Things to See When Landing at Rome Airports

The technology revolution allows people today to havedistance of 540 kilometres. The road was
more resources at disposal and to plan their trip toapproximately 4.15 meters wide, enough to permit the
Rome and to Italy optimizing the time in order to seetransit of two chariots at the same time. Two
more. To make an example, when you are just landedsidewalks in earth delimited by stone flanked the track.
at Ciampino Rome airport, during your transfer to theEvery 10/13 km in the most busy sections were
hotel you can see the archaeological area of thealigned along the road the so-called "stations" for the
Appian way and the acqueduct built by the emperorchange of the horses and " taberne ", which offered
Claudius in 54 AD.refreshments and lodging for travellers.
Opened in 312 b. C. by the censor Appius Claudius,The construction was extremely difficult , was realized
during the Sannite wars, in order to join Rome with thesolving natural difficulties with an amazingly modern
southern provinces of the peninsula, with Africa andplan of conception which made of it a solid, rational
the East. It became in short time the elected road,road with easy access. Bridges across the rivers
sacred to the cult of the dead, crossed during the Latinwere built, valleys filled, heights flattened, channels dug,
holidays by the crowd going to the temple of Jupiterbanks raised in order to contain waters of the rivers, it
on the summit of mount Cavo or to the temple ofwas covered with blocks of hard basalt that still today
Diana, by the shores of the Nemi lake.emerge from the road. After the fall of the empire and
The Appian way ran here straight -after this the namebarbarian invasions the road fell into decay and was
of " recto " - at first followed the line of an existingabandoned. The monuments were sacked and lost
road to the Alban hills and reached the Agro Pontino.their works of art anddecorations; Grass grew wildly
After the Appio Forum it touched the city of Terracinaupon the road which slowly disappeared from sight.
and it continued for Fondi until Capua. Some year laterColumns, marbles, statues, friezes, relieves started to
it was extended via Benevento and Venosa, nativeembellish the new buildings of the City, the new
land of Orazio, and a century later to Taranto andChristian basilicas and noble castles. Towards the half
Brindisi.of the ' 700 historians started to dig discovering
In the first years of II the century A.D. the emperorimportant works and collecting fragments.
Trajan added his name to the road.The first Christian cemeteries rose along the Appian
The beginning of the road, outside the Porta SanWay at the end of the I century: along this road the
Sebastiano, a gate in the city walls, is lined withmost important necropolis were discovered, the
interesting dilapidated buildings, including the church ofCatacombs of S. Callisto, going back to the II sec., and
Domine Quo Vadis, where St. Peter is supposed tothose of S. Sebastian, in which were housed for a
have had a vision of Christ. Jesus's footprints werewhile the bodies of the two Apostles of the Roman
preserved for posterity in a slab of white marble (inChurch: Peter and Paul. The history has confirmed that
the centre of the church floor). There are also threethe Apostle entered in the city walking along the
sets of catacombs close to this stretch of road -Appian Way.
check opening times and days first as their longFew people know that if you arrive at the Rome
lunchtime closures can interfere with your day'sairport Ciampino during the summer, you can reach
planning.from there in few minutes the summer residence of
With the New Appian Traian Way it was possible toCastelgandolfo, where the pope spends his vacation
go from Rome to Brindisi in 13/14 days with a totaltime.