Queen of Roads: Rome first highway and tourist attraction added to UNESCO World Heritage list

Queen of Roads connects the capital of the early Roman state to the south-eastern town of Brindisi and is the 60th Italian site to be recognised by UNESCO

The Appian Way, the ancient Romans' first highway and a tourist attraction in modern Rome, has been added to the United Nations' cultural heritage list.

Known as the Regina Viarum or Queen of Roads, it connected the capital of the early Roman state to the south-eastern town of Brindisi. It is the 60th Italian site to be recognised by the UN culture agency UNESCO, which announced its decision on the social platform X on Saturday.

The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC.

Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the move acknowledged the "universal value of an extraordinary work of engineering that has been essential for centuries for commercial, social and cultural exchanges with the Mediterranean and the East".