L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano T he Appian Way, t h e Q u e e n o f Roads: a title the R o m a n s t h e m - s e l v e s g a v e i t when they built it more than two thousand years ago. In 2024, UNESCO formally rec- ognized its historical and cul- tural value by adding it to the World Heritage list, confirm- ing what Italy already knew: the Via Appia is far more than a road, it's a thread of history that joins the past and the present, the west and the east of the country. Constructed in 312 BC to link the capital with Capua and later extended to Brin- disi, it was a vital artery of communication, trade, and conquest, which made it an essential connector also from a cultural point of view. L e a v i n g R o m e t h r o u g h Porta San Sebastiano, the Appia immediately takes on the appearance of an open-air museum: inside the Appian Way Regional Park, long stretches of basalt paving have survived almost intact, f r a m e d b y t a l l p i n e s a n d cypresses that give the road its unmistakable atmosphere. Visitors often explore this area on foot or by bike, par- ticularly on Sundays when most traffic is banned and the road is closed to cars: if there is anything with the power to make you feel like nothing has changed since antiquity, this would be it. Just beyond the city walls i s t h e s m a l l C h u r c h o f Domine Quo Vadis, said to mark the place where Saint Peter met Christ while fleeing persecution; a short distance farther, the road passes the entrances to the catacombs of San Callisto and San Sebastiano, underground c e m e t e r i e s t h a t s h e l t e r e d thousands of burials and fres- coes from the first centuries of Christianity. Their position along the Appia is historically significant, as it reminds us that Roman law forbade buri- als within the city walls, turn- ing the early stretches of the road into a vast necropolis. Opposite them rises the enor- mous complex of the Villa and Circus of Maxentius, the fourth-century residence and private racetrack of the emperor who briefly ruled Rome before Constantine. The round Tomb of Cecilia Metella, built for a noble- woman in the first century BC and later incorporated into a m e d i e v a l f o r t r e s s , m a r k s another stage of the journey, its solid travertine drum now a landmark of the Roman countryside. Beyond it stands the Villa dei Quintili, a second-century estate seized by Emperor Commodus for its beauty and scale. All these monuments form part of a single archaeological area that can be visited with one ticket, making this first sec- tion of the Appian Way one of the most concentrated his- torical routes anywhere in Europe. Most travelers stop there, yet the road continues far b e y o n d t h e o u t s k i r t s o f Rome, and the UNESCO des- ignation covers the entire line south to Brindisi, more than eight hundred kilome- t e r s o f p a v e d s u r f a c e s , b r i d g e s , a n d r e m a i n s o f towns that once flourished because of it. Following the Appia out of Lazio, the land- s c a p e o p e n s t o t h e s e a a t T e r r a c i n a , w h e r e t h e Romans under Trajan literal- ly cut through a cliff to allow the highway to run along the c o a s t ; a b o v e t h e m o d e r n town stand the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Anxur, a sanctuary with a view of both the Tyrrhenian shore and the ribbon of ancient stone below. The engineering here is still visible, the rock face sliced cleanly to make way for the imperial road. F u r t h e r s o u t h , n e a r t o d a y ' s M i n t u r n o , t h e Appia crossed the Liris River and ran straight through the center of the Roman colony of Minturnae, with the site still preserving the forum, a t h e a t e r , b a t h s , a n d l o n g stretches of the basalt paving where the carts of merchants and officials once passed. The pattern repeats in Cam- p a n i a a t a n c i e n t C a p u a , now Santa Maria Capua V e t e r e , o n c e o n e o f t h e m o s t p o w e r f u l c i t i e s o f southern Italy, where we find the Anfiteatro Campano, second only to the Colosseum i n s i z e ( a n d p o s s i b l y i t s model), a vast ellipse of stone that once held tens of thou- sands of spectators. The city's connection with gladiators, famously including Sparta- cus, gives this stop a distinct place in the wider story of Rome's southern provinces. C o n t i n u i n g i n l a n d , t h e Appia climbs toward Ben- evento, where the Arch of Trajan still rises over the line of the ancient road: com- pleted in the early second century AD, it celebrated both the emperor's military victories and his vast public works, including the con- struction of a new branch, the Via Traiana, that short- ened the journey from Ben- evento to the Adriatic. Cov- ered in sculpted reliefs of battles and civic scenes, the arch is one of the most com- plete triumphal monuments surviving from Roman times and signals the transition f r o m c e n t r a l t o s o u t h e r n Italy. The final destination of the Appia is Brindisi, the port that connected Rome to G r e e c e a n d t h e e a s t e r n Mediterranean. On the city's waterfront stand two Roman c o l u m n s t h a t h a v e l o n g marked the symbolic end o f t h e r o a d . O n l y o n e remains complete, the other having collapsed centuries ago, but together they still serve as the visual punctua- tion of a journey that began in the capital. Around them, the old harbor opens to the Adriatic, recalling the time when soldiers, merchants, a n d p o e t s , a m o n g t h e m Horace, departed from this point toward the provinces and the wider world. Traveling the Appian Way t o d a y m e a n s t r a c i n g t h e physical line of Italy's history through changing landscapes and eras; in a single route, one encounters imperial vil- las, Christian catacombs, military architecture, and r u r a l s a n c t u a r i e s , e a c h reflecting a different phase of the peninsula's development. The UNESCO recognition has brought renewed atten- tion to the idea that cultural heritage is not limited to iso- lated monuments but can exist as a living continuum. From the stones of the Appia Antica Park in Rome to the w i n d - w a s h e d c o l u m n s o f Brindisi, the road tells a con- sistent story of how infra- structure, culture, and terri- t o r y h a v e r e m a i n e d connected for more than two millennia. FRANCESCA BEZZONE The beautiful Via Appia, just outside Rome (Photo: Stain_Phil/Shutterstock) A l o n g t h e A p p i a n W a y : w h a t t o s e e o n I t a l y ' s ancient Queen of Roads ALL AROUND ITALY TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES

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