getwokingham - Reading Evening Post

It's Tuesday 2nd March, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and I've got my first appointment to meet the owners ofthe Aqueduct Spring source that we announced in January.

I'm kind of scared and on-edge, and I've asked a representative of the local archaeological society to come with me.

Cold, wet, in the pitch black, twenty-five metres under the city of Rome, we pushed forwards against the water of Marcus Vespanius Agrippa’s Aqueduct, which has flowed continuously since 19BC, and I prayed that our new high-definition camera wasn’t going to drop into the water and flow all the way back to the Trevi fountain.

Our first filming adventure inside an aqueduct was a one-off.  We had spent six months negotiating for access to the Aqua Virgo and we knew we weren’t going to have a second chance. 

My name is Ted O’Neill from Finchampstead in Berkshire, and I am blogging from Rome, where my company is researching and filming the remains of the ancient Roman Aqueducts.

Ancient Rome was not only a Military Powerhouse, but also, in many ways an unsurpassed civilisation and healthy population centre, all powered by clean, fresh water.  There was more fresh water arriving in Rome in the year 110 AD than arrives in New York in 2010 AD.