A team of intrepid data visualizers at the Stuttgart-based urban design lab Moovel Lab decided to test the ancient maxim : All roads lead to Rome. Using open-source digital maps, they layered a grid of cells on a map of Europe. Then they added a homebrew algorithm to calculate routes from 400,000+ locations around the continent to Rome. Lo and behold, every road does lead to the Eternal City ( with the aid of a tunnel here and there).

Just for shits and giggles, the team—Benedikt Groß, Philipp Schmitt and Raphael Reimann—also applied a similar process to U.S. cities named Rome. This time they showed each location connecting to the nearest “U.S. Rome” by the quickest travel route. Having briefly resided near Rome, Georgia, I can unequivocally state that no roads lead to that Rome.