The McDonald's Built On Top Of Ancient Roman Ruins

All roads lead to Rome — and McDonald's? Now, going for a meal at the USA's biggest fast food export isn't exactly what many would deem a "cultural" experience — unless trying out some of the unique local menu items in one of its over 44,000 restaurants around the world counts – but near Rome, it just so happens you can enjoy a Big Mac and an archaeological visit at the same time. That's right: In a small town just outside of the city, one of the chain's restaurants happened to be built on top of ruins dating 2,000 years ago, replete with skeletal remains and the cobblestones of one of the Empire's most important streets.

Frattocchie, 12 miles southeast of Rome, is a quaint satellite town of just over 8,000 inhabitants. Its McDonald's seems even more nondescript — a typical gray-stone drive-thru like the other dozens of thousands around the world. But in 2014, when workers started building the structure, they discovered the remnants of an offshoot of the "Via Appia," or Appian Way — one of ancient Rome's oldest and most important structures, dating back to 312 B.C.E. — along with three skeletons. Rather than halting the construction process, McDonald's decided to cough up an extra $315,000 to make the ruins part of the restaurant complex, turning a simple fast food joint into an unexpected cultural landmark.

It might seem strange that a McDonald's would be built over seemingly priceless historic artifacts, but in the Eternal City, this is nothing new. During the construction of Rome's latest C metro line station at the Colosseum, which opened last year, such a huge quantity of millennia-old remnants from the ancient city were unearthed that a whole museum has been dedicated to them inside the subway stop. And it isn't even the only Roman McDonald's with a thing or two from antiquity: Over in the city's central Termini station, a slab of the 4th-century B.C.E. Servian Wall is located within the McDonald's dining area.

Over at the Frattocchie McD's — or "McDonald's Roma Appia," as it's officially been called since its opening in 2017 — you can enjoy a meal while viewing a 150-foot-long stretch of the Roman road and some skeletons, all displayed under a glass floor. This aside, the spot has all the classic elements of the Italian version of the U.S. chain: the restaurant, serving global staples from Big Macs to McFlurries, as well as national menu items like Crispy McBacon and a chicken, tomato, and parmesan salad; the McCafé, with its European-style coffeehouse items like croissants and macarons; and a McDrive. While McDonald's might not be the first place on most people's typical go-to culinary map of the Italian capital — Giada de Laurentiis, for instance, recommends the time-worn classic Nino in the city centre, while Food Republic itself has its own list of suggested spots — the small restaurant in Frattocchie has now become a bona fide tourist attraction, the subject of many a TikTok and Instagram post.