Welcome to Roma!

04 Aprile 2016

Rome is the Italian capital and the country’s largest and most populated city, with 2.9 million residents (4.3 in the Metropolitan Area). Roman mythology dates the founding of the city at around 753 BC. But the areas around the River Tiber have been inhabited for far longer, with evidence of human occupation dating back 14,000 years.

In the third and second century BC, the city became capital of the Roman Empire, which at its height controlled approximately 2.5 million square miles in Europe, Africa and Asia. Rome’s power and importance eventually waned, and in 410 and 455 it was successively sacked by the Visigoths and the Vandals.

From the eighth century onwards, Rome was one of the key cities of Italy’s Papal States – under the direct rule of the Pope. In 1870 the city was taken by force and reclaimed as the capital of the reunified Kingdom of Italy. But since 1929 the Pope’s residence in Rome has been established within the Vatican City State, a walled enclave of around 110 acres which is the smallest independent state in the world.

Rome is the third most visited city in the EU, behind London and Paris, with an average of 7-10 million tourists a year. Its historical centre, enclosed by the ancient Aurelian Walls, is rich in three thousand years of antiquity. In 1980, this and other key areas of the city were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

It is estimated that the city contains more than 16 per cent of the world’s cultural treasures, 70 per cent of which are identified within Italy. The Colosseum, ancient Rome’s largest amphitheatre, was listed in 2007 as one of the seven wonders of the modern world, and the only one in Europe.
Since the days of its Empire, Rome has been known as the Eternal City.

The symbol of the city in antiquity was the military effigy of an imperial eagle. Rome is also represented by images of the Capitoline wolf, a bronze statue inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome. Believed to be around 1000 years old, it depicts a she-wolf suckling the infant twins Romulus – after whom the city is named - and Remus

Proverbs
All roads lead to Rome
Rome wasn’t built in a day
To know Rome, a life does not suffice

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