Rome Travel Guide
Rome, the capital of Italy, located on the banks of the river Tiber, is one of the largest and the oldest cities in Europe whose history dates back nearly 2800 years when it was the center of the mighty Roman Empire stretching from Britain to Mesopotamia. It has always inspired writers, painters and later filmmakers. Rome is the city where you can see famous historical places, beautiful monuments, fountains, churches, admire classical architecture and pictures by old masters in palaces and museums.
Rome is called “L’Urbe” (The city), “Caput mundi” (head of the world), “Citta Eterna” (eternal city). It has its own holidays April 21 (the founding of Rome) and June 29 (the feast of its patron saints, Peter & Paul). We all know the proverbs about Rome: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, “All roads lead to Rome”, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”.
Rome today is a modern metropolis and a big tourist center. It is considered to be a living encyclopedia of the last 3000 years of western art from Ancient Rome through medieval times< Renaissance era, baroque and many artistic styles of 19 and 20 centuries.
For the Olympic games (summer 1960) many new buildings were constructed and a new large stadium was built and at the same time some ancient sites such as Villa Borgese were used as Olympic sites. Many of the monuments were restored by the Italian state and by the Vatican for the 2000 Jubilee.
Within the city limits the Vatican is located, a sovereign enclave, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Pope.
Many international cultural and scientific institutions are located in Rome.
As tourism is one of the Rome’s chief industries it offers to tourists good accommodation in cheap, mid range, B&B and luxury hotels, numerous cafes & restaurants, theatres and nightclubs. When getting around you can use convenient public transport (Metro, tramway, buses) or you can hire a car.
An exiting trip in Rome and Vatican is described in Dan Brown’s bestseller “Angels & Demons”.