Marching Arches

here is a place, not far from the old Via Appia, where you can step outside of Rome without leaving the city. You can almost step outside of time too, into a landscape that the old Consul Appius Claudius might have seen as he plotted his road to Brindisi. There are visitors, mostly Romans, who come to walk, or run, or let their children play, or simply to find peace; but the place is not crowded. There are no pedal cars, food truck vendors, pony rides or carousels. Most tourists don’t come, of course, because