Historic Centre of Rome and The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Historic Centre of Rome

   You cannot ride into the heart of Rome with any dignity, but you can arrive in a way that does the city justice. Come in by the Appian Way, the Via Appia Antica, laid down in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius and later called the queen of roads, and the approach tells you who built this city and what they wanted from it. The old stone surface, with its basalt blocks, still runs for miles south of the walls, between pines, tombs and lonely arches of aqueduct. Closer to the centre the road joins the real city, with the Colosseum, the Forum and the imperial fora lined up like a geology of power, the Pantheon with its famous open oculus, and then Baroque Rome, with Bernini fountains in squares that seem to appear around every corner.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Rome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Historic Centre of Rome is where the day begins. Next is Via Appia. Regina Viarum, 79 km on.

2. 2. Via Appia. Regina Viarum

   South of the Alban Hills, the Via Appia drops onto the Pontine plain and runs dead straight for mile after mile, as if the Roman engineers had laid it with a ruler, which in a sense they did. This was the Regina Viarum, the queen of roads, begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus to link Rome with Capua, and later extended to Brindisi. Here, near Sezze Scalo and Latina, the road crossed the Pontine Marshes, a malarial swamp that defeated would-be drainers from the Romans to the popes. Travellers sometimes took a canal boat alongside the road instead, and the poet Horace complained about the mosquitoes and the frogs keeping him awake on that very journey.

   Read the complete Via Appia. Regina Viarum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Via Appia. Regina Viarum comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae.

3. 3. The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae

   The queen of roads, the Romans called it: the Via Appia, begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, ran from Rome to Capua and later on to Brindisi, the gateway to Greece and the East. Near Formia, the old road comes down from the hills of Itri to the coast of the Gulf of Gaeta, and a stretch of it, with its paving stones and roadside monuments, survives in the countryside. In 2024, UNESCO listed the Via Appia as a whole, and this section between the eighty-third mile from Rome and the ancient town of Formiae is one of its pieces.

   Read the complete The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 150 km into the recorded legs you reach The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae. Next is back through Via Appia. Regina Viarum, 79 km on.

4. 4. back through Via Appia. Regina Viarum

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Via Appia. Regina Viarum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Via Appia. Regina Viarum, late in the day. Next is Historic Centre of Rome.

5. 5. Historic Centre of Rome

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Rome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Historic Centre of Rome. That is the ride.