About Appia Day
The festival spread along the Regina Viarum, the Ancient Appian Way
APPIA DAY
It is the widespread festival that celebrates the Regina Viarum: an initiative launched in 2016 to restore the Ancient Appian Way to the center as a historical, cultural, and environmental heritage. It is a collective and participatory endeavor, promoted by associations, committees, cultural institutions, and citizens along the entire Roman route of the Appian Way, from Rome to Brindisi.
For one day, the most evocative road of antiquity is transformed into a vast open-air stage, with dozens of free activities: special openings of monuments, guided walks and treks, cycle tours and archeo-tours, performances, music, theatre, children’s workshops, tastings, cultural talks, and exhibitions.
Appia Day was conceived by VeloLove, the association that promoted the GRAB project (the Grande Raccordo Anulare delle Biciclette), and has established itself as the most important event dedicated to enhancing the Ancient Appian Way, bringing together thousands of people and dozens of local and national organizations every year.
The festival is an invitation to reclaim the past in order to imagine a new vision of the city: greener, more livable, and more attentive to landscape and culture.
Open Monuments
Walks
Bike Tours
Live Shows
Workshops
Kids’ activities
The Vision
“
The Appian Way is a unique monument — for its history and legends, its ruins and trees, its countryside and landscape, for its views, solitude, silence, its light, its sunrises and sunsets… which through the centuries have been loved, described, painted, sung, and celebrated by talented men and women from all over the world, turning it into a fantastic reality, a moment of the spirit, creating a work of art out of a work of art.
”
Antonio Cederna
Il Mondo 1953
The Ancient Appian Way becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site
In 2024, the Ancient Appian Way was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site — a historic milestone that confirms its universal value and strengthens its protection and promotion. A millennial heritage to preserve and pass on, a symbol of shared history, culture, and landscape.
The Regina Viarum crosses 4 regions — Lazio, Campania, Basilicata, and Puglia — and more than 70 municipalities, bringing together territories, communities, and local identities in a single great collective story.
Appia Day is the bridge between this extraordinary past and a more conscious future — where archaeology, sustainability, and urban livability come together.
Join the experience