Longitude: 12°29'39.42"E
elev 84 ft.
Our destination on this very rainy Italian day was Prima Porta, to see La Villa di Livia. We rode the train from Piazza del Popolo north along side the Flamina to the Montebello train stop. As we rode the train through Labaro I just happened to look out the window (this is never easy on Italian trains due to the extensive graffiti) and spot what looked like a Roman bridge tucked in between the tracks, a massive overpass and the new Flaminia. I quickly wrote down the name of the closest stop, La Celsa, and tried to guess the distance from the stop. We continued to Livia's, which turned out to be closed, then on to Malborghetto where we opted to head back to Rome instead of becoming soaked by the constant rain.
Still having some time on our ticket we decided to see if we could find the bridge.
We emerged from the train station into a busy intersection, headed south under the overpass towards an outdoor produce stand and some parked cars. If you study the aerial photo below, you'll see the blue marker that locates the bridge. That small white section is what remains of the Flaminia Antica in Labaro. It's hard to tell where the ancient road went both north and south of the bridge.
It most likely runs right underneath the photo below.
Through a fence and a lot of underbrush, I spotted the top of the bridge.
I haven't been able to find the name of this bridge. There are a few photographs of it on the web, but no additional information other than a reference to both Etruscan and Roman design.
The photo below is taken from the southern side of the bridge looking back towards the train station.
I tried to find a way to climb down into the river bed, but access was impossible.
The bridge has clearly been restored, but only to preserve it, not for either travel or tourism. You can see that the surrounding concrete both protects it an isolates it.
Finding this bridge was a complete surprise. From what I could tell, the simple structure of the Roman arch was completely intact. The contrast between the arch's raw material, it's slightly organic form with the surrounding chaos was fantastic.
Directions
View Labaro Roman Bridge in a larger map
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