Route One — The Via Appia
Rome → Terracina → Capua → Benevento → Brindisi. About 540 km. Ten days. The Queen of Roads.
The Via Appia Antica, opened in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus and continuously extended to Brindisi over the next century, was the Roman empire's principal road link to the east — used for two centuries to march legions to Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria, and used in reverse for two centuries to move tax revenue, grain, and prisoners back to the capital. Substantial sections of the original paving survive, particularly in the first ten kilometres south of Rome and the Apennine sections; UNESCO inscribed the route as World Heritage in 2024.
Days 1–2 — Rome (the start). Walk the first 16 km from the Porta San Sebastiano to the Frattocchie crossroads. The catacombs of San Callisto and San Sebastiano are on the route. So is the tomb of Cecilia Metella (c. 30 BC).
Day 3 — Terracina. The Temple of Jupiter Anxur on the cliff above the modern town; the Roman lighthouse foundations on the harbour.
Day 4 — Capua. The Amphitheatre of Santa Maria Capua Vetere (early Imperial, second-largest after the Colosseum); the gladiator school where Spartacus's revolt began in 73 BC.
Days 5–6 — Benevento. The Arch of Trajan (114 AD, the best-preserved triumphal arch outside Rome); the Roman theatre; the cardinalate library (with manuscripts from Montecassino).
Days 7–8 — Through the Apennines via Venosa and Gravina. A long mountain drive on tarmac that follows the Roman route fairly closely. Stop at Venosa (Horace's birthplace).
Days 9–10 — Taranto and Brindisi. The Roman columns at Brindisi mark the eastern terminus of the road; from here the route continued by sea to Greece. Fly home from Bari.
Route Two — The Limes Germanicus
Cologne → Bonn → Mainz → Saalburg → Regensburg → Passau. About 750 km. Twelve days. The northern frontier.
The German Limes — the fortified frontier between the Rhine and the Danube — was built in stages from the late first to the third century AD as a continuous defensive boundary, with a palisade, ditch, watch-towers, and supporting forts. About 550 km of the limes are preserved in identifiable form; UNESCO inscribed it as World Heritage in 2005 (with extensions). This route crosses the heart of it.
Days 1–2 — Cologne (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium). The Romano-Germanic Museum (with the Dionysus Mosaic and the Praetorium remains). The Praetorium itself can be visited under the City Hall.
Day 3 — Bonn. The Rheinisches Landesmuseum (with the Marcus Caelius cenotaph and an extensive Limes collection).
Day 4 — Mainz (Mogontiacum). The Roman theatre; the Drususstein; the Mainz Museum of Antique Shipping (with five excavated Roman patrol boats from the Rhine).
Day 5 — Saalburg. A fully reconstructed Roman fort (1898-1907) on the Taunus ridge north of Frankfurt, with a museum on site. UNESCO World Heritage.
Days 6–7 — Limes hiking section. The German Limes Trail follows the original frontier; pleasant rural walking through Hesse and Bavaria.
Days 8–10 — Regensburg (Castra Regina). The Porta Praetoria (179 AD); the Roman walls and bath complex; the Bavarian Museum of Roman heritage.
Days 11–12 — Passau (Castra Batava). The confluence of the Rhine and Danube limes systems. The Roman Museum on the Innstadt bank.
Route Three — The Walls and the Eastern Empire
Istanbul → Thessaloniki → Meteora → Mistras → Athens. About 1,400 km. Fourteen days. Byzantine pilgrimage.
The eastern empire's heartland, ending at the Peloponnesian Despotate where the last emperor was crowned in 1449. Best done by car (or rental car from Thessaloniki southward); the Istanbul-Thessaloniki leg is now most easily done by overnight train or short flight.
Days 1–4 — Istanbul. The walls, Hagia Sophia, Chora, the Hippodrome.
Days 5–6 — Thessaloniki. The Tetrarchic monuments and the early Christian churches.
Day 7 — Vergina. The Macedonian royal tombs (Philip II and Alexander IV) — not strictly Roman, but on the route and unmissable.
Days 8–9 — Meteora. The clifftop monasteries (fourteenth century onwards), the most spectacular of the surviving Byzantine monastic communities outside Athos.
Day 10 — Delphi. Roman-period monuments amidst the older oracle complex.
Days 11–12 — Mistras. The Despotate of Morea's mountain capital, the last Byzantine intellectual centre, where Constantine XI Palaiologos was crowned emperor in January 1449 (he could not be crowned in Hagia Sophia because of the unresolved Ferrara-Florence church union controversy; the coronation was contested). The fortified town's surviving churches preserve the latest Byzantine painting tradition. UNESCO World Heritage.
Days 13–14 — Athens. The Acropolis, the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, the Olympieion. Fly home from Athens.