Rome's Unseen Gem

On Saturday, the roommates and I took a little trip to see one of Rome's "unseen gems," the Catacombs. Now, believe it or not there are actually 40 catacombs that lie beneath the surface of the hustling and bustling city of Rome, but only 5 of these catacombs are open to the public! The catacombs were constructed in the earliest centuries of Rome's existence as a reaction to Christians not being able to be buried within the city boundaries. The Romans took their sacred boundaries very seriously and would not allow any burials to take place within the sacred walls of Rome. Therefore, catacombs were built so that Christians would have a proper burial. The ones that we visited were the Catacombe di Priscilla, and were where the poor Christians people and some Christian martyrs were buried. When you step down into these dark, narrow passageways that are lined with shelves upon shelves upon more shelves, you can't help but feel a chill run through your spine knowing that so many dead people lay there thousands of years ago. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures down in the catacombs so I just got one off of the entrance but if interested just look up Catacombe di Priscilla under google images and you will get a feel for what we saw.

The entrance to get inside the catacombs.