Roman traffic between the Imperial City and the bay of Naples crossed the River Garagliano at the point where the Via Appia meets the Via Domitiana. The river forms the border between the regions of Campania and Lazio. The Via Appia ran straight through the town of Minturnae passing its still well-preserved theatre and forum. These sit within an archaeological park beside the modern road.

The town and name of Minturnae migrated to a defendable hilltop to the north-east during the anarchy that followed the decline of the Roman Empire and became Minturno. History was however by no means finished with the area. The allied invasion of Italy in 1943 was delayed by a vicious and lengthy battle against entrenched German forces around the river crossing. The Garagliano was finally taken in January 1944. A cemetery containing the graves of over two thousand allied soldiers was constructed across the northern section of the Roman town. The cemetery cuts the Roman remains in two, leaving the site of the Amphitheatre isolated.

On the road travelling north, after you pass the Roman site and the entrance to the cemetery you are confronted by a superbly preserved arched Roman aqueduct stretching from far across the fields on your right and continuing to the left. This supplied water from the mountains straight to the gates of the Roman settlement. Turning into the small lane beside the structure, the aqueduct remains end with a section of stone gate in a transport yard on the right. This was the north gate of the town through which the Via Appia and the water supply entered. The lane then follows an all too familiar curve and contains a hedgerow punctuated by some hefty lumps of masonry.

The entire amphitheatre site is fenced and gated as it forms the gardens of three post war houses on the northern side. Two of them were shuttered for the winter. The door of the northernmost house was answered by an elderly Italian man. He listened patiently to my explanation for being there and my polite request to take some photographs in his back garden, after which he said ‘no’ and shut the door in my face (the miserable old tool). No better luck with the guy tending the large garden on the south side (‘I’m just a worker’). A series of masonry blocks following the elliptical shape of the amphitheatre in the south-eastern curve are visible on satellite imagery.

The photographs and maps in the gallery section below suggest that substantial arches and other sections of the amphitheatre were standing until the 19th Century, but had all but disappeared by the mid 20th.