Allifae

Is it worth the trip?

As a stop on the way into the Matese or along the Volturno valley, yes. Walking in at a Roman gate and along streets that still follow the Roman plan, inside walls that still enclose the town, is the reason to stop, and the mausoleum and the amphitheatre are a few minutes apart.

As a long detour, probably not, unless you can time it. The amphitheatre and the cryptoporticus have no published regular opening: they are opened on announced days, such as the European Heritage Days in September and the European Archaeology Days in June, and on other days the amphitheatre is seen from outside its railing, as in the photograph above, and the cryptoporticus not at all. The museum, which would fill the gap, closes at 13.30 on four days a week.

Getting there

Alife lies in the province of Caserta, about 5 km from Piedimonte Matese, reached by the SS 158 along the Volturno valley and the SS 372 Telesina (it.wikipedia). A car park is mapped about 200 m from the amphitheatre, and the museum about 250 m away (OpenStreetMap).

Without a car: Alife has a station on the line from Naples through Santa Maria Capua Vetere to Piedimonte Matese (it.wikipedia), mapped about 430 m from the amphitheatre (OpenStreetMap).

The walls, the gates and the outside of the mausoleum are in public streets and cost nothing. The museum is in Piazza XIX Ottobre. It is closed on Mondays; on Tuesdays and Thursdays it opens 09.00 to 19.30, and on Wednesdays and Fridays to Sundays 09.00 to 13.30, with the last tickets half an hour before closing. A ticket is €5, €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25, and free under 18; tickets are sold as e-tickets through the Musei Italiani website or app (Ministry of Culture, read 24 October 2026 - check before travelling).

History

Allifae began as an Oscan or Samnite town and struck its own coins in the 4th century BC; where that Samnite town stood is not known (en.wikipedia). It changed hands repeatedly in Rome’s wars with the Samnites: Livy records it taken in 326 BC, taken by storm again in 310 BC, and in 307 BC a pitched battle near the town in which the proconsul Quintus Fabius defeated the Samnite army (en.wikipedia).

After the conquest the town was rebuilt on the regular plan of Roman colonisation. It was first a praefectura without the vote, then a municipium enrolled in the Teretina tribe (it.wikipedia); the Liber Coloniarum records a colony settled there by the triumvirs, and inscriptions confirm its colonial rank (en.wikipedia). Inscriptions also show it remained a place of importance under the Empire, with many new public buildings under Hadrian, and the itineraries place it on the Via Latina, 17 miles from Teanum (en.wikipedia). A surviving fragment of the town’s calendar mentions a circus, of which no trace has been found (it.wikipedia).

The walls belong to the late Republic: it.wikipedia dates them to the age of Sulla in the 1st century BC, and Pleiades puts the circuit in the late Republic on the evidence of its building technique. The town was never abandoned after the end of the Western Empire; its first documented bishop, Clarus, is recorded in 499, and in the Lombard period a castle was built on Roman fortifications (it.wikipedia).