Cycle path along ancient Roman road is applauded by cyclist groups but criticised by heritage campaigners and motorists.A new stretch of protected cycle path along the Appia Antica, one of Rome's most treasured ancient roads, has sparked a row over how to reconcile heritage protection with modern road safety.  The works form part of the GRAB (Grande Raccordo Anulare delle Bici), a cycling ring road being built around Rome, and cover just over a kilometre linking the historic centre to the Appian Way from Porta San Sebastiano.   New travertine kerbs now separate a protected cycle and pedestrian lane from motor traffic, on a stretch of road where cyclists, pedestrians and cars previously had to share the same narrow carriageway.   Dating to 312 BC, the Appian Way obtained World Heritage recognition from UNESCO in 2024.   A dangerous stretch made safe Campaigners behind the scheme say the change addresses a safety emergency for cyclists as well as pedestrians: the road was previously too narrow to allow safe walking, with no pavement or verge separating people on foot - mostly tourists - from passing traffic.   VeloLove, the association that designed the GRAB, argues that the real hazard was not the new barrier but the decades-long absence of any protection on a road where bikes and cars had long competed for the same space.   Cycling advocacy group Salvaiciclisti has backed the intervention, describing the previous situation as a "choked and dead" road reduced to a car park and a throughfare - newspaper Corriere della Sera reports - and pointing out that even emergency vehicles were often forced to slow and squeeze past parked and moving traffic. Heritage groups  Not everyone agrees. Heritage association Italia Nostra has condemned the kerb as disproportionate, with its president, Oreste Rutigliano, arguing that breaking the road's historic symmetry into a one-third/two-thirds split is "a travesty" that corrupts its identity - insisting that even a simple white line would represent significant damage.   The group says it is not opposed to the GRAB in principle but wants the works halted and the design rethought, proposing a blanket 30km/h speed limit as an alternative. Political row The scheme has also triggered a political row. Fabio Rampelli, deputy speaker of the chamber of deputies and a senior figure in Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Fratelli d'Italia party, branded the barrier "an eyesore" incompatible with the area's landscape protections. Rampelli also questioned whether the works had received the necessary heritage clearances, even asking whether it amounted to illegal construction.   Rome's mobility councillor, Eugenio Patanè, has defended the project, stressing that the kerb was built entirely from Tivoli travertine to a design set by the Appia Antica Archaeological Park, which manages the state-owned land.   Rampelli has stood his ground, arguing that a project of such significance should have gone through an international design competition rather than being "imposed from above".   The works, worth more than €1.5 million, are funded through Italy's PNRR urban regeneration scheme. Motorists Residents and motorists have piled in with complaints of their own, reporting worsening congestion on the surrounding Appia Pignatelli and Via Ardeatina since the kerbs appeared.   Local committee representatives say long-standing requests for roundabouts to ease traffic near the Catacombs of San Callisto have gone unanswered, and some worry that the narrowed carriageway will hamper traffic flow in the event of accidents or breakdowns.   In the meantime Rome is pushing ahead with the GRAB project in other areas around the city, extending new cycling facilities along the Circus Maximus to meet the cycle path leading to the Colosseum.   Photo Eleonora Talli - Facebook