Regina viarum, the queen of all roads, 600 km from Rome to Brindisi, 29 stages through Lazio, Campania, Basilicata, Puglia to rediscover the ancient route of the Roman consular road that unites territories rich in an extraordinary cultural and archaeological heritage and landscaped to become one of the largest European roads.

A project born from the travel experience of Paolo Rumiz, Riccardo Carnovalini, Irene Zambon e Alessandro Scillintani.

With an initial allocation of 20 million Euros, in 2020 MiC started a restoration project of the ancient Roman Appian Way, returning to the res publica as the first secular European way, the road that had been the great diagonal of the Mediterranean, the Regina Viarum, or the Queen of the Roads, of the Roman legionaries.

A candidate for the UNESCO World Heritage List, the project aims to save the path from the oblivion and neglect into which it has fallen, promoting a slow and sustainable form of tourism that will enhance the culture and economy of the resident communities along the way: 612 km, between Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Puglia, from Rome to Brindisi. Estimates regarding the way are extremely positive.

The investment plan, developed by MiBACT, foresees 10,000 walkers in the first year, a number that will double annually over the following four years reaching a total of 80,000.

The objective is an exact identification of the Appia Antica route, its conservation, requalification and the realization of the works necessary to increase its usability.

The ambitious vision the project responds to is the recomposition of a route studded with distinctive points which recall and reinforce each other: the transformation of suggestions into a concrete and fascinating reality so that the powerful echo of a past, far from disappearing, is revealed once more. For a valid approach to the complexity of the project, there are many possible interpretations – historical, archaeological, landscape, urban, anthropological, economic, social: areas of competence that have found a professional response in the working group, actively merging into the reconnaissance phase and subsequent phases.

The project consists of securing the site, new signage, the planting of trees and plants in coherence with the surrounding landscape, rest stops to enhance the most scenic viewpoints. The project will feed into a public hub of use to walkers planning their trips and to give greater cultural and archaeological heritage detail.

Expressing the will of communities to protect their landscape is the very focal point from which the success of this investment will be determined: not only from the economic flows generated but also from the capacity to measure the active participation of communities and walkers in the care of their own heritage.

Text by Arch. Egizia Gasparini, Arch. Valentina Dallaturca and Archeol. Laura Sanna – Written for the International conference SENSE OF PAST AND SENSE OF PLACE – 2021 – IUAV Università di Venezia