Rome is the capital of Italy and the Lazio region, one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the world, often referred to as the "Eternal City". It is located on the legendary seven hills on the Tiber River, about 25 kilometres from the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Rome is the cradle of a great civilisation and the centre of one of the greatest empires in human history. It is a city that has absorbed millennia of history, has known an amazing prosperity and a loud fall. Rome is an amazing concentration of antiquities and great ancient buildings, sacral monuments and charming streets, with smooth cobbled stones, polished by millions of feet.

According to a well-known legend, the foundation of Rome is linked to the brothers Romulus and Remus. They grew up on the banks of the Tiber at the foot of the Palatine, fed by a she-wolf. It was they who founded a settlement here. Then a quarrel arose between the brothers. Romulus Remus, becoming the first king of Rome. He also founded a fortified settlement on Palatine Hill.


In fact, there are several theories as to the origin of the Eternal City. Rome was subsequently conquered by the Etruscans, who as a people were later absorbed by the more numerous Latins. Rome became a republic in 509 BC (before that, Rome was ruled by kings), and by the 2nd century BC, the city controlled central and southern Italy, and after the three Punic Wars with Carthage, took control of almost the entire Mediterranean. While Rome became a superpower, there were periodic civil wars within the country. During the reign of Emperor Trajan, the territory of the Roman Empire stretched from northern England to Mesopotamia.

With the advent of Christianity in the 4th century. Rome was no longer so powerful, but became the capital of the Christian world. The Bishop of Rome was renamed the Pope. In 395 the Roman Empire split into the Western and Eastern Empires (Byzantium). Barbarian invasions of the Western Empire and Rome in particular began in 410. The last emperor of the Empire, Romulus Augustus, was overthrown by the Vandal leader Odoacer. From this point on, all the power of the Empire was transferred to Byzantium, with its capital Constantinople, named in honour of Emperor Constantine. Byzantium existed for about 1000 more years.

The decline of Rome continued until the 8th century when Pope Stephen II supported the claims of the Frankish king Pepin the Short and declared that he had been chosen by God and for this he received the lands around Rome. The alliance between the Pope and Pepin was known as the beginning of a new state, the Holy Roman Empire and by 800, King Charlemagne of the Franks was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The power of the popes increased significantly between the 9th and 12th centuries. This was expressed in the building of churches and cathedrals in the city. By the 15th century, Rome had become a place dominated by Renaissance culture - fanciful squares, churches and fountains.

Rome became the capital of newly united Italy in 1870, leaving the Pope with the nominal status of head of the Catholic Church (the Vatican became a sovereign state in 1929). The city's new administration was more interested in building offices and residential neighbourhoods than churches and within a few decades the city had expanded considerably outside the city walls.