NEW – 8 Day Archaeo Hike The best of the Appia & Pompeii (From Rome to Benevento)

Upon your arrival at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport or at the Termini train station, our staff will be waiting for you and bring you to the hotel where you can relax until shortly before dinner time. Around 7 pm, we will gather, welcome you to Rome and explain to you some ins and outs about the hotel, the area of Rome where the hotel is located and some other things regarding logistics and safety in Rome and in Italy. It will also be a moment to meet your guides and the other persons on this tour.

Further, we will explain to you how your week with us will evolve. After this welcome to Rome and Italy we are off to take a short walk towards our dinner location. On this walk we will descend from the famous Spanish Steps, admire the Pantheon, cross Piazza Navona and arrive at Campo de’ Fiori where we will have dinner. After dinner we will return on foot to the hotel following another route to discover some more of Rome.

After a good rest and breakfast, we will start the day by visiting the Museo Nazionale Romano where will see amazing sculptures of the emperor Augustus as Pontifex Maximus, the famous bronze statue of the Boxer and beautiful frescos from some of the rooms of the Villa di Livia at Prima Porta. From there we will cross the street to enter the Baths or the Terme di Diocleziano where we will learn how a Roman spend his day at the Baths and see many other Roman artifacts concerning the art of writing, witchcraft in ancient Rome and the story of the first settlers that lived here before the foundation of the city.

After visiting this beautiful museum which is housed in the Baths of Diocletian, we will depart to the Via Appia to have lunch in a famous Trattoria. After lunch we will take you to the town of Tivoli to visit Hadrian’s Villa which lies to the east of Rome, close to the first hills of the Apennine mountains. Hadrian’s Villa is more like a small town than a villa and we will spend the afternoon exploring the beautiful and immense grounds, buildings and the museum. After Hadrian’s Villa back to Rome for some rest at the hotel and dinner nearby.

In the morning after breakfast, we will check out from the hotel and load all our luggage in our minivan or minibus. Our first stop and visit will be the Colosseum, the Palatine and the Roman Forum which we will visit extensively and explain to you. After having reached the end of the forum, close to the capitol hill, we will commence our first hike on the Via Appia from the Milliarium Aureum or the golden milestone that the emperor Augustus had erected. He intended it to be the starting point of all the Roman roads throughout the empire. From what is left of this milestone we will follow the Via Sacra or holy road and exit Rome through the only city gate that is left in a piece off the Servian walls and head towards the start of the Via Appia. About 5 km on the Via Appia, we will stop for lunch in the restaurants near the Tomb of Caecilia Metella.

During this walk, before and after lunch, we will pass many famous buildings, tombs and funeral monuments like the family tomb of the Scipios, the city gate or Porta San Sebastiano, the first Roman milestone on the Via Appia, the tomb of Priscilla, the catacombs of San Calisto, the Catacombs of San Sebastian, the Tomb of Caecilia Metella, the Triopium or tenement of Annia Regilla, the monument to M. Servilius Quartus and  to the children of Sextus Pompeus Justus, the Sepolcro dei Rabirii, the Sepolcro dei Festoni, the Villa dei Quintili and many more tombs of which the inscriptions have been lost.

After lunch, we will continue our hike towards Albano Laziale where we will arrive late afternoon. Our minivan or minibus will be waiting for us to bring us to the hotel for relaxation and dinner.

During the first part of this morning, we take our minivan or minibus to drive to the Nemi Lake to visit the important temple of Diana entwined with the book the The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer, and the Museum of the ships of Caligula. After these visits we will commence the first hike of today starting at the funeral monument to the Horatii and Curiatii to walk, shortly after commencing, on the first traffic ramp in a road constructed in Europe. After we arrive in Genzano di Roma, we will board our transport to the countryside for our second hike on the Via Appia. Halfway during this hiking stretch, we will have lunch and some relaxation in the field. We will then continue our hike until we will arrive at asphalted stretch of the Via Appia about 3 km before Cisterna di Latina.

By using our transport, we will head towards the oldest and longest strait road in Europe which is of course our Via Appia. At the start of this straight piece, we will make a quick stop for a view standing outside the fence of “Tres Tabernae” a Roman post station. “Tres Tabernae” was the first mansio or mutatio, that is, halting-place for relays, from Rome, or the last on the way to the city.  After having a peek at “Tres Tabernae” we will leave towards the Temple of Anxur which is located on a hill above Terracina. The largest temple was dedicated to Jupiter while a smaller temple dedicated to Venus Obsequens (“Indulgent Venus”) sat next to it. This place is a nice belvedere from where we can see Fondi our destination for tomorrow, Sperlonga and the island of Ponza. After visiting the site of the temple, we will head down from the hill to our hotel and dinner.

After breakfast, we will checkout from the hotel and visit the cut of the Pisco Montana Hill. To speed up traffic on the Appian Way, Trajan is credited with the cutting of the Pisco Montano, an impressive engineering work, executed to a height of 128 Roman feet (37.88 m). This work enabled the new route of the Appian Way, known as the Via Appia Traianea, which, by preventing the climbs of the Ausoni Mountains, connected localities not crossed by the previous Via Flacca and stimulated travel and communication.

After visiting this immense civil work, we will start our hike on the old Via Appia and pretend that the cut of the mountain by Traian does not exist. We w ill have to gain height in the last stretch of the Ausoni mountains to go around Terracina and meet up with the Via Appia on the other side towards Fondi. During this walk we will see many pieces of the old roman road and have a beautiful view of Fondi in the distance and the Tyrrhenian Sea.  After lunch we will head for the second short hike of the day on a well-preserved piece of the Via Appia that starts just a little bit outside Fondi. It is a stretch of the Via Appia that connected Fondi to Itri and it runs parallel to today’s modern Via Appia.

At the end of this hike, we will use our transport and head towards to the outskirts of Formia to visit the tomb of Cicero. After visiting his tomb and remembering this Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, writer, academic and his violent death we will pass Formia and continue by transport to visit the excavations of the Roman town of Minturnae.

From Minturnae we will head to our hotel, relax and prepare for dinner.

This morning we will leave from our hotel directly to Capua to visit the famous Amphiteatro where Spartacus is believed to have fought. The Campanian amphitheatre of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, the second in order of size after the Colosseum, was built between the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century AD.  After the Amphitheatre we will visit the mithraeum of Capua which was discovered in 1922 and excavated in 1924. Inside the Mithraeum we will explain you this mysterious cult in detail. 

Once we have surfaced from the underground mithraeum we will start short hike to the Basilica di Sant’Angelo in Formis or the Temple of Diana Tifatina a Roman divinity derived from the Greek god Artemis. After visiting the Basilica di Sant’Angelo in Formis we will head back to the Amphiteatro for lunch and rest.

Being close to Caserta, after lunch we will continue the Via Appia heading towards the Reggia di Caserta. This palace has not much to do with the Romans except for the fact that the via Appia runs in front of the main gate but it is so magnificent that it would be a shame to pass it by. In April 1945, the palace was the site of the signing of the unconditional surrender of German forces in Italy and in 1998, the palace was a filming location for Star Wars Episode One.  This former royal residence was constructed by the house of Bourbon-Two Sicily’s as their main residence as kings of Naples.

After visiting the Reggia we will drive head to Benevento. We will stop before the city limits to enter the city walking and by crossing the Sabato river on the Ponte Leproso to head straight for a short visit of the roman theatre. After that we are off to our hotel, a rest and then dinner. 

After breakfast we will travel with our transport direction Naples. Once we arrive in Naples, we will visit the Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mann) or as it was formerly called the Real Museo Borbonico since it was Carlo VII, the Bourbon King of Naples who in 1748 took an interest in Pompeii and had excavations started which initially produced the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum and many artefacts. At the museum we will see Roman and Greek art and other interesting finds from Pompei; you can also visit the secret cabinet (Gabinetto Segreto) which holds the collection of erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum. After the museum, we will have lunch in Naples.

After Lunch we will board our transport and head to Pompeii to make an extensive visit of the city. Once arrived in the city we will make a tour to see the most important buildings and sites like the Forum, the Forum Baths, the Amphitheatre, the Brothel, the Palaestra, the Large Theatre, the Gladiator Barracks, the plaster casts and the Villa Dei Misteri. After Pompeii we will head to our hotel to relax followed by our farewell dinner.

In the morning checkout from the hotel followed by a transfer to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, to the Termini train station or to any other place along our route.