Six metres below modern Vicenza lies one of the city's lesser-known historical treasures – a 1st-century Roman cryptoportico. Discovered during postwar reconstruction in 1954, it's the only private cryptoportico uncovered in northern Italy to date. If you are around on the second Sunday of the month, it's a worth a trip underground. Otherwise, tours are possible by reservation.
The three-sided semi-subterranean passageway once ran directly below the peristyle of a wealthy private domus (house), its small splayed windows once opening on the garden. Stairs leading down to the cryptoportico unveil tiny fragments of the Pompeian red that once decorated the structure's marmorino plaster walls. Running off the end of the first corridor is what may have been a small storage room, its doorframe still pierced by deep sockets that once supported a heavy wooden door. The presence of such a heavy door has led some archaeologists to believe that the room may have functioned as a safe, used to store valuable items such as important documents, gold or silver, or even weapons. The font inside this room is widely believed to be a Lombard baptismal font.
At the end of the second corridor another side room features a small section of mosaic flooring. Even older than this are the unusual hexagonal terracotta tiles in the adjoining room, each embedded with a small piece of marble.
The third and final corridor leads to a well dating from the medieval period – a feature some historians believe may have been used as a shelter from Hungarian invaders at the end of the 9th century.
Free tours of the cryptoportico run on the second Sunday of the month only, or by reservation.
