Via Appia. Regina Viarum and The Via Appia in Rome

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Via Appia. Regina Viarum, 37 km on.

2. 2. Via Appia. Regina Viarum

   The Romans called it the queen of roads, and in 2024 UNESCO agreed, listing the Via Appia from Rome to Brindisi as a World Heritage site. Begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, it was the first great Roman road, built to move armies south toward Campania and later extended to the port of Brindisi, the gateway to Greece and the East.

   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 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Via Appia in Rome.

3. 3. The Via Appia in Rome

   Rome's regina viarum, the queen of roads, leaves the city through the Porta San Sebastiano and heads south-east toward Capua and eventually Brindisi. It was begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, and the first miles out of Rome are now protected within the Parco Regionale dell'Appia Antica. The stretch of the old road is lined with tombs, ruins of villas, catacombs and umbrella pines, and the original paving stones, huge polygonal basalt blocks, still surface parts of it.

   Read the complete The Via Appia in Rome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach The Via Appia in Rome. Next is back through Via Appia. Regina Viarum, 37 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.

5. 5. 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 at Via Appia. Regina Viarum. That is the ride.