Rome, Museo della mura

The museum of the Roman city walls may not be the most famous of Rome, but it is worth a visit. Situated in the ancient Porta Appia, now known as the Porta di San Sebastiano, it offers a lot of information about the history of the defenses of the eternal city.

You enter the museum through the western tower. The two main rooms are situated over the gate itself, and when you look through the windows, you can see what the soldiers must have seen when they operated the catapults. In these two rooms, texts and photos explain the history from the age of Romulus until 1870: Roma Quadrata, the Servian Wall, the Aurelian Wall, and the medieval expansions surrounding the Borgo and connecting it to Trastevere.

The rooms in the eastern tower offer a couple of models, while a small room upstairs above the entry contains stone decorations from medieval towers. From here, you can ascend to the crenellations and the roof of