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Porta Capena in the Parco di Veio: the Etruscan road and the "Spezieria" necropolis
In the Parco di Veio, not far from Rome, there is an entrance to an ancient Etruscan city that tells more than one story. This is Porta Capena at Veio, the starting point of a Roman paved road. Its interest lies not only in the gateway itself, but also in the colombarium known as La Spezieria — a necropolis carved into the tufa rock, whose unusual nickname reveals everything about its appearance.
A road between quarries and walls
The path leading to the gate descends into a deep ravine. Here, the original paving stones resurface in several places — the distinctive Roman road surface. The tufa walls rising on either side are not natural formations. They are the ancient quarries from which the Etruscans extracted the blocks used to build the city walls, which are still visible a little further on, with their characteristic alternating-block technique.
The pharmacy of the afterlife
Once these walls had served their defensive purpose, the Romans put them to a new use. They carved dozens of small niches into the tufa to house the funerary urns of the dead, dateable to the first century AD. It was precisely this arrangement — rows upon rows of niches of varying shapes and sizes — that reminded 19th-century travellers of the shelves of an old apothecary's shop. And so they named it "La Spezieria", the pharmacy.
The Porta Capena area lies within the Parco di Veio, accessible from Isola Farnese (in the province of Rome). Entry is free. Sturdy walking or trekking shoes are strongly recommended, as the path runs along an unpaved track, and is steep in places.
