San Paolo Fuori le Mura and Via Appia. Regina Viarum

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. San Paolo Fuori le Mura

   The name tells the story: Saint Paul outside the walls. According to tradition, Paul was beheaded on the road to Ostia, and a Christian woman buried him in her family's cemetery beside the Via Ostiense, about two kilometres from the old city wall. Constantine built a small church over the grave in the early fourth century, and by the end of that century three emperors had replaced it with a vast basilica, the largest in Rome until the new Saint Peter's. In 1823 a fire destroyed most of the building, and it was rebuilt in the nineteenth century as a faithful copy of the old one, with a forest of eighty granite columns along the nave.

   Read the complete San Paolo Fuori le Mura write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   San Paolo Fuori le Mura is where the day begins. Next is The Via Appia across Alban Hills.

2. 2. The Via Appia across Alban Hills

   The Romans built the Appian Way straight as a ruler across the Campagna, but when it reached the Alban Hills, the old volcanic massif south-east of Rome, even they had to bend a little. At Ariccia, the road crossed a deep valley on a huge viaduct of stone blocks, parts of which still survive, and climbed past Albano and Genzano toward Velletri and the south.

   Read the complete The Via Appia across Alban Hills write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The Via Appia across Alban Hills comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Adriana.

3. 3. Villa Adriana

   Hadrian never did anything by halves. Below the hill town of Tivoli, on the plain east of Rome, the emperor built himself a retreat that was less a villa than a private city: palaces, baths, libraries, theatres, gardens and long reflecting pools spread over more than a hundred hectares. Villa Adriana was constructed in the early second century AD, and Hadrian, a restless traveller and amateur architect, filled it with references to places he had seen, most famously the Canopus, a long pool lined with columns and statues meant to evoke the Egyptian canal of that name. Walking through the ruins today, among cypresses and olive trees, you get a sense of a man trying to bring the whole empire home.

   Read the complete Villa Adriana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Adriana. Next is Via Appia. Regina Viarum, 46 km on.

4. 4. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Adriana.

5. 5. back through Villa Adriana

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Adriana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Villa Adriana sits at 183 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Via Appia across Alban Hills.

6. 6. back through The Via Appia across Alban Hills

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Via Appia across Alban Hills write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through The Via Appia across Alban Hills comes up about 268 km into the recorded legs. Next is San Paolo Fuori le Mura.

7. 7. San Paolo Fuori le Mura

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete San Paolo Fuori le Mura write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   San Paolo Fuori le Mura closes the day.