Como was founded as a Roman colony — Novum Comum — by Julius Caesar in 59 BCE, and the remains of the ancient city lie close to the surface throughout the old town. The most accessible of these is a set of 1st-century CE Roman baths discovered under what is now a car park on Via Vittorio Emanuele. The ruins are visible through a glass floor and underground access points and include sections of the original floor, heating channels, and the outlines of the bathing rooms.
The setting is slightly incongruous — descending into Roman antiquity from a downtown street while cars park overhead — but the preservation is good and the interpretation is helpful. Como is not Pompeii, and the baths will not detain you for long, but they give a tangible sense of the Roman city that underlay everything the medieval masters subsequently built above it.