Via Traiana - una strada lunga duemila anni

Two ancient roads characterized the landscape and history of Puglia, the Via Appia Antica and the Via Traiana. While the first was built in various batches from 312 BC to 191 BC from Rome to Brindisi passing through Benevento and Taranto, the second is known as the road that alternatively connected Benevento to Brindisi with an almost coastal route. The history and study of the route of the Via Traiana are not a new topic in history and archaeology, however since 1913 no one has dared to cross it entirely, except in a virtual way, without ever wondering where it was and what remains remain . Anyone who writes on a topic, be it of a historical or archaeological nature, knows very well that they then have to find themselves faced with numerous considerations of a general nature, useful but sometimes also of minimal importance if one does not look at the whole, which is why they ask themselves a thousand questions without ever finding a solution and these make us lose the goal that must be pursued. How is it possible that a road that had so much importance in history has decayed over the centuries? How can we still trace part of what existed and allowed armies, merchants and pilgrims to cross it? And how can it be enhanced? These are the questions I asked myself. Much of what once was has been lost and for this reason almost no one remembers it anymore, but nothing is more exciting than the journey and the stages that it imposes, a journey that, for centuries, has witnessed battles, clashes, encounters of civilizations and more or less well-known characters. The street is the place of encounter, love towards others. And the journey includes the hope of returning. Like the pilgrim who, walking along the streets, reaches his destination after having sighted it from a distance, so I allowed myself to approach the problem with a will that is not at all hierarchical and imperative, but only to allow everyone to undertake a journey that has marked the fundamental stages of the Campania and Apulian civilization together with the "queen of the roads", the Via Appia. Each of us should embark on a journey. Those who cannot do so can proceed along a mental path, the itinerarium mentis towards a destination among marvelous landscapes and places now abandoned for centuries, among the dark lands of Irpinia or between the white banks of Egnazia and, beyond these, towards a green landscape under a pollution-free sun and starry sky.