122 metro linea C

(above: detail from one of the many exterior spaces in the fabulous Etruscan Museum)

Unlike most major European cities, Rome does not have a robust metro system: just lines A & B - one north/south and the other east/west. The two lines come together at the Termini station, which is always heavily and unpleasantly congested with people transferring lines.

Because of the rich archeological heritage of the city, neither line is very convenient to the city center. Not only are the underground vibrations damaging to the structures above through (buzz-word alert) soil-structure interaction, but unburied physical artifacts could be destroyed through the excavation process.

Just in the last month, excavations have begun on the new Metro Line C, which has been talked about for years. It still doesn't go quite into the heart of Rome, but it does fills in some of the gaps between lines A and B. The excavations are not the traditional civil engineering type with backhoes and automated equipment - they will be long, slow and tedious archeological excavations. I don't know what the time table is for the project, but I imagine this is going to take years or decades to accomplish.

It's kind of exciting because it's almost guaranteed that they will uncover some interesting structures and artifacts. For example, Nero's Domus Aurea was buried for over 1000 years until a worker found it in the Renaissance. And the Area Sacra Argentina, a site in the Centro with pagan temples pre-dating the Roman Forum, was only discovered in the last century.

This reminds me of something else I have seen often in the museums. The statues usually have a plaque at the base telling who they think the statue represents, how old they think it is, and where it was found. A ridiculous number of these statues were found at the bottom of the Tiber, which really makes me wonder how many thousands of interesting artifacts are still down there in the silt.