The story
Take a look at the width of the road stretching out before you. It is generous and straight, a grand line of asphalt cutting through the city. If you listen closely, you can hear the rhythmic, muffled vibration of the metro trains rumbling deep beneath your feet near the Lepanto or Ottaviano stations. But if we could peel back the layers of time just over a century and a half, you wouldn’t be standing in a bustling urban center at all. You would be standing in a quiet, muddy field where horses grazed and the grass grew tall against the bend of the river.
I’m Avsha, and I’ve always found it fascinating that this grand boulevard, Viale Giulio Cesare, is named after a man who could never have imagined this part of Rome as a city. Julius Caesar lived and died two millennia ago, between the years 100 and 44 BC. He was a brilliant general who led his legions across the Rhine and into the unknown wilds of Britain. He was a politician who famously crossed the Rubicon river to seize control of the state, eventually becoming a dictator for life before meeting a violent end at the hands of his own senators. Yet, for all his power, this street is a relatively new addition to the Roman map.
This neighborhood, known as Prati, was named for the meadows that once defined it. When Rome became the capital of a unified Italy in 1870, the city needed to grow rapidly. The planners of that era wanted to create a district that felt modern and orderly, a contrast to the tangled, narrow alleys of the ancient center across the river. They began laying out this grid in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, naming the wide new avenues after the giants of Roman history. They chose Julius Caesar not just for his fame, but because he represented the strength and the administrative genius that the young Italian nation wanted to project.
Today, the street serves as a massive artery connecting the Tiber River at the Matteotti Bridge to the towering walls of the Vatican. It is a place of heavy, serious architecture. As you walk, you’ll pass the high, formidable walls of military barracks and the stern, dignified facades of the civil courts. It is a street of law, order, and constant movement, where thousands of people pass through every hour on their way to work or the museums.
It is easy to feel small here, surrounded by the tall, ochre-colored apartment blocks and the relentless flow of cars and scooters. But as you continue your walk, I want you to try one small thing. Look up toward the rooflines or the stone carvings around the high windows of the older buildings. See if you can spot a carved eagle or a stone laurel wreath tucked away. These are quiet nods to the ancient empire that Caesar helped build, hidden in plain sight above the modern traffic.