So your going to Rome,you’ve got your plane ticket booked and you’ve found a great place to stay using an awesome budget booking hotel/hostel website like HostelBookers,now your planning on what to see,everyone goes to see all the big attractions like the Colosseum,The Vatican,The Pantheon,Trevi Fountain,but if you want to see something a little  different and unique that none of your friends have done and is a bit off the beaten tourist track this post is for you.

Capuchin Crypts

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If skeletons are your thing then The Capuchin Crypts is where you wanna be, located in the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. Home to the skeletal remains of over 3,700 bodies of Capuchin Friars. Although seemingly very macabre in appearance with skeletons nailed to walls and lamp shades made out of human bones, this is not it’s intention instead it’s made to be an honor and show the passage of life.

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Catacombs

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Catacombs of Calisto (Image Credit Jim Forest)

Sticking to the theme of the dead, underneath Rome there are over 40 underground burial sites, stretching across hundreds of kilometres known as The Rome Catacombs,these catacombs are divided up into various sites, the biggest and most preserved are The Domitilla Catacombs,full of beautiful frescos and the only catacomb to contain bones. There is also the Catacombs of Santa Priscilla, which while not containing bones has the earliest known depiction of the Virgin Mary,now thats pretty cool right?

Train To be a Gladiator 

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Learn to be a gladiator (Image from Gladiator the movie)

Have you ever wanted to be a gladiator and take part in Imperial Rome’s gladiator games? to battle men and beasts alike in a gruesome hand to hand battle for your life and the favor of the audience,well unfortunately unless you have a time machine you cant do that, but you can do the next best thing which is to enroll in one of Rome’s gladiator schools where you will be taught the basic’s of hand to hand combat, some of them even provide you with the full gladiator attire, how cool is that?

The Pyramid of Cestius

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Pyramid of  Cestius (Image Credit Alaskan Dude)

Ok, so this one is a bit of a weird one, who knew there was a pyramid in Rome, granted it’s not as large as those in Egypt, but still definitely worth a visit,The Pyramid of Cestius,located near the Protestant Cemetery and Porta San Paolo.

Museum of Purgatory

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Finger burn marks on a bible in the  Museum of Purgatory (Image creditAndr3)

looking for something a bit otherworldly then check out The Museum of Purgatory which also goes by the name Souls of Purgatory Museum. It’s a small room in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Rome.what makes this museum so interesting is that it is the home to many objects such as fingerprints and hand prints that have appeared burned onto the pages of various books and clothing with claims they are signs of  contact made by the souls trapped in Purgatory.

Do you know of any other quirky,unique or off the beaten places in Rome, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.