It you’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Italy, chances are good that you have been through the Stazione Termini in Rome. If you think about it, the station seems to be named because it is the final stop or terminus of a journey.

But in fact, contrary to popular belief, the name for Roma Termini does not come from the fact that it is a train terminal or “terminus”. Instead, it originates directly from the ancient Roman baths that stand right across the piazza from the station’s main entrance.

Here’s how the name evolved through a linguistic journey over the centuries:

• The ancient Latin word for public baths is thermae.
•  In 306 AD, the colossal  Baths of Diocletian (Thermae Diocletiani) were completed in this area. They were the largest public bath complex in the entire Roman Empire.
• Over time, the Latin thermae evolved into the Italian word terme. The neighborhood built up around the ruins gradually became known as the Termini district.

Consequently, everything discovered or built on this specific hill—from the ancient residential complex (Villa di Termini) to the Renaissance estate (Villa di Termini-Peretti) and finally the 1862 railway hub—adopted the “Termini” name simply because of its proximity to the ancient baths. 

In 1860 it was Pope Pius IX who decided to build Rome’s Central Railway Station in what was the sprawling gardens of the Renaissance-era Villa Peretti Montalto. In 1862, while workers were clearing the massive earth embankments that had buried the ancient Servian Wall, they struck ancient structures. After the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, the new government decided to make Stazione (di) Termini  a key element in the design of a “modern” capital and in 1888 the Casino of Villa Peretti and the long sequence of low buildings on its northern side were pulled down to make room for a large square.

OK, very interesting to anyone who loves Italy, but what brought me here are the ancient Roman frescoes from the Villa di Termini, which as I said above, was an ancient Roman residential complex whose famous 2nd-century AD frescoes and wall paintings were discovered in 1862 during the construction of Rome’s first railway station near the Baths of Diocletian.

When we walk over the area now called the Piazza dei Cinquecento, we are treading over two Roman insular and a later stately building form the Antoinine period, dating back to c. 2nd C AD. These discoveries were made in 1947-49, during the construction of Rome’s first underground transit system (the Metro B line), when archeologists initiated a systematic dig. They found a sprawling stately wing from the Antonine period, uncovering an entrance hall, an advanced thermal bath suite, a decorated nymphaeum (fountain room), and a massive apse-shaped hall. This phase yielded even later art, including 4th-century frescoes depicting bathers wearing loincloths

The original villa structures were demolished during the rapid urban expansion and railway construction of late 19th-century, early 20th-century Rome. Fortunately, the surviving decorations and frescoes are preserved and exhibited on the second floor of the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, part of the National Roman Museum in Rome.

The frescos are fantastic because they illustrate the development of pictorial styles in the full Imperial Age. They represent refined examples of Roman painting, often characterized by illusionistic perspectives and fantastical settings typical of sumptuous urban residences.The paintings are very refined.

I found this source very interesting: (https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu/galleries/Exhibits/Empire2/objects/termini.html),

The Eternal City, with its endless stories to tell. Alla prossima!