A Tourist in Rome - Appian Way

Location:41.87317, 12.50165 The road that runs south from Rome, starting at the Porta San Sebastiano gate in the Aurelian Wall
Metro:Circo Massimo, and bus #118 if you'd like to avoid all the walking (see text below)
Time:about 4 hours
Cost:Free, but several attractions charge entrance fees (see links text below)
Hours:Viewable at any time, but several attractions have limited hours (see links in text below)

The Appian Way was one of the first and most important long Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, connecting Rome to southern Italy. It was named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first 35-mile-long section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars in order to allow troops and supplies to travel into and out of war zones quickly, and he built it straight as an arrow for maximum efficiency. To this day the Via Appia contains the longest stretch of straight road in Europe, totaling 39 miles. Before this, routes southward from Rome went through marshes which made travel difficult and resupply impossible. The road was initially made of leveled dirt upon which small stones were laid, followed by gravel, and finally tight-fitting interlocking stones to provide a flat surface, slightly crowned in the middle for water runoff. Ditches were dug on either side of the road and were protected by retaining walls. Lime cement was later used in the joints between stones to provide an extremely smooth surface, but that cement has eroded away leaving a rough surface today. The road was soon extended to go to Capua, near Naples, and finally reached a total of over 400 miles to the port city of Brindisi at the south of Italy, from which ships sailed east to Greece and Egypt. Milestones were eventually added to the road, counting miles south from the road's beginning in Rome. The slave revolt of Spartacus ended poorly for Spartacus' men when after their defeat, 6000 of them were crucified along the 120-mile-long Via Appia from Rome to Capua in 71 BC. Their crucifixion along the Appian Way was ordered, but the removal of their bodies after death was not, resulting in a very effective warning for future revolts. After the fall of the western Roman Empire the road fell out of use. A new Appian Way named Via Appia Nuova was built in parallel with the old one in 1784 and the old one was renamed Via Appia Antica for clarity. Via Appia Antica was used as part of the men's marathon course of the 1960 Summer Olympics, and the part close to Rome is now a free tourist attraction. Here is a Guide to the Appian Way.

    
Appian Way
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Mile Marker III on the Appian Way
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The first 2 miles of Via Appia Antica are still heavily used by cars and buses, and are best avoided by pedestrians. The road starts near the Baths of Caracalla as the street named Via di Porta Sebastiano, and passes under the Porta San Sebastiano gate in the Aurelian Wall and the Arch of Drusus, where its name officially changes into Via Appia Antica. Once the road crosses under the gate, it is outside the city walls, where burials were permitted. We'll be seeing a lot of tombs from here on out. But first, a mile south of the gate is the church of Domine Quo Vadis. From here, it is about another mile to the Catacombs of San Callisto. If you walk from the church to the catacombs, don't walk on Via Appia Antica because during this stretch it is a pedestrian death-trap speedway with tall walls right at the edges of the road and no space for a sidewalk, and the cars go really fast. Instead, at the church, take the path to the catacombs; it's the center road of the 3-way fork of roads heading south right in front of the church. It's closed on Wednesdays since the catacomb also is closed then. The memorial site of Fosse Ardeantine is near the catacombs, at the intersection of Via di Sette Chiese and Via Adreantina. This is a memorial to Italians massacred by Nazis during World War II. Then, it's another mile south to the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. Both catacombs contain miles of underground tunnels where the early Christians buried their dead and occasionally held underground church services. For all of these sights, bus #118 is convenient since it stops at each of them. That bus runs from the Piramide metro stop, to the Circo Massimo metro stop, to the Baths of Caracalla, then Porta San Sebastiano, then Domine Quo Vadis, then the Catacombs of San Callisto, and finally the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. If you have an unlimited daily, 3-day or 7-day metro pass, you can hop on and hop off at each site. Depending on the time you have available, you might want to skip some of these early sights so you can see the ones that follow. I recommend that you definitely see the Baths of Caracalla, and one of the catacombs.

Also if you have some extra time, there's an interesting site off the bus route between the Catacombs of San Callisto and the Catacombs of San Sebastiano, and that is a World War II memorial to 335 Italians slaughtered by the Nazis, named Fosse Ardeantine.

Bus 118 does not go further south than the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. But from there, the traffic has thinned out quite a bit and there is space on the side of the road to walk. Just a short walk south from the catacombs is the Circus of Maxentius, the best preserved racing track from imperial times. Another short walk south takes you to a large round tomb. Outside the city walls, where burials were permitted, the Appian Way is lined with burial tombs, some still visible today, some as large as a house, built by important people for their entire family. The Tomb of Cecilia Metella is a great example. A restaurant and bike rental shop is just a bit south, and from here the road is paved with the authentic Roman stones. You can walk or ride a bike for many miles passing the remains of numerous historic tombs. It is 1.5 miles from this spot to the Via di Tor Carbone, a space in which you'll see many tombs. If you're up for an extra 1.5 miles, you can see many more on the way to the railroad track crossing at Via del Casale Rotondo.

The road inspired the climactic movement of the Pines of Rome piece of Ottorino Respighi's Roman Trilogy, in which the tremendous marching force of a victorious Roman army marching back to Rome is depicted.

The photos below are from north to south, from Porta San Sebastiano to Villa of the Quintili, which is a 4-mile walk.

    
The San Sebastiano Gate in the Aurelian Wall, and the entrance to the Museum of the Wall
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The Catacombs of San Callisto, along the Appian Way
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The western end of the Circus of Maxentius along the Appian Way, from the inside (mosaic of 2 photos)
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St. Nicolas Church, on the Appian Way, near the Tomb of Cecilia Metella
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A peek inside St. Nicolas Church, on the Appian Way, near the Tomb of Cecilia Metella
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The Appian Way, half way from the Tomb of Cecila Metella to the Naked Hero
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A copy of the Naked Hero, on the Appian Way, from the Republican Era, the original is in the National Museum of Rome
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A copy of the Naked Hero, on the Appian Way, from the Republican Era, the original is in the National Museum of Rome
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Tomb of M. Servilio Quarto on the Appian Way
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The Circular Mausoleum on the Appian Way, dated from the first Republican era
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A peek inside the Circular Mausoleum on the Appian Way, at a sarcophagus
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The Tomb of the children of Sesto Pompeo, on the Appian Way, which has an inscription in which Sextus Pompeius Iustusremembers the premature death of his children
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The So-called Doric Monument on the Appian Way, featuring a Doric frieze with metopes decorated with a helmet, rosettes and vases, standing above a structure in “Opera Quadrata” blocks of Peperino stone, dating from the Republican era
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The Tomb of Ilario Fusco on the Appian Way features casts with the half-length portraits of five characters for which the originals are in the National Museum of Rome. In the central niche a married couple is portrayed in the dextrarum iunctio position with, possibly, their daughter. Two male figures are depicted in each of the two side niches. The combing of the women’s hair enables the relief to be dated around 30 B.C. The inscription by Ilario Fusco embedded together with the relief gives the tomb its name.
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The Tomb of Ilario Fusco on the Appian Way features casts with the half-length portraits of five characters for which the originals are in the National Museum of Rome. In the central niche a married couple is portrayed in the dextrarum iunctio position with, possibly, their daughter. Two male figures are depicted in each of the two side niches. The combing of the women’s hair enables the relief to be dated around 30 B.C. The inscription by Ilario Fusco embedded together with the relief gives the tomb its name.
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The Brickwork Columbarium on the Appian Way
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Looking back north toward the Tomb of Ilario Fusco and the So-called Doric Monument on the Appian Way
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The burial chamber of the Brickwork Columbarium on the Appian Way
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The burial chamber of the Brickwork Columbarium on the Appian Way
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The vaulted ceiling of the burial chamber of the Brickwork Columbarium on the Appian Way
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The Tomb of the Freedmen of Claudio on the Appian Way. This is the tomb of a family of freedmen under the Emperor Claudius, the head of the family Ti. Claudius Secundinus, a bank collector, copyist and messenger, his wife, Flavia Irene and their two children.
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The Small temple-shaped tomb on the Appian Way
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An unidentified tomb on the Appian Way, between the Small temple-shaped tomb and the Rabiri Mausoleum
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The Rabiri Mausoleum on the Appian Way is an altar-shaped tomb. The three people on the cast of the relief (the original is in the Palazzo Massimo) are, left to right, C. Rabirius Hermodorus and his wife Rabiria Demaris, probably freedmen of C. Rabirio Postumo, a merchant and successful banker defended in a lawsuit by Cicero, and Usia Prima, priestess of Isis, depicted with sistrum and patera, symbols of the ancient Egyptian cult of this goddess, whose figure was added at a later stage, by chiselling over a previous portrait.
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The Tower tomb on the Appian Way
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The Tomb of the Festoons on the Appian Way is an altar-type tomb dating from the 1st century BC.
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The So-called Tomb of the Frontispiece from the 1st century BC on the Appian Way is a tower tomb. The relief is a copy (the original is in the National Museum of Rome), showing the married couple in the center and their children on either side.
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Unidentified tomb on the Appian Way near the junction with via di Tor Carbone
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The First Brickwork Monument on the Appian Way, a two-story small temple tomb from the mid-2nd century AD
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The Second Brickwork Monument on the Appian Way was transformed into a watchtower during the middle ages
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The Circular Mausoleum on the Appian Way, which was built-over during the middle ages
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The Grave of the Curiazi at the 5th mile of the Appian Way is a tower tomb, located at the site where the Orazi and the Curiazi clans fought their battle, somewhere between 672 and 641 BC, in which the city of Alba Longa became part of Rome
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Pyramid-shaped Tomb, stripped of its external cladding, perhaps associated with the Quintili brothers, on the Appian Way
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The two Graves of the Orazi on the Appian Way, from the late 1st century BC
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The Frigidarium (left) and Caldarium (right) of the Villa of the Quintili on the Appian Way
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Theater (?) of the Villa of the Quintili on the Appian Way
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Nymphaeum of the Villa of the Quintili on the Appian Way (panorama of 3 photos)
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Nymphaeum of the Villa of the Quintili on the Appian Way
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And then I turned around and walked back north, taking these photos:

    
Pines of the Appian Way, and tombs
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Pines of the Appian Way, and tombs
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Pines of the Appian Way, and tombs
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Pines of the Appian Way, with the Tomb of the Frontispiece , the Tomb of the Festoons, and the Tower tomb
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Pines of the Appian Way, with the Tomb of the Freedmen of Claudio
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Pines of the Appian Way, with the Tomb of the Freedmen of Claudio
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Pines of the Appian Way, with the Tomb of Ilario Fusco and the Doric Monument
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An entrance to an estate along the Appian Way
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An entrance to an estate along the Appian Way
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Horseback riding along the Appian Way
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Plants along the Appian Way
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Plants along the Appian Way
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An entrance to an estate along the Appian Way
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An entrance to an estate along the Appian Way
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Baths in Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way (panorama of 3 photos)
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Baths in Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way
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Baths in Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way
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Sculptures on the grounds of Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way
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Sculptures on the grounds of Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way
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Fireplace in Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way
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Museum in Capo di Bove, on the Appian Way
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