Rome

A city as old as Rome is bound to be a place of great diversity in street infrastructure and culture. As the largest and most historically prominent city in Italy, Rome lives up to the identity of an international city, and in various ways it has been one for millenniums. Over time the city of Rome has been constantly built over again and again, due to destruction, change in context, growth, and in general a long period of existence, warfare, and shifting politics. Much of the original ancient city (which itself changes greatly over the course of what we consider the period of ancient Rome) lies meters under the existing modern infrastructure. Rome itself is diverse in it’s life and people and has transcended national borders and cultures, which today can be seen in its streets.

The concept of All Roads Lead to Rome derives from the Ancient Roman times when the empire was expanding to the point of transnational and continental boundaries. Rome was the cultural and historic heart of the empire where much of the early few centuries, it served as the capitol. Due to this responsibility Rome was the center of the everything at the time and it was necessary to have a network connection back to the city.

Most roads were built starting from the city’s urban center adiating outward as far as Roman Britain and the rest of Roman occupied Europe, West Asia, and North Africa. This was a benefit for trade, militaristic movement, and ability to efficiently travel to the city from various stations and towns.

This concept of a central city that most roads lead to, is not a concept invented by the Romans, but they were the first to make a perfection to some degree of it. The concept of Rome has since carried out into the post history of Ancient Rome to the modern age where cities today still follow this suit of urban and regional centers that are all interconnected in some way.