The Lancia Appia was a passenger car introduced in 1953 by Italian car manufacturer Lancia as a replacement for the Ardea, and which remained in production for ten years. The Appia was the last in a long line of Lancia production cars dating back to the Lancia Lambda (introduced in 1922) to use the famous sliding pillar front suspension.All three series produced had a Lancia V4 engine of 1089 cc.
In addition to the saloon, a number of special bodied Appias were produced, including a coupé by Pininfarina, a convertible and 2-door saloon by Vignale and an aluminium-bodied GT by Zagato, as well as light commercial vehicle variants. In all 107,000 Appia were built: 98,000 saloons, 3,863 commercial vehicles, and 5,161 chassis supplied to coachbuilders.
3rd Series Saloon
Following a custom started in the postwar years, the Lancia Appia was named after a Roman consular road, the Appian Way.
The Appian Way (Latin and Italian: Via Appia) was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius:
Appia longarum... regina viarum
"the Appian Way the queen of the long roads"
The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars.
Remains of the Appian Way in Rome, near Casalrotondo
Further Reading & Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Appia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appian_Way