Roman Holiday on the Ponte Fabricio ca. 62 BC

photos by author

I like to travel in general. I like to travel to Italy in particular. And I love the eternal city, Rome. I recently wrote a well received post titled How a Small Monument in a Courtyard in Italy Changed the World. It focused on a Renaissance masterpiece of architectural design created by a man named Donato Bramante. The last time I was in Italy I was within easy walking distance of Bramante's Tempietto, but unfortuantely I didn't know it at the time. The closest I came to it was when I was standing on the Ponte Fabricio, seen above.

Walking in the steps of Julius Caesar on Pons Fabricius

Ponte Fabricio is the oldest bridge from ancient Rome that survives up to the present day in its original configuration.
I'm an architecture and history buff, so when I found out while planning a trip to Rome that there is a bridge built in 62 BC, that exists in its original state, I had to see it and walk on it. It's small as far as bridges go, only 200 feet long, spanning one half the Tiber River from Campus Martius to Tiber Island. Another bridge connects from Tiber Island to the Trastevere District on the west bank of the river.

The Romans were incredible record keepers. According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio the bridge was built to replace an earlier one destroyed by fire. Julius Caesar lived from 100 to 44 BC, making him 38 years old when this bridge was constructed. He saw it, walked on it, hell, the Theatre of Pompey where he was assassinated is a stone's-throw away. Call me weird, but when I set my eyes on an object that Caesar saw with his own eyes, or walk on a bridge he, and other illustrious Romans (even non-Romans like Caesar's paramour Cleopatra) walked on, I feel a real connection to those people across the centuries. It's like a time-machine. You really have to wrap your head around this, the Ponte Fabricio is completely intact from Roman antiquity to the present. It has been in continuous use for 2080 years. It is not unreasonable to suppose that on a blistering-hot summer day, twenty-one centuries ago, Cicero or Brutus got sore feet walking all over the city, and for some relief went below the Pons Fabricious to set their toes in the cool water of the Tiber River like I did in the picture below.

That's me on the east bank of the Tiber River with an arch of the Ponte Fabricio above.

Who built it? The bridge tells us. There's an inscription cut into the travertine stone centuries ago commemorating its builder, a man named Lucius Fabricius, who happened to be the curator of the roads in the city and a member of the gens Fabricia. Gens means family in Latin, so this guy Lucius was a member of the important Fabricia Family of Rome. The inscription reads: Lucius Fabricius, Son of Gaius, Superintendent of the roads, took care and likewise approved that it be built. Being an uppity Roman aristocrat the inscription appears in four places on the bridge, over both arches, and on both sides. Lucius is long gone but his ego remains. You can see it carved into stone at the apex of the arch in the image below.

So if you ever find yourself in Rome again, or for your first time, by all means see the touristy stuff that millions of people flock to, it's all good: the Colosseum, the Forum, Vatican Museums, the Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain, but try to find the time to seek out the often overlooked treasures like Ponte Fabricio and the Tempietto. Speaking of which, if you walk across this bridge, crossing into the Trastevere District of Rome, you are very close to San Pietro in Montorio. It's just a few minutes walk from there to the Church on Janiculum hill that features the magnificent Tempietto in its courtyard. See them both, but remember to stop on the Pons Fabricius, and there, take a moment to look out over the Tiber River, reflecting on the Eternal City, and whose steps you are walking in.