It is often 5.30am when we drive along the Via Appia Antica, on our way to Ciampino airport and usually running late. Rattling over basalt cobbles smoothed by 21 centuries of traffic, and past high, stone walls overhung with trees and hiding villas and catacombs, it feels like time travel before more travel, on the 6.50am flight.
Built in 312BC, Via Appia was the first long road constructed specifically to transport troops south, and was later extended as far as Brindisi in Puglia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the once great consular road declined: some parts were left to go wild, others incorporated into other roads. However, sections of the ancient road, such as the stretch leaving Rome, remained an important route for people and things going in and out of the city.
