The road to rome was paved in Italy

This saying means that you may not be in a certain state of being, experience or end point, but you are well on your way. An alternative is "The road to rome starts in Italy" which means that you are on the brink of your journey to an experience or situation and should get started or step away if you want/don't want to end up there.

It can be used with a positive bent but is more often used as a a warning or judgment that someone is on the path to something unwanted, harmful, life altering, undoable, or disaster.

As the saying originated from a member of the Appalachian diaspora the grammatical feature of X impact Y can be applied to this saying, (for example its colder than a witches titty could also be adjusted to its hotter than a pig in a frying pan), but the geographical implication must be clear to the listener.

In this case Rome was an influential empire that impacted everywhere it touched, rose with power and fell in disgrace and was generally both a place to gain favor, fame or fortuned, but also a place to be corrupted, backstabbed or run into a malignant unhinged dictator or be sold as a slave. Regardless, once there its impossible to erase the impacts of Rome and the time to turn around is before or while in Italy.

Friend 1: "I think you should quit drinking, you seem to have trouble with how much you drink."
Friend 2: "I'm not an alcoholic, I only drink a few times a week"
Friend 1: "The road to Rome was paved in Italy"

Student: "I feel like I should not audition for the play."
Teacher: "I'm happy to work with you after school with some other students."
Student: " Yes, but I feel like I'll never be as good as the others."
Teacher: "Go for that role. You really want it. The road to Rome starts in Italy."

Friend one: "I don't think I'm experiencing domestic violence, I should just stop complaining."
Friend two: "He called you a worthless ho who'll never amount to anything and then took your bank card and told you to stop talking to all over your friends."
Friend one: "But he doesn't hit me."
Friend two: "Girl, get out. The road to Rome is paved in Italy."

by LilBriarRose May 18, 2025

Flag