A Roman house owned by a member of the Umbrius family has surfaced under a high school gym a few steps from the Colosseum. An inscription from earlier excavations at the site, at the end of the 19th century, points to the Umbrii as the owners.
Little is known about that family. Researchers think it may have come from Samnium, a region of south-central Italy not far from Pompeii, the city buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
The house sits below the Liceo Scientifico Cavour, in Rome’s ancient Monti district. The discovery, announced on May 28, 2026, was credited to the persistence of students. For years they had poked around dark corridors and underground chambers beneath the gymnasium and passed the stories along like schoolyard lore. When they finally told their history and Latin teacher, Claudia Marino, she took them seriously and reported the finds to the Special Superintendency of Rome.
Money and a new name
Excavations began in January 2026 with €350,000 from Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan. They exposed a well-preserved domus, a grand private home, dating to the mid-second century. Marino and Filippo Coarelli, an archaeologist at the University of Perugia, made the findings public. The house now goes by Domus Liceo Cavour, the House of the Cavour High School.
Wealth shows in the rooms opened so far. Figurative and floral frescoes still cling to the walls, and the deep reds typical of Roman wall painting remain luminous after nearly two millennia. Elaborate stucco decorates the ceiling vaults. In one room, archaeologists found a mosaic of large, irregularly shaped tiles, a style that was popular among Rome’s elite.
Modern traces turned up too. Students, tourists and urban explorers scrawled graffiti there during the 20th century, evidence that the rooms were visited quietly for decades before any formal dig.
A district full of famous names
The neighborhood was home to some of ancient Rome’s most powerful figures, among them Cicero, Pompey and Octavian, later known as Augustus. Each find matters because the archaeology of this district is poorly understood, buried under layers of modern buildings.
Only a portion of the domus has been investigated. It extends far under the school, and more excavation may follow. Before any firm decisions on public access, the Soprintendenza Speciale is carrying out stratigraphic analysis and preparing detailed documentation, Wanted in Rome reports.
The school and the superintendency are discussing opening the site to visitors at some point. Students could act as guides.
