to the Italian peninsula to settle around the River Tiber. For several hundred years, Rome was the most important city in the Western world, as the capital of the expansive Roman Empire. With the rise of Christianity, Rome became the center of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Popes. The slow decline of the Roman Empire heralded the beginning of the Middle Ages, but the city regained prominence as the political capital of Europe for several hundred years leading up to the Renaissance. Rome remains influential today, as the capital of Italy and a major world city; its chief European rivals are London, Berlin, and Paris. Learn more about Rome...