Rome underground basilicas & Foro Boario private tour

Discover a secret world beneath the streets of Rome on an underground tour of two lesser-known churches in the heart of the city; Santa Cecilia and San Crisogono.

Meet your guide by the Boario Forum, the cattle forum venalium of Ancient Rome. Learn the history of the two temples that brought great importance to this site during the Roman Republic. Learn about the round Temple of Ercole (Temple of Hercules) and the Ionic-style Temple of Portunos.

Cross the Palatino Bridge to see the Ponte Rotto (Broken Bridge), commissioned by Marco Emilio Lepido in 179 B.C. Some traces indicate that the bridge was already partly built before 241 B.C. Continue to Tiber Island and the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. According to legend, the church was built over the home of St Cecilia, a noble girl of an important family of the Roman Republic. See the tomb of St Cecilia and the geometric cosmatesque crypt.

Walk down a characteristically small street of the Trastevere neighbourhood to the church of St Crisogono, dedicated to the martyr Saint Chrysogonus. See the 8th-century frescoes discovered in the excavations of an earlier church, probably dating back to the reign of Constantine I.