The Via Amerina on foot: on the ancient road of the Etruscans and Romans

Few roads tell so much history while remaining so little travelled as the Via Amerina. Born in Roman times to connect the Faliscan territory to Rome and continue toward Amelia, in Umbria, it partly retraces even older Etruscan routes. Today it is a walking itinerary that crosses a surprising landscape of gorges carved into the tuff, woods, rock-cut necropolises and stretches of original paving, and yet it remains almost unknown to mass tourism, overshadowed by nearby Rome and by the more famous destinations of the Tuscia.

The archaeological heart

The archaeological heart of the route lies in the Agro Falisco, around Civita Castellana, the ancient Falerii. Here you can see the remains of Falerii Novi, a Roman city of which the ring of walls and the monumental gates survive, set in the countryside. From this area the Via Amerina plunges into deep gorges, the valley-cut ravines typical of this volcanic land, where the ancient road runs sunk between moss-covered walls of tuff. Along these stretches you come across rock-cut necropolises with tombs hewn into the stone and ancient bridges, in an atmosphere that blends archaeology and wild nature.

Continuing north, the walk touches towns such as Corchiano, Gallese and Vasanello, with their historic centres, before drawing near the Tiber and climbing toward Umbria. On the Umbrian side the natural goal is Amelia, the ancient Ameria, which gives the road its name: a city with imposing polygonal walls in pre-Roman work, among the oldest in Italy. To walk the Via Amerina therefore means moving between two regions and crossing millennia, from the Etruscans and Faliscans to the Romans and on to the Middle Ages, when this route was part of the corridors connecting Rome to the Exarchate.

The route lends itself to being divided into several stages and adapted to your own needs: some walk only its most spectacular sections, such as the gorges of Corchiano, while others tackle the whole link between the Agro Falisco and Amelia. The difficulty is generally moderate, with modest elevation changes but surfaces that are at times irregular, especially in the gorges where the ground can be damp and slippery. It is precisely in these sunken stretches that you often walk completely alone, immersed in a silence broken only by water and birds.

How to get there

How to get there: the southern reference is Civita Castellana, well connected to Rome and also reachable via the Orte station, an important railway hub on the lines to Rome, Florence and Ancona. On the Umbrian side, Amelia is reached by car on the Terni-Orte expressway. The car remains the most practical means for managing the logistics of a linear route, leaving a vehicle at one end, while the train allows you to reach the two ends of the walk without trouble.

When to go

The best period runs from spring to autumn, in particular April, May and October. In these months the gorges are cool and shady, the vegetation is lush but not stifling, and the water of the streams makes the stretches sunk into the tuff even more evocative. This way you avoid the summer heat, which in the gorges can be tempered by the shade but makes the open stretches tiring, and the winter damp that ruins the surfaces. The route's low profile means that, even during the peak tourist season for the nearby cities, you meet very few people here: mass tourism passes right by without noticing.

Practical tips

A practical tip: wear shoes with a good grip and reckon that some stretches in the gorges can be muddy or overgrown, especially after rain. Check the state of the trails in advance with the local associations and municipalities, which look after the road's upkeep. And allow yourself slow pauses before the rock-cut tombs and the remains of paving: the Via Amerina does not astonish with a single great monument, but with the sum of a thousand traces of the past that surface along the way.

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