Roads Can Lead Out of Rome, Too

Some of the roads that lead to Rome can be most memorable when traveled out of the Eternal City.

Heading north out of Rome, the meandering Via Flaminia curves like a river, leading you out into the country and eventually splitting and forming two travelways. The Via Flaminia continues northwest from the Eternal City and the Via Tiberina follows the path of the Tiber river to the northeast.

Passing through the Porta del Popolo, across the Ponte Milvio, you pass through the gates that marked the ancient city limits of Rome, and eventually come to a quieter countryside that hosts cities that have been nearly forgotten by history.

The Roman censor Caius Flaminius built the route that bears his name from 223 to 220 BC. To this day, the road follows a similar path to the one that Flaminius planned more than 2,000 years ago.

Besides its historical roots, the road is a modern pathway for many living in the open country. Lined with arches, bridges, and fragments of ancient viaducts, the Via Flaminia is a reminder of Rome's glorious past.

The road is a predominantly "Christian" one, lined with religious towns. It shares its history in large part with the victory of Christianity over paganism in the Roman Empire.

Traveling the Via Flaminia transports visitors from ancient Roman history, to the Middle Ages, to the present. As a history lesson, the road is fascinating. It conjures up a recollection of great Roman leaders and conquerors whose conquests and travels brought them to many villages. The rise and fall of great cities thousands of years old is evident in the spectacular ruins of castles, palaces, and churches in towns whose history is older than that of Rome herself.

Writer Bruno Palma said the Via Flaminia recalls not only the leaders of Rome, but lives her life, too, from her birth to her present. Popes, world leaders, and pilgrims have followed the road into the Eternal City since ancient times, and have traveled the road out of the city, too, taking on adventure and literally changing the course of history.

A vision of the cross and, in fire beneath it, the words In hoc signo vinces - "In this sign, thou shalt conquer" - appeared to Constantine and his army as they fought a battle against Maxentius about eight miles outside Rome near the Via Flaminia. Near that battle site stands a group of rock formations that the ancients called saxa rubra, or "red rock", after the blood-red rocks that seemed to bar the road.

Saxa rubra line one side of the Via Flaminia, while the plain stretches out from the other side, touching the Tiber, Rome's sacred river.

Beyond the red rocks, the road diverges from the river and the Via Tiberina branches off, marking another reminder of Constantine's battle over Maxentius - a great stone monument.

Standing between the Via Flaminia and the Via Tiberina, Riano welcomes visitors through a great arched gate, leading to a town whose castle and palace are a marker of a great history.

Several towns line the Via Tiberina road. Capena is the first of many stops that make for great travel excursions. Several interesting churches and castles have attracted attention from visitors over the last several thousand years. The town was a powerful Etruscan city twelve centuries before Christ. Eventually, however, Rome conquered Capena and the once glorious city fell to history's wayside.

Just ten miles down the road from Capena on the Via Tiberina is another centuries-old town. Fiano Romano sits on a plateau overlooking the Tiber valley. In its golden days, it had a river-port whose travelers included Popes and other high officials. Shady elms, wooded hills and silver olive groves make Fiano Romano one of the typical beauty-spots of the Roman Campagna, or countryside.

The Via Flaminia's history as a main route into and out of Rome for more than the last 2,000 years provides an excellent opportunity for visitors to the Eternal City to see not just the pathways that go to Rome, but those that lead them to other cities of great history as well.