Rome is like a moveable feast of endless courses. No matter how much you gorge yourself on its splendours, you rarely feel you’ve made it past the antipasti.
Few cities offer such variety and few visitors leave without a fervent desire to return. As the seat of the Italian government and home to the Vatican, Rome is a city with genuine capital credentials. From the remains of its imperial glory days to the Renaissance and Baroque riches of its historic centre, Rome is a glorious architectural patchwork, a living masterpiece.
But while there’s no escaping Rome’s illustrious past, modern Romans embrace the present. So do as they do and throw yourself in to the life of the city. Walk the cobbled streets between centuries-old ruins, drink too much wine and coffee, browse heritage markets and grand museums, and eat too much gelato. After all, that’s what the dolce vita (sweet life) is all about.
Rome history
The legendary beginnings of Rome are related in the tale of Romulus and Remus. Vestal virgin Rhea Silvia, ravished by Mars (the God of War), gave birth to the twins and abandoned them to fate. The River Tiber carried them to the Palatine Hill, where a she-wolf mothered the babes until their discovery by a shepherd. The brothers later argued over where to found a new city, and Romulus killed Remus. The rest... is history.
History's version of events is spectacular in a different way. The city developed from unimportant pastoral settlement (the earliest remains date back to the ninth century BC) to vast empire, ruled over by a string of emperors, before the fall of the Roman Empire around the 5th century.
Rome saw a second period of development during the 15th-century Renaissance, when the Papacy took up permanent residence in the city. Over the next 200 years, many of the cities most impressive buildings, such as St Peter’s basilica and the Trevi fountain, were commissioned by the great papal dynasties. By the 17th century, Rome had been furnished with its ornate baroque cityscape of churches, fountains and palazzi just in time to take on the mantle of capital city in 1861, when Italy was finally unified and Victor Emmanuel proclaimed King.
Few cities offer such variety and few visitors leave without a fervent desire to return. As the seat of the Italian government and home to the Vatican, Rome is a city with genuine capital credentials. From the remains of its imperial glory days to the Renaissance and Baroque riches of its historic centre, Rome is a glorious architectural patchwork, a living masterpiece.
But while there’s no escaping Rome’s illustrious past, modern Romans embrace the present. So do as they do and throw yourself in to the life of the city. Walk the cobbled streets between centuries-old ruins, drink too much wine and coffee, browse heritage markets and grand museums, and eat too much gelato. After all, that’s what the dolce vita (sweet life) is all about.
Rome history
The legendary beginnings of Rome are related in the tale of Romulus and Remus. Vestal virgin Rhea Silvia, ravished by Mars (the God of War), gave birth to the twins and abandoned them to fate. The River Tiber carried them to the Palatine Hill, where a she-wolf mothered the babes until their discovery by a shepherd. The brothers later argued over where to found a new city, and Romulus killed Remus. The rest... is history.
History's version of events is spectacular in a different way. The city developed from unimportant pastoral settlement (the earliest remains date back to the ninth century BC) to vast empire, ruled over by a string of emperors, before the fall of the Roman Empire around the 5th century.
Rome saw a second period of development during the 15th-century Renaissance, when the Papacy took up permanent residence in the city. Over the next 200 years, many of the cities most impressive buildings, such as St Peter’s basilica and the Trevi fountain, were commissioned by the great papal dynasties. By the 17th century, Rome had been furnished with its ornate baroque cityscape of churches, fountains and palazzi just in time to take on the mantle of capital city in 1861, when Italy was finally unified and Victor Emmanuel proclaimed King.
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