Spelunking! 

Today we climbed through this tunnel. It was constructed around 5 or 600 BC- Much earlier than ancient Rome. The tunnel was meant to drain water from the adjacent Lake Nemi in case of flooding, and is over a mile long. Apparently the Pope has a house on this lake. I was very tempted to grab the cute little bats hanging on the low ceilings of the tunnel next to my head. I need a new pet. Just about every person but myself had a flashlight... It was all well and good however.

Luckily I have night vision, and was able to find my way through the tunnel. Thank god we all had helmets, because the heights of the ceiling varied greatly throughout the course of the tunnel. At times we had to crouch really low to get through small bypasses. I felt like an explorer crawling through a tomb. It was amazing!

At this point, everyone turned out the flashlights, and we sat in complete darkness and quietude underground. It is essentially impossible to hear that type of silence anywhere else. After the tour, my shoes were soaked after walking through the stream rich with calcium deposits, and we all went to a restaurant.

This is the charming little statue that greeted us. A fat pig proudly holding an alarmingly disgusting looking piece of of pork. Probably glad to kill of an annoying pig pen mate. In any case, the town is filled with signs saying, "Porchetta," or pork, as it is famous for its slow roasted pork with herbs and wild fennel. After our cave tour in the countryside, I actually came across some fennel planted in a field and tasted it. Molto delicioso! I didn't try the pork though.

This is a side street of the town, Ariccia, that the restaurant was in.

Ariccia had incredible views. There were donkey races about to go on behind the camera, an old tradition which was interesting, to say the least.

This is the church of the Assunta, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.