With a glass of Pimm’s in hand, party guests at the British embassy residence in Rome get to gawk at the Roman aqueduct running through the garden and hear tales of the property’s past life as a retreat for 19th-century writers and a Nazi HQ.
In a city where most venerable buildings boast an amazing history, Villa Wolkonsky holds its own and British archaeologists are now convinced there is more below the surface as they prepare to use ground radar to hunt for Roman tombs under the trimmed lawn.
“We know there is a 1st century AD road down there which once ran alongside the aqueduct and I think we’ll find it is lined by a number of tombs,” Stephen Kay, archaeology officer at the
