A would-be car park in Rome becomes a ‘Garden of the Gods’
There are few phrases more prosaic or uninspiring than “underground car park.”
But it was the construction of just such a facility that led to the discovery in Rome of an archaeological treasure trove.
Engineers who burrowed beneath a 19th century office block to make space for the parking lot stumbled across the remains of gardens, villas, pavilions, and water features that once made up a vast estate built for the emperors of ancient Rome 2,000 years ago.
After eight years of excavating the site and five years of cataloging the tens of
