A Roman city, forum and theatre intact, built where the sheep trails crossed. For two thousand years the flocks walked straight through the middle of it.
Saepinum-Altilia is a complete Roman town: gate, forum, basilica, theatre. What makes it unlike any other is why it is shaped the way it is. The street plan was laid out where the Pescasseroli-Candela drove road crossed the road down from the Matese.
For centuries the transhumance flocks walked straight along the decumanus. Farmhouses are still built into and on top of the ruins.
Naples (NAP), about a hundred and thirty kilometres, under two hours. Molise is the least served region in Italy; without a car this is close to impossible.
Almost no beds in the town itself; base yourself in Campobasso or Bojano. Signage and interpretation in English are thin, so a guide is worth it. Outside the site there is little.
Sources: tuttitalia.it/molise/93-sepino/ ; cultura.gov.it/luogo/parco-archeologico-di-sepino
Each town is a day. The order of the drives, the nights and the meals is the part that ruins most first trips to small Italy. Twelve of them in one guide, free, and a letter a week after that.
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