Nicchioni Romani (Roman Niches)
Built into the retaining walls beneath Piazza del Popolo, the Nicchioni Romani are four enormous Roman arched niches — each one tall enough to drive a bus through — that date from the 1st century BC and once formed part of a vast civic platform supporting the ancient forum above. Most visitors walk past them without a second glance.
History and Significance
The niches are among the best-preserved examples of Roman opus incertum (irregular stone) construction in central Italy. They were built to level out the steep hillside and create the flat platform on which the medieval town — and today's piazza — was subsequently built, meaning the entire historic centre rests, quite literally, on Roman engineering.
Archaeologists believe the niches may have housed shops, storage or public functions in antiquity. Today they open onto a quiet lane called Via del Duomo / Vicolo del Seminario and are freely visible at any hour — no ticket, no queue, no fuss.
Finding Them and Combining with Other Sights
Walk down the staircase on the south side of Piazza del Popolo toward Via Lorenzo Leoni and then double back under the piazza — the niches are immediately visible in the massive wall to your left. The contrast between the medieval street life above and this ancient Roman infrastructure below is quietly mind-bending.
Combine the visit with the Museo della Città in Palazzo del Capitano upstairs, which holds Roman inscriptions, coins and artefacts excavated from the ancient city of Tuder — the Roman name for Todi — to give the niches their full context.
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