Ciao curiosi esploratori, 🔍💧 Just steps away from the bustling crowds tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain lies something most visitors miss entirely: a quiet, ancient world beneath the surface. Welcome to Vicus Caprarius – La Città dell’Acqua (The Water City), or what I like to call Rome’s hidden heartbeat! I visited this remarkable underground site and let me tell you: it’s like peeling back the city’s layers and finding an entire story beneath your feet.
🏛️ What Is Vicus Caprarius?
Discovered in 1999 during the renovation of the old Cinema Trevi, Vicus Caprarius is an archaeological site buried beneath modern Rome. Here, you’ll find the preserved remains of a first-century Roman domus (residential complex), including walls, mosaic flooring, pottery fragments, and a castellum aquae, a water distribution basin fed by the Aqua Virgo aqueduct. Yes, the same aqueduct that still supplies water to the Trevi Fountain today. The water that glides past ancient stone below your feet is the very same that dances above in Baroque marble.
📖 A Walk Through Time
As you descend into the entrance at Vicolo del Puttarello 25 (just beside Harry’s Bar Trevi), the modern noise fades, the air cools, and the atmosphere becomes hushed and intimate.
You’re surrounded by remnants of Roman daily life: kitchenware, coins, decorative hairpins, and the structured masonry of ancient apartments. The building techniques, brick walls layered over centuries, speak of Roman durability and ingenuity. You’ll also spot remains from later periods, showing how this space was adapted and reused across time.
The castellum aquae, the heart of this site, demonstrates how fresh water was stored and distributed in ancient times, and continues to offer insights into Rome’s relationship with water, hygiene, and urban planning.
💧 A Living Link to Aqua Virgo
The Aqua Virgo, originally commissioned by Agrippa in 19 BC, is still functioning, delivering clear water to the Trevi Fountain. Standing beneath the surface and watching that same water whisper through ancient stone channels is surreal. It gives you chills. The coin toss above becomes more than a moment; it becomes part of a living legacy. This is why the site is nicknamed the “City of Water”, not just because of the flowing aqueduct, but because water shaped life here, then and now.
📍 Visiting Tips
- Location: Vicolo del Puttarello, 25 (next to Harry’s Bar Trevi)
- Opening Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Tickets: Very affordable; you can often walk in, but it’s best to book ahead on weekends
- Time Needed: 30 to 45 minutes
- Photos: Allowed (no flash); the lighting makes for moody, magical shots
Final Thoughts
There are few places in Rome where past and present meet so vividly. One moment you’re basking in sunlight at the Trevi Fountain, and the next you’re deep underground, standing in the cool silence of a Roman domus, watching water move through centuries-old stone.
Vicus Caprarius isn’t just a ruin, it’s a living connection to the heart of ancient Rome. It reminds us that this city is more than its surface. It’s a palimpsest of life, still whispering beneath our feet.
If you visit Trevi, don’t just look up. Go below. There’s wonder waiting underground.
xoxo,
Bubbly 💖
