Rome - Appian Way Bike Rental

In late April of this year we just walked into the small cafe/ bar near where the bus dropped us from Rome and rented our bikes. Pretty old but decent enough we thought. The friendly woman behind the bar held our driver's licenses as deposit. The relatively smooth roadway near the cafe, catacomb soon gave out to gigantic cobblestones that we simply couldn't negotitate. Trying to ride along the verge didn't pan out either and we abandoned the bikes after about a hour or so despite our enthusiastic determination. I think Hercules fought an opponent whose strength was renewed each time he was hurled to the ground, but that wasn't the case for me! It was fun and I'm glad we did it but it was altogether too bone rattling an experience for us. YMMV . After returning the bikes we continued walking past the Quo Vadis church and picked up a bus to return to Rome.

Much like Denny, above. Same bus stop. Same cafe. Sunday, in February. Lovely day. Nobody around, no problem getting bikes. We saw the same huge blocks of rock forming what they would call cobblestones - what I would call huge. With huge gaps between them, just right for getting a wheel caught, and we thought again and didn't get the bikes. We walked. It got worse heading out of town, but from videos i have watched it looks much better off the road in the aqueduct park. Towards town, by the time you reach the first catacombs the road is in decent shape.

You haven't said when you will be going - I guess in the height of the tourist season it might be more crowded.