Shortly before we left the States, we were hanging out at the local Irish pub with my parents (you know, our typical Sunday morning…) and ran into a family friend.   He had just returned from a week in Rome so as I did with everyone I’ve met lately who was traveling somewhere we were to go on this adventure, I asked him what the best thing was there.   He didn’t hesitate when telling us we had to go find the aqueducts. My husband lit up.   We had mentioned finding some aqueducts early on in planning and then promptly forgot about it, lost in a sea of “oh, we should do that” thoughts, but now it was back in our mind and we were going to do it!

Unfortunately, the aqueducts are not really that near to the city.   They involved us taking a bus…and a metro train….and a walk.   This might not sound like a big deal, but we live in one of those big cities where the public transportation doesn’t actually go anywhere.   It’s a car city and so you just drive.   Especially to get miles outside of the city!   But when in Rome and all that jazz, we spent sometime with our AC and wifi (finally!!) and figured out how to make this adventure work!

My research on the actual aqueduct park was limited, but there was a mention of some word that roughly translated to park ranger, so I assumed this would be similar to the national parks back home and have placards and a gift shop and some lovely maintained trails to follow….but it was just a park.   

No, honestly, there were people walking their dogs…going for a jog…taking a nap on a blanket because the August heat had finally broken in mid-September and it was actually a beautiful day to be outside.   The only difference between this place and your normal neighborhood park was that instead of looking up at massive oak trees, most of the way you were staring up at 2,000 year old structures that provided indoor plumbing and water pressure to the Roman Empire.   It was just so surreal and at the same time completely normal for Rome as we’d seen it.   People were so used to all the old and beautiful history around them, they seemed to no longer notice it because it was just part of where they lived.   I can’t imagine every getting to that stage, but here it is just all they know.