As Rome tries to provide transit options for its millions of residents and visitors, city planners and preservationists have struck a delicate balance between providing modern transportation and acknowledging the city's rich buried history.
"As this city begins work on a new, 15.5 mile subway line, massive earthmoving equipment sits idle while teams of archaeologists with tiny spades sift through dirt...Italy's robust preservation laws make it difficult to renovate, remove or otherwise tinker with anything deemed to be of historical significance, and that includes most of central Rome. The laws have protected the capital from newer architectural eyesores but have left it ill-equipped to deal with the stresses of a modern metropolis."
"Rome currently has only two modest metro lines to serve its 2.5 million people, leaving the city's streets regularly clogged with buses, cars and scooters whose pollution coats the historical monuments with grime."
"But successive attempts by city planners to unclog the center by building underground parking garages and tunnels to handle traffic have run afoul of historical preservationists just about every time a shovel has hit the earth."
"More than once, city officials have lost their cool with the preservation office...The standoff held until a few years ago, when planners and preservationists decided to bury the hatchet and work together on the new subway line. To reduce the line's environmental impact, the subway tunnel will be buried more than 80 feet below the surface, beneath even the earliest strata of archaeological remains."
"For the engineers, to work alongside the archaeologists isn't fast -- or inexpensive. The bill for constructing one mile of metro tracks in the center of Rome is more than $375 million, and the project won't be completed until 2015."
[Editor's note: Although this article is only available to WSJ subscribers, it is available to Planetizen readers for free through the link below for a period of seven days.]
FULL STORY: When Rome Builds A Subway, It Trips Over Archaeologists

Legendary Parking Guru Donald Shoup Dies at 86
Urbanists are mourning the loss of a dynamic voice for parking reform and walkable cities.

DOT Memo Directs Transportation Funding to Communities With Higher Marriage and Birth Rates, Compliance with Immigration Officials and No Mask Mandates
The memo ties immigration enforcement to federal funding and prohibits mask or vaccine mandates.

Analysis: Cybertruck Fatality Rate Far Exceeds That of Ford Pinto
The Tesla Cybertruck was recalled seven times last year.

Community Colleges: A Pathway for Native Hawaiian Achievement and Growth
The University of Hawaiʻi Community Colleges provide Native Hawaiian students with transformative educational experiences, integrating academic success, cultural identity, and strong community support to help them find purpose and thrive.

Building Resilient Communities: Insights from the LA County Cities Summit
The Los Angeles County Cities Summit convened local leaders to share strategies for advancing sustainability, addressing climate resilience, extreme heat, and other pressing environmental challenges through policy and community-driven solutions.

Intercity Bus Ridership Grows Despite Service Cuts
Passengers continue to rely on intercity bus lines, even as cities shutter bus terminals and bus companies restructure to avoid financial failure.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Bakersfield
Standridge Inc.
City of Brookings
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service