Rome to Ravenna Following Emperors

Rome to Ravenna Following Emperors, Popes and Kings on the Via Flaminia
An exciting journey through a swathe of Italy’s history and archaeology, from coast to coast across Italy and over the Apennine mountains to link the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasts. This is the route followed by the Via Flaminia, the ancient consular road that was the preferred means of crossing the mountainous spine of the peninsula for Roman imperial officials, ultimately leading them onwards to Gaul and the Danube frontier. The road traversed the peaks and valleys, penetrating the highest mountain via the Furlo pass, a road tunnel that is still used.

The towns along its route were centres of a rich economic and social life. Outliers of the Samnite world, their strategic positions brought them wealth, and in the Middle Ages this was invested in some extraordinary architecture and art. The Lombards of Spoleto, former Byzantine mercenaries in the 6th century AD, became one of the major powers of Italy in the Dark Ages.

This route continued in importance in later eras. It was the delicate jugular vein that linked together the last vestiges of Roman Italy following the Barbarian invasions, and when the Popes seized power in central Italy at the time of the Emperor Charlemagne in the 8th century it held together the Papal States, the so-called Republic of St. Peter.

The road finally descends to the Adriatic, and the coastal city of Ravenna where the final western Emperors, Ostrogothic Kings and Byzantine governors built splendid mosaic-filled churches and palaces behind the impenetrable dykes and marshes. The cities were minor centres of the Renaissance too. The Dukes of Urbino were major patrons of artists like Piero della Francesca.