About Rosalia Fiorentino
I read Christian archaeology in Rome and I have spent six years walking visitors down the Via Appia Antica, which means I have been asked about the bones several thousand times. This site is where I write the answer down properly, along with everything else people ask me on the way to the gate.
Why this site exists
Most people arrive at San Callisto with a picture in their head that belongs somewhere else. They are expecting walls of skulls, which is the Capuchin Crypt on Via Vittorio Veneto, in the centre of town. Or they have read about a clandestine cinema, a man lost for eleven years, teenagers rescued by dogs — all of which happened in Paris. Or they have been told that Christians hid down here from persecution, which they did not; Roman law forbade burial inside the city walls, land outside was expensive, and Christians buried rather than cremated, so they dug down into the soft tufo. I correct that one on the way past the ticket office about twice a week.
The other thing I say early, because it saves people money, is that no company on this site guides the catacomb. The catacombs’ own staff lead every group, in five languages, and that guiding is already inside the ticket price. What the tour operators sell is the journey out and what surrounds it, which on this particular road is a real thing worth real money. It is also, sometimes, a taxi. I say which is which in the reviews.
What I do here
I read the operators’ own listings and their traveller reviews, check every operational fact against the custodians at catacombesancallisto.it and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, and write up which tour suits which traveller. Where my sources disagree, I say so on the page rather than picking the tidier number. Where nobody publishes a figure, I do not invent one. The practical version of all of it is in the guide, and the money is on the cost page.
I am not the catacombs, not the Salesians who run the reception, and not the Pontifical Commission. I am not a tour operator and I do not sell tickets. When you are ready to book, I send you to GetYourGuide, or to the custodians’ own authorised seller if that suits you better.
How the site is paid for
I earn a small commission when you book through a link here, at no extra cost to you. That is what keeps the site free and it does not change what I write — the cheapest option on the site is also the one I recommend most often, which is not how you build a commission. The affiliate disclosure sets it out in full.
If something here is wrong, or has changed since I checked it, I would rather know. Write to me.