The Horrea Piperataria, the warehouses ‘of Egyptian and Arabian spices’ built by the Emperor Domitian on the south-western slopes of the Velia, the hill between the Esquiline and Palatine, open to the public for the first time.

The educational tour includes a multimedia narrative that shows the various construction phases of the buildings in the area from before Nero to the building of the Basilica of Maxentius and beyond.

The exhibition is conceived as a fascinating illuminated and multimedia path of discovery that starts from the Vicus delle Carinae and goes all the way to the underground rooms of the Horrea Piperataria. It then winds along a walkway that is almost entirely glazed and suspended from the concrete slab of the 1930s, leaving the underlying archaeological structures visible, as if it were a suspended, slender plane on which visitors ‘levitate’, moving only a few centimetres away from the ancient flooring.

The modern floor and the metal structure, with their dark colours, disappear shrouded in half-light, interrupted only by the video projections and the progressive and alternating switching on of the architectural lights on the ancient structures, which illuminate and switch off architectural elements to support the story.

Open on: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

Educational tour hours:

– In Italian: 10.00 – 11.45 – 13.15
– In English: 10.30am – 12.15pm – 1.45pm

Maximum number of participants: 10 people
Length of the educational tour: 75 minutes (45‘ explanation + 30’ multimedia)

Price of the educational tour: € 8.00, to be added to the Forum Pass Super ticket € 18.00
Please note that the facilities provided by law are for the ticket only, not for the cost of the visit, which must be paid by everyone

Meeting point: Largo della Salara Vecchia entrance, by the security personnel’s garret