Arkeotrekking
Sabina insolita
Underground Rieti and the Museum of Silence in Fara in Sabina
Few people know that Rieti, the 'Venice of fresh water', is the richest city in Europe. And many are unaware that there is an underground city under today's Via Roma, the ancient Via Salaria, the salt road.
A mysterious and evocative world of vaults, lintels and ancient alleys, now finally open to visitors, leading to the viaduct built by the Romans in the third century A.D. . And what about the Museum of Silence in Fara in Sabina? Unique in the world of its kind, it will catapult us into a dimension with no unity of time or space, so distant and ancient as to completely disconcert us. A day full of emotions, from the depths of the Rieti soil to the realm of peace and silence of the Fara in Sabina monastery.
We will spend the morning in Rieti, in an itinerary 'above and below' this small but graceful city, lying on the romantic banks of the Velino river and overlooked by the Terminillo mountains. The underground route develops in the basements of some patrician residences, in the wide spaces of the mighty Roman viaduct formed by rampant arches. A walk through the town, a gastronomic interlude and then departure for Fara in Sabina with a stop at the extraordinary Museum of Silence.
The Via Francigena: in the footsteps of pilgrims
In the heart of Rome, inside the Monte Mario Nature Reserve, is one of the most beautiful viewpoints in the whole of Rome, a solitary and silent place from which to admire, in the distance, the imposing bulk of St Peter's, the silhouette of the historic city centre, the Olimpico football stadium, the Foro Italico and the Tiber. It was here that the long journey of the medieval pilgrims along the ancient Via Francigena ended, which, starting from Canterbury, crossed the whole of Europe from north to south to reach Rome. The 'romei' entered the city from the Via Cassia, continuing along the Via Trionfale and passing through Monte Mario, then called Mons Gaudii, to testify to the joy of arrival because from the belvedere, which still exists today, one could admire St Peter's Basilica, the final destination of the long journey.