In the battle between saving ancient glories and easing modern hassles, score a victory for Rome's commuters.
Frustrated archeologists said that a sprawling area of recently discovered early third-century warehouses will soon be topped by a 200-car parking lot in the Trastevere area near the Tiber River.
Archeologists had to put down their tools after exploring only a small slice of the approximately 420-square-metre expanse of storehouses that once served as busy port when Roman traders and armies sailed the Mediterranean during the Imperial era.
While there's money available to build parking spots in this car-choked metropolis, the coffers for archeological exploration are practically bare.
But archeologists expressed relief that they will at least be able to rescue three stunning mosaics from what could be thermal baths from the start of the fourth century.
The mosaics were found about three metres above the level of the storehouses, thought to date about a century earlier.
It's not the first time Romans' hunger for more parking lots fared better than archeologists' thirst for more knowledge. A frescoed, second-century Imperial villa was razed on the Janiculum hill to make way for a multi-storey Vatican parking garage for its 2000 millennium celebrations.
