‘… every fine day spent indoors, with the Campagna so close, is in a sense wasted’ (Thomas Ashby, The Roman Campagna in Classical Times (London, 1927), 18)
Thomas Ashby—the British School at Rome's first student in 1901 and later its Director from 1906 to 1925—regularly ventured into the Roman Campagna (the countryside around Rome) and travelled along Italy’s ancient roads. Alone or in the company of others, Ashby followed the line of the Roman roads where he could, searching for traces of their material remains. The tours conducted by Ashby, his friends, colleagues, students, and scholars at the BSR have left us with remarkable visual records of the state of the countryside and ancient roads of Italy as they were in their time. Through their photographs, we can retrace the itineraries of these men and women, follow in their footsteps, and uncover tangible and intangible heritage that has since been lost or irrevocably transformed.
Photo by Thomas Ashby: Thomas Ashby and Robert Gardner (?) at Mile MXVIII on the Via Appia, undated, Thomas Ashby Collection, Italy Series, Box 1
