Bocca della Verità

In the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin stands a round marble slab almost as tall as a person, with a bearded face and an open mouth carved into it. There is a queue for it. People take turns putting their hand into the stone mouth, having their picture taken, and leaving. The legend is simple: if you tell a lie while holding your hand inside the mouth, it will bite it off. The legend is medieval, and it was not kept around for entertainment, as spouses' fidelity was tested with it. And now for the reason why you should read this post to the end. The slab was almost certainly neither an oracle nor a shrine. In ancient Rome, such carved discs with faces of water deities served as drain covers, with water draining through the open mouth. That means the queue in the center of Rome is for a sewer manhole cover, and people have been queuing for it for several centuries. Sources disagree on who exactly is depicted: some say the god Oceanus, others Triton, and others cautiously write "river deity". They all agree on one thing: the face belongs to water. Cinema made the slab famous outside of Italy. In the 1953 film Roman Holiday, Joe and Anna test each other for lying right here, and after that the queue became international. And a tip that will save you half an hour. The church itself is one of the best-preserved medieval churches in Rome, featuring Cosmatesque inlaid stone flooring, a stone choir screen, and a tall Romanesque bell tower. There is almost nobody inside. The entire queue is outside. Practicalities. Admission to both the church and the slab is free. The church is open daily, roughly from 9:30 to 18:00, in winter until 17:00, but it is worth checking the hours before you go. To take a picture of your hand in the mouth, you will have to wait in line; the church shop sells copies of the "manhole cover" in various sizes. The location lies between our Aventine route and the Forum.