Rome - Via Appia Antica

Sunday, 25 September 2016

Our flight home was canceled on short notice, so we had an unexpected extra day in Rome. We decided to get a bit more adventurous and take the Metro to the Parco Regionale dell'Appia Antica to see the ancient Appian Way, catacombs, and monuments.

We walked a few short blocks to the Lepanto Metro station. On our way we passed San Gioacchino in Prati. Mass was in progress, so we did not walk inside.

The Fontana delle Cariatidi in the Piazza del Quiriti, just up the street from our hotel.

We got off the Metro at the Garbatella station. The guidebooks and Google said we should use the Colli Albani station, but Garbatella looked a bit closer (and it was). This interesting suspension bridge was next to the Garbatella station.

The aroma of peaches emanating from this produce market in Garbatella was heavenly.

We made our way over to the main entrance to the Archaeological Park (Parco Regionale dell'Appia Antica), picked up a couple of maps, and started walking the old Roman road, Via Appia Antica (Appian Way).

Another section of Via Appia Antica with original Roman paving.

"Modern" (relatively speaking) cobblestone paving can be seen the upper left. Roman paving used much larger stones. Here you can see wheel ruts in the old stones.

The Via Appia Antica is mostly a very straight road.

But at one point it made a slight jog before continuing on its straight way.

Mostly the Via Appia Antica is lined with lavish privately-owned villas, but there are also numerous ancient ruins as well. Some are large complexes, like the Mausoleo di Cecilia Metella (above).

Others were small roadside monuments like this one.

And some were perplexing stone "pyramids" on a small base.

After visiting the Catacombs of San Callisto (sorry, no photos allowed), we walked to the Colli Albano Metro station. It was definitely further from the Appian Way than the Garbatella station was. The small lane above is a private road that leads to a gate into another section of the Archaeological Park. Altogether, we walked about 14 miles today.