A most unusual McDonald’s opened earlier this year in Frattochie, south of Rome, with a 45-meter branch of a Roman road visible through a glass floor in the restaurant.
The road, a branch off the Appian Way, was discovered during excavation in 2014 for the restaurant. McDonald’s funded the €300,000 archaeological work that has restored the road surface—and three skeletons, apparently from burials after the road fell out of use. The skeletons are casts; the originals are under museum study.
The viewing point is also available without buying a burger, and there are interpretive panels explaining the history. McDonald’s Italia says it may be the world’s first “restaurant-museum.’
