Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy.

It is built beside a river called the Tiber. Rome is very old. People still walk past buildings that are nearly 2,000 years old!

Rome is the capital of Italy, in the middle of the long Italian peninsula. It stands on the Tiber River, about 24 kilometers inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea. About 2.7 million people lived in the city in 2023.

More than 2,000 years ago, Rome was the center of an empire that stretched across Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Its roads, laws, arches and the Latin language spread far and wide. Today ancient ruins, grand churches and busy modern streets all crowd together. No wonder Britannica calls Rome the Eternal City.

Rome, capital of Italy and of the Lazio region, lies in the central Italian peninsula on the Tiber, about 24 km inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city covers 1,285 km² and had a population of 2,748,109 in 2023. Britannica describes it as a political capital, a religious center and "a memorial to the creative imagination of the past".

As the heart of the Roman Republic and Empire, Rome spread Latin, Roman law, arches, concrete building, roads and aqueducts across Europe and North Africa; its idea of a republic with assemblies and a senate shaped later representative governments. Vatican City, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the world's smallest fully independent state, is an enclave surrounded by Rome on the west bank of the Tiber.

Rome has many very old buildings.

The Colosseum is a giant round arena. The Pantheon has a huge round roof called a dome. The Trevi Fountain splashes water into a big pool. People toss coins into it.

The Colosseum, built about 70 to 80 CE, is a huge oval arena with seats all around for up to 50,000 people, who came to watch shows. Nearby lies the Roman Forum, once the busy center of the ancient city. The Pantheon, rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian between 118 and 128 CE, is a round building with a dome made of concrete.

Much younger is the Trevi Fountain, designed by Nicola Salvi in the 1700s. Its water still comes from an ancient aqueduct, and many visitors toss coins into it. Across the Tiber, in Vatican City, stands St. Peter's Basilica.

UNESCO inscribed the Historic Centre of Rome in 1980 and extended it in 1990 to the 17th-century walls of Urban VIII. It covers major monuments of antiquity, including the Forums, the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Mausoleum of Hadrian (now Castel Sant'Angelo), the Pantheon and the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, and the religious and public buildings of papal Rome.

The Colosseum, the largest amphitheater of the Roman Empire, was begun under the emperor Vespasian in 70 to 72 CE and dedicated by his son Titus in 80 CE; it could hold as many as 50,000 spectators. The Pantheon was first a classical temple; Hadrian rebuilt it in 118 to 128 CE as a circular building with a concrete dome. The Aurelian Wall, begun in 270 CE in brick-faced concrete, runs about 20 km and is still largely intact. The Trevi Fountain, designed by Nicola Salvi in the 18th century, is fed by the ancient Acqua Vergine aqueduct, whose water was long thought Rome's softest and best tasting.

Summers in Rome are hot and dry.

In the afternoon, a cool breeze often blows in from the sea. Winters are mild. Once in a while, a little snow falls.

Rome's summers are hot and dry, with afternoon temperatures often above 24 °C. On many summer afternoons a west wind called the ponentino blows in from the Tyrrhenian Sea and cools the city down.

Winters are mild, with daytime highs of about 10 °C, though there are some frosts and, now and then, a light snowfall. In winter a cold, dry wind from the north, the tramontana, often blows. About 750 millimeters of rain falls in a year, most of it in spring and autumn.

Rome has hot, dry summers, with highs often above 24 °C, frequently relieved in the afternoon by the ponentino, a west wind off the Tyrrhenian Sea. Annual precipitation is roughly 750 mm, with spring and autumn the rainiest seasons. Winters are mild, with average highs just above 10 °C, broken by frosts and occasional light snow; the tramontana, a cold, dry north wind, is common then.

The city's setting also shapes its past and future. The Roman countryside, the Campagna, was one of the last parts of central Italy to be settled in antiquity. Today Britannica warns that a labyrinth of old tunnels and underground chambers undermines parts of the city, and that traffic fumes and vibration add to the wear on its monuments.

Rome has lots of fountains and old squares.

Many families live in big apartment buildings outside the old center. Many people work for Italy's government. Others help the visitors who come to see Rome.

Rome's population has risen and fallen over the centuries. In 1870 only about 226,000 people lived there. By 1930 there were more than a million, and by 1967 more than 2.6 million. Masses of modern apartment buildings now rise in the districts outside the old center.

The old center itself is packed with history: more than 200 palaces, several big parks and the houses of Italy's parliament, along with hundreds of hotels and thousands of offices, restaurants and cafés. Rome is not mainly a factory city; tens of millions of Italians and visitors from abroad come each year for its culture, shops and entertainment.

After unification in 1870, when the city had only about 226,000 inhabitants and wide open spaces inside its walls, Rome passed 500,000 before World War I and 1,000,000 by 1930; it grew from just over 1,960,000 in 1951 to more than 2,610,000 in 1967. The ancient center is divided into 22 rioni, most named since classical times, surrounded by 35 quartieri urbani absorbed after 1911 and six large suburbi.

Inside the old walls are more than 200 palazzi, several major parks, the residence of the Italian president, the houses of parliament and government offices. Rome is not mainly an industrial city but a political capital and a cultural, shopping and entertainment center that draws tens of millions of visitors a year; the Church, with its communications and souvenir businesses and thousands of workers, plays a significant part in the economy. Federico Fellini made most of his films here, including La dolce vita (1960).