This book originated from a project for two permanent exhibitions at the Museo archeologico dell’antica Capua in Santa Maria Capua Vetere and at Castel Sant’Elmo in Naples. The former exhibition featured the Caserta section of the Via Appia – the regina viarum, of which 196 km of its approximate 600 km length lies in Campania – and the memories, materials and premises that make it an open-air museum. The second exhibition centres on an analysis of the construction history of the major Neapolitan fortress founded by the Angevins on the top of the Sant’Erasmo hill but rebuilt two centuries later in the times of the Viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo by Pedro Luis Escrivá, the architect of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
Pages filled with accounts and detailed scientific interventions, accompanied by photo albums, retrace a story leading from the Roman Appian Way to the origin of the castles scattered across Campania, also represented by Castel Sant’Elmo, which dominates the Gulf of Naples, and without overlooking the monasteries founded in mediaeval times along that same stretch of road.

The ancient road now offers a means of promoting new cultural experience models and a slow and green concept of tourism while showcasing the network of medieval castles along the route and drives economic sectors operating in the cultural tourism sector. The book therefore also serves as an informative guidebook for those preparing a journey on this stretch of the Appian Way, one abounding with history, monuments and scenery.