Rick Steves’ Rome and Italy books have contained information about riding part of the Appian Way, south of Rome, on a rented bicycle. We tried that yesterday afternoon. It was a good experience, glad to have done it, but it’s no easy ride, and a more difficult challenge than Rick lets on. He even started one TV episode astride a bike, on the Appian Way, and it looked like a fun and unusual thing to include on our trip.
The ancient road was a major highway in ancient times, 27 feet wide - enough space for traffic in both directions. It’s now much narrower. Rick indicates that Sunday’s the best day for biking, as there’s little car traffic, compared to the rest of the week. It’s closed to most motorized traffic on Sundays. He says it can be bumpy, and we were prepared for a potentially jolting ride. Our rental bikes worked, but weren’t finely tuned machines. Mountain bikes with wider tires and some shock absorption would’ve been better suited to the rougher patches.
Well, many stretches are smooth. Others are basically boulders in the road, bands maybe 6 feet long, across the entire road. Get in a lower gear and hold on, maybe standing on the pedals to get out of the seat an inch. Aim for the smoothest rocks. And in many stretches, there are narrow dirt paths along one or both sides of the road, with occasional entry and exit paths to get on or off them. Those can be smoother than the road itself, but wind around trees, and one led into an abrupt ditch, which required a sudden stop-and-walk maneuver.
The Umbrella Pine trees along the road have spread roots under the paving stones in many places, and that’s caused upheaval and big paver waves to be ridden over cautiously. Some stones are loose, or even carry old wagon ruts from bygone days, so keep an eye out. Much work to “improve” the road was done during Mussolini’s time, and likely since then, too, so it’s not as it was 2,000 years ago, but not like the asphalt bike pathway in your nearest park, either.
OK, so the road surface requires some extra balance, endurance, and steering ability to avoid obstacles and unevenness that could put you and your bike down - hard. But the rough roads are not the only part. Today there were hoards of pedestrians, in enormous packs, spread both across the road and the paths on the sides. It looked like busloads of middle-schoolers were on a Sunday tour, on foot. There were other large tour groups of adults, all with dangling audio boxes on lanyards. Then, others in smaller groups, with or without dogs, some unleashed. And lots of others on bikes - many on other rentals, many on what might be their own cruiser bikes, and some on serious mountain bikes. Some riders were going far faster than most - reckless, even. Some double-wide baby carriages. And some cars, too, including a big Rolls-Royce headed for a wedding at a fancy countryside house along the Appian Way. And there wasn’t any order to what side of the road anyone was going. Some on the right, some on the left, some weaving one way, then the other. Some fast, some slow, some stopping suddenly, without warning. Some ignoring others coming towards or behind. No rules. Kind of like sidewalks in Rome, but even more crowded, plus more modes of transport, and rougher surfaces.
Maybe today was an exception, or maybe in was a normal Sunday. Prepare for (some) rough surfaces, but also be ready for a simultaneous crush of people. Some coming towards you, others that you’re approaching. I didn’t witness any actual injuries - but there were some close calls.
Have fun, and get a helmet with your rental! Many (most) riders didn’t have them, but I was told that there have been casualties.