A visual novel plotline sprung to life:

- Kids at a high school in Rome had been telling each other for decades that there were secret rooms under the school. Teachers laughed it off as playground rumors

- During a protest sit-in, the kids took the opportunity to go where they’re not supposed to go and reported that there were really, definitely secret rooms under the school

- The staff found a mysterious iron door in the basement that apparently no-one knew the purpose of; after getting it open, they found some sort of disused furnace… which opened directly into an entire ancient Roman villa

https://nos.nl/artikel/2617238-scholieren-vinden-1800-jaar-oude-romeinse-villa-onder-eigen-school-in-rome

Scholieren vinden 1800 jaar oude Romeinse villa onder eigen school in Rome

De domus ligt volgens archeologen in een gebied waar grote Romeinse figuren als Augustus, Cicero en Pompeius woonden, maar waar weinig over bekend is.

@0xabad1dea

Ok I'm confused because the italian article mentions archaeological excavations in 1895. But then I guess excavations in Rome are so frequent that that might have been forgotten?

Ancient Romans wouldn't have called a building in the city a "villa" (Roman villas were situated in the countryside) but the modern usage is more flexibel...

#Rome

@Mab_813 my understanding of the timeline is that, before the school was ever built, in the 1800s, a lead pipe was found where the school now stands, which had the name of a wealthy Roman family carved on it; then the school was built and now they have found the entire villa/manor/whatever-you-want-to-call-it underneath and they are presuming the pipe found a hundred years ago matches the house