Rome is one of Europe’s greenest cities. Here’s the perfect way to see it

Travelling to familiar cities always presents the same dilemma – go back to the places you love, or discover something new? Rome is one of the greenest cities in Europe with more than 16,000 hectares of parkland, and I’ve seen almost nothing of them. A bike tour through some highlights seems like a good place to start.

Roma StarBike’s Ancient Appian Way e-bike tour takes in a large part of the famous road and the parklands that surround it. The four-hour, half-day ride explores the ancient city’s engineering, architecture, and military and social lives, while showcasing some of its most beautiful green open spaces.

Roma StarBike operates e-bike tours that take visitors along the ancient Appian Way trail.

The morning tour has a 9am start, and after doing a quick test ride on our e-bikes, our group of five adults strap on our helmets and take off. Our guide Fabrizio Greco is an avid cyclist and, as we’ll soon learn, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Roman history and a palpable love of his native city.

From the StarBike offices near the Colosseum, Greco helps us navigate the traffic until we reach the entrance of the Parco degli Scipioni, where we gratefully follow its leafy path. After 15 minutes’ easy riding through what was once vineyards, our first stop is the imposing San Sebastian Gate, part of the wall encircling the city that was built between 270 and 275 AD by Emperor Aurelian to ward off attacks by barbarians. Now it houses a popular free museum dedicated to the Roman art of wall building. Leading directly to the Appian Way, the gate was a major gathering place for travellers, and still has traces of graffiti from across the centuries.

Tourists can fill up their water bottles at one of Rome’s famous nasoni drinking fountains.Credit: iStock

Although this is an Appian Way tour, we’re taking a roundabout route to get there, so instead of riding straight ahead, we turn left into parkland. It doesn’t take too long before we are deep into woodland. The Valle della Caffarella is one of Rome’s largest parks (part of the larger Appian Way Regional Park) and its 190 hectares of protected land is home to 78 species of flora and fauna, a working farm with grazing sheep, and a long stretch of the Almone River. As well as the sheer wild beauty of the place, it houses many ancient treasures including the remains of the second century nymphaeum egea, built by Roman politician Herodes Atticus to honour his wife (who, Greco reveals in gruesome detail, Atticus may or may not have murdered).

Our ride continues over gently rising hills and through a vast meadow until we reach the Area degli Acquedotti, where the ancient city’s water distribution system is on full display. We follow the bike path alongside the massive aqueducts in awe of the Romans’ extraordinary engineering skills.

Throughout the ride, we see people jogging, walking and taking their dogs out for exercise. There are people playing tennis, and beautifully dressed wedding parties heading to church. We stop regularly to hear about the history of a particular structure or area or, on one occasion, to join a group of delighted preschoolers watching a family of turtles in a pond. The city’s ubiquitous water fountains, the delightfully nicknamed nasoni (meaning “big nose”, thanks to their large hooked spouts), keep us hydrated with cool water throughout the trip.

An hour or so in, we take a proper break, parking our bikes outside what looks like a dilapidated shed, and buy espresso and homemade apricot-jam biscuits at the kiosk inside. While we enjoy the sunshine and admire another aqueduct, Greco tells us a little about local life in the neighbourhood and what it’s like to grow up and live here.

Back on our bikes, for the final stretch of our tour, we ride past the second century Villa dei Quintili, then finally turn into a long section of the Appian Way, its cobblestoned tree-lined road heading far into the distance and eventually back to the San Sebastian Gate.

Riding over the uneven surface, some of the original stones are etched with the lines of chariot wheels, and I have a vivid image in my head of the Roman soldiers and all the travellers who used this road throughout the centuries.

Ancient aqueducts along the scenic Appian Way trail.Credit: iStock

Our final stop is the Caracalla bathhouse, an important social space for the Romans, now a museum and venue for outdoor summer concerts.

After four hours, 28 kilometres, and more than 2000 years of history, a spa sounds like the ideal way to finish such a journey. I’m pretty sure the Romans would agree.

TRIP NOTES

TOUR

Roma StarBike’s Ancient Appian Way e-bike tour starts at 8.30am from May to September and 9.30am from October to April. Afternoon tours start at 2pm (March and April, September and October) and 4.00pm (May), 4.30pm (June and July), and 3.30pm (August).

Adults €49, bike trailers €35. Children weighing up to 25kg ride for free in a child seat attached to the bike. Helmets are provided free of charge and each bike comes with a mobile-phone holder.

All tours start from the Roma StarBike office at Via Capo d’Africa 29/D. The nearest train station is Line B/Colosseo.

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The writer travelled at her own expense.