There is a new documentary on Yabla about poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. It opens with some lines from a 1962 poem:
Giro per la Tuscolana come un pazzo
Per l'Appia come un cane senza padrone
I wander along the Tuscolana like a madman
Along the Appian like a dog without an owner
Captions 7-8, Via Pasolini La super storia - Part 1
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Italians and people who live in Rome know exactly what Pasolini was referring to in these lines, but viewers might not know and will be curious to find out.
La via Appia, or Via Appia Antica, known in English as the Appian Way, is one of the oldest and most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome with Capua to the south, and later with Brindisi in Puglia. The road was named after Appius Claudius Caecus who was responsible for building the first part of it around 312 BC. A new road with the same name was constructed in the 16th century: La via Appia Nuova.
The via Tuscolana, or la Tuscolana, is less well-known, perhaps because it wasn't built by the Romans. It was built in medieval times and connected Rome with Tuscolo, now called Frascati. In Rome, it intersects with la via Appia and then runs parallel to it. There is a quartiere (district) named for it, called Tuscolano, and la Tuscolana also happens to run through Cinecittà on the outskirts of Rome.
The Italian noun via means several things, such as "street," "road," or "way." It can also be used figuratively to mean "way" or "pathway." When referring to roads, Italians often leave out "via" and just use la (the article of the feminine noun via) plus the actual name of the road. So via Appia becomes l'Appia. Via Tuscolana becomes la Tuscolana. In English, it's traditional to use the noun "way," to translate via, so we have "Appian Way." Roads can be named for where they go or after someone famous, or someone, such as in the case of some Roman roads, who headed the building project. In other cases, the name has a different source, as we shall see.
There are other old Roman roads featured in Yabla videos, so let's have a look, just for fun.
L'Aurelia is one of the oldest Roman roads and goes up the coast from Rome, all the way to Mentone, on the border of Italy and France. It was built around 241 BC under the supervision of Gaius Aurelius Cotta (hence the name).
Purtroppo l'abbiamo trovata dietro una piazzola sull'Aurelia.
Unfortunately, we found her behind a rest area on the Aurelia.
Caption 54, Il Commissario Manara S2EP12 - La donna senza volto - Part 5
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This road (as many other old roads) has undergone many changes since Roman times, and is now also called Strada Statale 1, usually abbreviated to SS 1. Strada Statale stands for "state (national) road." In many places, it is bordered with pine trees, and is quite beautiful, but narrow. Newer, wider stretches of road have been built parallel to it (and with access to it) in parts of Italy, keeping basically the same name (Aurelia and the number 1). This can cause confusion, especially since the road follows the coast and is very popular with tourists. Locals often call the new road simply, la variante (the variant or bypass).
The Via Salaria owes its name to the Latin word for "salt," since it was the route the Sabines (ancient Italic population) would take to carry salt from the marshes at the mouth of the river Tiber. It is referred to as La Salaria, but its official name is Strada Statale 4 Via Salaria (SS4) and is now a modern state highway that maintains the old road's name and runs on the same route from Rome to the Adriatic Sea, another ancient source of salt.
La Salaria, il salario, il sale è la più antica moneta del mondo.
The Salaria [Roman road], the salary, salt is the oldest currency in the world.
Caption 4, La rotta delle spezie di Franco Calafatti Il sale - Part 1
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This road went from Rome to the ancient port city of Ostia on the coast. Later, the marshlands near it were reclaimed and a new neighborhood (Ostia, now part of Rome) was built toward the end of the 19th century.
E dove sarebbe avvenuto questo scambio di cappotti? In quale ristorante? Al Biondo Tevere. È sull'Ostiense. -Ah, lo conosco benissimo. Fanno un'amatriciana...
And where did this swapping of coats occur? In what restaurant? At the Biondo Tevere. It's on the Ostiense. -Ah, I know it well. They make a [great] Amatriciana...
Captions 49-51, Provaci ancora prof! S2E5 Vita da cani - Part 9
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Did you notice the name of the restaurant in the previous example? Al Biondo Tevere refers to the river the restaurant looks out upon: il Tevere (the Tiber). It's called Biondo (blond) because at one time, at least, the river's color was yellowish, owing to the sand and limestone mixed in with the water. It just so happens that Anna and Marika had lunch at that very restaurant and made a video for Yabla to prove it. They even interviewed the owner.
Sì, perché siamo ovviamente a Roma, su via Ostiense, una via molto antica di Roma. E qua sotto c'è il fiume Tevere.
Yes, because obviously we're in Rome, on the via Ostiense, a very old Roman road. And there below is the river Tiber.
Captions 17-19, Anna e Marika Trattoria Al Biondo Tevere - Part 1
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We've enjoyed finding these examples of roads around Rome, and we hope you have enjoyed reading about them and playing the examples. We'll be adding other roads to the list as we find them.
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