Thanks to a visit to Rome by our niece, her husband and their young daughter, it was easy to be inspired to join them for a few days. The highlight of the short trip by far was spending time with them.
Because of school holiday timing, they scheduled their visit during Easter week. All of 2025 is a Jubilee Year for Catholics. This confluence translated to very many fellow visitors.
We decided to avoid the Vatican and Rome’s many other famous churches, and to focus on some of the remains of Imperial Rome. We always enjoy ancient places. We’ll share four main ancient sites as today’s main acts —
- The Baths of Caracalla
- The Ancient Roman Domus of Palazzo Valentini
- Ostia Antica
- The Roman Forum
— with intervals here and there in today’s Rome.
PREAMBLE
We could have named this post Baths, Baths and More Baths Already.
Ancient Romans, and apparently modern tour guides, love their public baths. We heard the same presentation at least three times, although in different settings. Which made us what to check the accuracy of these presentations.
First question: Did all Romans use the public baths? The answer is mostly yes.
Public baths (thermae) were a central part of daily life in imperial Rome, and most people-regardless of social class-used them regularly. Bathing was a communal activity, not a private one, and private baths were rare except among the extremely wealthy, who could afford their own facilities at home.
The baths were accessible to all social classes, with men of all ages and backgrounds mingling freely. Admission was often free or very inexpensive, making it possible for nearly everyone in urban areas to attend. The ritual of visiting the baths was so ingrained in Roman society that it was considered a symbol of Roman civilization itself. Most city-dwelling Romans went to the baths daily to cleanse themselves, socialize, and relax.
However, there were some exceptions:
– The very wealthy sometimes preferred private baths in their homes for greater privacy and cleanliness.
– In rural areas or among populations outside major urban centers, access to large public bath complexes was less common, so not everyone in the empire attended regularly.
– Social customs and safety concerns meant that elite women, in particular, might avoid certain public facilities, especially public toilets, but there is less evidence that they avoided the baths to the same extent.
In summary, while not absolutely every individual in imperial Rome went to the public baths, the vast majority of urban Romans-across social classes-did so regularly, making it a defining feature of Roman daily life.
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Follow-up question: Including slaves? The answer is for some slaves, but not all.
Slaves in imperial Rome were generally allowed to use the public baths, but their access depended on their individual circumstances and the discretion of their owners. There was no universal ban preventing slaves from bathing; in fact, evidence shows that slaves could visit the baths if they could pay the entry fee, which was typically modest. Some regulations even granted certain groups of slaves, such as mining slaves, free access to the baths.
However, slaves usually had to fit bathing around their work schedules, often using the baths at less desirable times when their duties allowed. In some cases, specific restrictions applied; for example, an inscription from Puteoli prohibited slaves who removed corpses from using the baths before the first hour of night.
While children and slaves were sometimes officially excluded, in practice, if a slave had enough money or their master allowed it, they could attend the baths. The baths were also staffed by slaves, who performed various services for patrons, such as looking after clothing and assisting with bathing rituals.
In summary, slaves did use the public baths in imperial Rome, though their access was shaped by their social and economic status, work obligations, and sometimes by local regulations.
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Final question: What were the use customs for the baths?
Entry and Changing: Upon arrival, visitors paid an entry fee, which varied by gender and social class. They entered the changing room, where they undressed and stored their clothes, often watched over by slaves or attendants to prevent theft.
Exercise and Preparation: Many bathers began with exercise in the palaestra, an open courtyard for activities like running, wrestling, weightlifting, and ball games. Before bathing, Romans applied oil to their bodies, which was later scraped off with a strigil to remove dirt and sweat.
Bathing Sequence: The bathing ritual involved moving through a series of rooms with different temperatures: Tepidarium: A warm room to acclimate the body. Caldarium: A hot, steamy room for sweating and soaking in hot water. Frigidarium: A cold room with a cold plunge pool to close the pores and refresh the body.
Hygiene Practices: Bathers used oils and sometimes soaps for cleaning. Dirt and oil were scraped off with a strigil. Public toilets (often attached to baths) were communal, and Romans used a sponge on a stick for cleaning after using the toilet.
Social and Leisure Activities: Roman baths were major social centers. People read in libraries, bought food, strolled in gardens, watched performances, or conducted business. After bathing, many would perfume themselves before heading home or to dinner.
Gender and Scheduling: Men and women bathed at separate times or in separate facilities. Women often had access in the morning, men in the afternoon. Women’s entry fees were usually higher.
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ACT I: The Baths of Caracalla
Not far from the Colosseum, the imposing brick ruins of the Baths of Caracalla fill a large park.
(image source)
Like most ancient ruins, a visit requires a good imagination. Today, we see vast open-sky chambers framed by eroding brick walls and vaults — all standing after almost 2000 years!
Originally, marble and colored stones covered all these surfaces. Over the intervening centuries, Roman architects and builders treated these baths, the Colosseum and other ancient Roman buildings as their own Home Depot; why go mine and fashion raw marble when there’s so much right here for the picking?
At the time when they were constructed [in the early 3rd century CE], the Baths of Caracalla were the largest and grandest in the city. Caracalla spared no expense with the decorations. There were precious imported marble columns and slabs to cover the floors and walls, extensive (and expensive) marble sculptures, and colorful mosaics. Some of the vaults were covered in glass-paste mosaics, others in decorative stuccowork. Very little of the marble decoration survives, though some small pieces can still be seen on the walls. Many of the floor mosaics are still on site today including colorful geometric patterns, black and white seascapes.
The overall design of the building was one of opulence, from the soaring vaults to the marble covered walls and colored mosaics. Sunlight streaming through the windows once reflected off the pools and fountains, sending sparkles dancing across the highly polished marble and glittering glass mosaics. The public areas of the complex were meant to dazzle, but a large portion of the structure was actually hidden from view.
The Baths could hold as many as 10,000 people daily. At the time, it was Rome’s biggest bathing complex, standing at 40 meters tall, with an area of 100,000 meters squared. The Baths were in operation for over 300 years, with that finally ending in the 530’s when Barbarian attacks on Rome destroyed Aqua Marcia, the aqueduct which fed the Baths of Caracalla.
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Rome already had plenty of public baths. Why did Caracalla choose to build yet more? For political reasons: He wanted the people to like him. This was a typical motivation for emperors to build things in ancient Rome.
Some renderings of what the baths might have looked like help bring the place to life.
INTERVAL
At a few of the most famous monuments, the crowds were wall-to-wall. We realize that we contributed two bodies to the tourist mobs. We’re grateful that we and all of them have the means and opportunity to experience these amazing places. At the same time, over-touristing is a real thing.
At an outdoor cafe facing the Pantheon, we grabbed a pizza lunch.
We watched huge lines of visitors waiting to enter the monument.
After lunch, we didn’t have any appointments, so we thought we might stand in line for a bit to go inside. (We’d been in the Pantheon before, about 15 years earlier, but it’s such a powerful place, it’s worth multiple visits.) We discovered that you have to buy tickets, that online is the best way, and that the Pantheon was sold out for the next three days. (It was Easter week of a Catholic Jubilee year, after all.) While we experienced a very small frustration at not being able to spontaneously pop into the Pantheon, we’re happy that access to popular places is being managed. You just have to accept that we all have to plan ahead.
ACT II: The Ancient Roman Domus of Palazzo Valentini
A Get Your Guide tour led us to this impressively well presented archeological excavation right in the heart of Rome, around the corner from Piazza Venezia (over which Mussolini used to pontificate) and the over-the-top monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (founder of modern Italy).
You enter a little plain room in the 16th-century Palazzo Valentini and wonder where the antique part is. The answer is that it is underneath the palazzo.
Our guide gave us high-quality headphones and led us underground. The lighting was dark, and we were warned that we would be walking on a glass floor over the excavations, which could at first be a bit disorienting.
These excavations are the remains of a domus, or private house, originally from the time of Hadrian. The current appearance is the result of renovations that took place between 320 and 350 CE.
Our guide silently directed our group of about 15 people to various stopping locations; all the narration came through the headphones. The space isn’t very large, but the glass floor and glass bridges create niches and specific viewing spots.
As the narration proceeded, different parts of the stone walls, floor mosaics, wall frescoes, paving stones, and more received accent lighting, and sometimes projected overlays of imagined reconstructions.
In really engaging ways, we learned about the bathing areas of this rich family’s house, their gathering spaces, domestic life in 3rd-century Rome, and even some archeological methods. This high-tech theatrical presentation brought these subterranean ruins to life.
This is a destination and experience that you might not notice amid all the more obvious sites in Rome. It is however hugely interesting and even beautiful. We recommend!
(All images are from the Domus Romane website.)
INTERMISSION
Acts III & IV next time…
Post-theater dinners
We tried three different types of restaurants while in Rome this time. Here are the first two:
The first was not exactly Roman: Girarrosto Fiorentino. As its name announces — Florentine Rotisserie — this restaurant showcases one of our favorite Florentine specialties, the bistecca alla fiorentina. You all know by now how carnivorous we are, of which bistecca alla fiorentina is an unabashed expression.
We found the beef at this restaurant delicious, full of lovely carbony grilled flavor. We also enjoyed one of Rome’s — and Florence’s — favorite non-meat ingredients: artichokes.
In addition to the food, we enjoyed the bustling and attractively dated atmosphere of the restaurant, and the bevy of senior career servers.
The second was Ristorante Moma, a lovely and intimate fine-dining restaurant. The spirit of the meal is beautiful creative dishes founded in the cuisine of Rome, integrally accompanied by distinctive wines. In addition to the very good food, the servers were full of life and knowledge. We felt a bit like we were dining with foodie friends.
April 2025