The Appian Way

Ruins of ancient Rome’s essential aqueduct network are preserved in the Appia Antica park. While tourists flood more famous sites in the capital city, not many find their way a few miles south, leaving locals to enjoy this green space.

Rome’s third-century Arch of Drusus marks the start of a planned 360-mile walking route along the Appian Way that will immerse travelers in less-visited parts of Italy. The road’s original starting point is still unknown.

Niccolò practices with his soccer team on Gerini Quadraro, a field—famously featured in the opening scene of filmmaker Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita—just a few yards from the ancient aqueducts in Rome.

Every year millions of tourists visit sites like the Forum in downtown Rome. Just a few miles south, the Appia Antica Archaeological Park drew about 100,000 visitors in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Ilaria Cavaterra, a conservation student, restores mosaic floors at Rome’s grand Villa Dei Quintili, at the fifth mile of the Via Appia. The residence was so coveted that Emperor Commodus is said to have killed its owners and moved in himself in the second century. “This palace, if it’s well preserved, can give to the tourists and all the people the full experience of life in ancient Rome,” says Serena di Gaetano, a mosaic conservation expert who oversees the project.

At Italy’s Central Institute for Restoration, specialist Adriano Casagrande repairs a bust known as the Philosopher’s Head. It was found during excavations of the Villa Dei Quintili.

Three friends picnic among the aqueducts. The park’s director has implemented a busy schedule of concerts, movie screenings, and heritage days that aim to attract both tourists and locals to the serene segment of the Appia as it leaves central Rome and heads to the countryside.

After Rome’s Colosseum, the amphitheater of Santa Maria di Capua Vetere was the largest arena of the time, and also home to the first and most famous gladiator school. In this very area, the well-known revolt of Spartacus broke out in 73 BC.
The Appia originally linked Rome to this city, which rivaled the capital in influence. “The process to romanize the Italian population happens through this street,” says Ida Gennarelli, the site director, of the Appia. “Not only did the military walk this street, but so did ideas, slaves, and religions from the East.”

The Appia’s meaning for couples is “the path they have to walk together,” says wedding photographer Angelo Corbi, who has a studio along the route’s stones in the village of Terracina. “What better than the Via Appia for that?” The town plaza has become a popular destination for weddings, and Corbi ensures the Appia provides a historic backdrop.

Gravina in Puglia, walkers along the bridge that crosses the canyon.
The Acquedotto bridge connects the two banks of the Gravina torrent. The bridge is the symbol of the city and of the extraordinary landscape of the Murgia plateau. It was built in the 17th century in order to cross the ravine.
Gravina, an ancient cereal and wine center, enters history in the seventh century BC, as evidenced by archaeological findings.
The word "gravina" comes from the Latin "grava" or from the messapic "graba", with means of rock, shaft, and erosion of bank river.

For long stretches in southern Italy, the Appia is lost under modern pavement, private land, and fields of wheat—such as these near the town of Palazzo San Gervasio. The architects of the new walking route have designed small detours to avoid areas where the Appia is no longer walkable.

Aerial views of Monteserico castle, located in the territory of Genzano di Lucania, in the province of Potenza.

A late-night customer savors a drink at Qui Nun Se More Mai—a trattoria in Rome whose name means “Here you will never die.” Its tables stand directly on the stones of the Appia.