The Via Praenestina (modern Italian: Via Prenestina) was an ancient Roman road in central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Initially called Via Gabiana, from

Gabii Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the ''Via Gabina''. It was on the south-eastern perimeter of an extinct volcanic crater lake, approximately circular ...

, the ancient city of

Old Latium Old Latium ( la, Latium vetus or ') is a region of the Italian peninsula bounded to the north by the river Tiber, to the east by the central Apennine mountains, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea and to the south by Monte Circeo. It was the t ...

to which it ran, it received a new name having been extended as far as

Praeneste Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pre ...

(modern Palestrina). Once past Praeneste the road continued towards the Apennines and the source of the Anio River. At the ninth mile the road crosses a ravine by the well-preserved and lofty Ponte di Nona, with seven arches, the finest ancient bridge in the neighbourhood of Rome. The line of the road is, considering the difficulty of the country beyond Gabii, very straight. Half-way between Gabii and Praeneste is a well-preserved single-arched bridge,

Ponte Amato Ponte, a word meaning ''bridge'' in Italian, Portuguese, and Galician languages, may refer to: Places England *Pontefract, a town in the Metropolitan City of Wakefield France * Ponte Leccia, a civil parish (hameau) in the department of Haute-Co ...

. Ashby cites his own contribution to ''Papers of the British School at Rome'', i. 149 sqq.

References

Praenestina Rome Q. VII Prenestino-Labicano Rome Q. VI Tiburtino Rome Q. XIX Prenestino-Centocelle Rome Q. XXII Collatino Rome Q. XXIII Alessandrino {{Italy-road-stub