Visitors from all over the world regularly stream into Rome, the capital of Italy. Pilgrims, scholars, art lovers, and tourists are fascinated with the Eternal City. More than 3,000 years old, Rome has survived countless devastating invasions. Magnificent remains of the powerful Roman Empire lie in the heart of a modern metropolis. Pagan temples stand among Renaissance churches and palaces. Here stands St. Peter’s Basilica, which attracts Roman Catholic pilgrims from all nations.
Rome has a moderate climate with mild, rainy winters and comparatively hot, dry summers; frost and snow are unusual. The people of Rome spend much of their leisure time outdoors. They love to go for walks (passeggiate) and stop by the local bars, outdoor cafés, pizzerias, and inexpensive restaurants (trattorie). Frost-sensitive palm trees are common in Rome, lending a subtropical air. The wealthy live in condominiums or in large villas, enclosed by high walls, with flourishing gardens. However, large numbers of poor live in the suburban slums (borgate).
Rome is located on the Tiber River in the west-central part of the Italian mainland, 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Tyrrhenian Sea (part of the Mediterranean), where its ancient port was at Ostia. Rome lies on the Campagna, a coastal lowland built up from volcanic rocks and clays. This plain is bordered on the east by the high Apennine Mountains. The Alban Hills are to the southeast, the Prenestine Hills to the east, the Sabine Hills to the northeast, and the Sabatini Hills to the northwest.
The Tiber is joined by the Aniene River on the northern outskirts of the city. It moves southward through an incised valley—roughly 150 feet (50 meters) below the plain—which has an average width of less than 400 feet (120 meters). Thus through the centuries the construction of bridges has been relatively easy. The river was never a major obstacle to development because an island (Tiberina) in the central Tiber provided a natural crossing place.
The famous Seven Hills of Rome—Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, Viminal, Quirinal, Esquiline, and Caelian—are ridges of the Campagna. They were once separated from each other by malarial marshes, but over the centuries the marshes were drained and occupied. Although the Seven Hills are not very high—100 to 200 feet (30 to 60 meters)—they served the initial course of settlement. Other hills include Monte Gianicolo (the Janiculum) as well as Monte Mario and Monte Sacro in the northern residential suburbs.
The ancient center of Rome is encircled by the Aurelian Wall (Muro Torto), which dates from about ad 270. Built of concrete-faced bricks, it girdled about 4 square miles (10 square kilometers). It was later extended but now includes only 4 percent of the modern municipality. Central Rome is by far the smallest of the city’s administrative zones and encompasses small wards that retain the ancient name rioni. Surrounding this core are numerous larger urban districts known as quartieri.
The heart of the inner city is the Piazza Venezia, dominated by a large white marble monument named after King Victor Emmanuel II, who united modern Italy. The piazza contains the Palazzo Venezia, the palace where Benito Mussolini addressed hundreds of thousands of his Fascist supporters. It is the southern terminus of Rome’s most famous street, the Via del Corso. The Corso extends northward to the Piazza del Popolo, whose gate was fashioned by the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini; it leads to the Via Flaminia. The church nearest the portal is Santa Maria del Popolo, with its renowned Caravaggio paintings depicting the conversions of Sts. Peter and Paul. The piazza is framed by two smaller matching churches and has an obelisk and fountains. It was designed as the chief ceremonial entry to Rome and is an architectural wonder. One of the joys of Rome is a nighttime visit to the lighted piazza.
At the Corso’s midpoint lies the Piazza Colonna. This large square is dominated by a statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. On the east side there is a galleria, while on the west is the Palazzo Chigi, the residence of Italy’s premier. Close by is the Palazzo Montecitorio, which houses the Italian parliament’s Chamber of Deputies.
South of the Piazza Venezia is the Via dei Fori Imperiale, which leads through ancient Rome. It is commanded by the Colosseum and the Roman Forum—the heart of classical Rome and the center of commercial, legal, and administrative activity. The Colosseum was the amphitheater where gladiators fought bloody battles and Christians were slaughtered. The Colosseum and the buildings of the Forum were later wrecked by vandals as well as by fires and earthquakes. The buildings were also stripped of some of their stone and marble, which were used to build Rome’s medieval and Renaissance churches. Beyond the Colosseum are the renowned Arch of Constantine and, a few blocks away, the Baths of Caracalla (see architecture, “pagan Rome”). Overlooking the Roman ruins are the Palatine and Capitoline hills. The site of the Campidoglio, Rome’s city hall, the Capitoline Hill offers fine panoramic views of the remains of ancient Rome.
Medieval and Renaissance Rome was centered on the maze of narrow streets and alleys known as the Field of Mars (Campus Martius). These streets and small squares are now sites of residential, commercial, and political activities. The Palazzo Madama is the seat of the Italian Senate. Notable too is the 17th-century Piazza Navona whose three fountains include Bernini’s Four Rivers (representing the Ganges, Danube, de la Plata, and Nile) (see fountain). The piazza was originally the Diocletian Circus, and in medieval times it was flooded to stage naval maneuvers. Another key feature of the Field of Mars is the Roman Pantheon, a remarkably well-preserved building though it has been stripped of its gold interior by countless marauders.
From the Piazza Venezia the major artery—Corso Vittorio Emmanuele—leads by way of Largo Argentina to the Tiber and ultimately to the Vatican. In the narrow streets west of the Campidoglio are the former Jewish ghetto and its synagogue. The district now has only a tiny fraction of Rome’s prewar Jewish population. Across the Tiber is the Trastevere, one of the most picturesque quarters of Rome dating from medieval times. It is an unpretentious area of tenements, but it attracts today’s Romani because of its Latin quarter flavor. Romans go there to dine in its inexpensive restaurants, some with tables on the sidewalks, where they can listen to the music of roving singers.
To the north, on the right bank of the Tiber, is the Vatican, dominated by St. Peter’s Basilica, the papal residences, and its museums and gardens (see Vatican City). Farther north along the river is Castel Sant’Angelo, with its medieval turreted walls. It dates from the Roman era and served the popes during the Middle Ages as a fort and defensive retreat. A passage leads to St. Peter’s.
East of the Corso are some of the more fashionable streets where tourists congregate. A leading thoroughfare is the Via Condotti, with its luxury boutiques. Elegant shops are also found on Via Borgognona and Via Frattina. These all lead to the Piazza di Spagna Fountain of the Barcaccia, where Romani and foreigners (stranieri) love to sun themselves. To the north is an artists’ quarter centered on the Via Margutta, famous for its art galleries, studios, and boutiques.
The Piazza di Spagna, which at one time was the center of Rome’s English colony, and its Spanish Embassy face the Spanish Steps (known as Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti, or Scala di Spagna). The double flight of 137 steps was built in 1721–25. Next to the stairway is a baroque house, now a museum, where the poet John Keats died in 1821. The museum is also dedicated to his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley. The summit is intersected by the Via Sistina, which leads to the Via del Tritone, the Piazza Barberini, and the tourist mecca Via Vittorio Veneto.
Via Veneto is an elegant tree-lined avenue whose sidewalk cafés attract businessmen, movie stars, high society, and wealthy foreigners. The S-shaped boulevard is lined with luxury hotels, chic shops, and on one block the buildings of the American Embassy (formerly Palazzo Margherita). At the north end of the Veneto lies the Aurelian Wall, whose portal is the Porta Pinciana. It leads to the Pincio and the Villa Borghese Gardens, one of the largest open green spaces in Rome. In the park are a racetrack (galoppatoio), zoo, and several museums. The Pincio, which was laid out in 1809–14 on the Pincian Hill, overlooks the Piazza del Popolo.
North of the Via Barberini, the location of several international airline offices and luxury shops, is a large square that leads to the Via XX Settembre. This artery passes the defense ministries and the Quirinale, Italy’s presidential headquarters. Farther east is the Via Nazionale, a major retail thoroughfare that links the Piazza della Repubblica (formerly the Esedra) to the Piazza Venezia. A tunnel (galleria) off this street turns back to the Via del Tritone. Among the more elegant residential districts in the northern part of Rome are Nomentana, Parioli, Monte Mario, and Monte Sacro.
Most great cities have beautiful fountains, but in Rome they are a living part of the city. Italian poets have immortalized them in verse. One of Italy’s major composers, Ottorino Respighi, enshrined them in two richly descriptive symphonic poems. Books about Rome’s fountains published in Italian, French, and English have contributed to their fame.
The best known is Niccolò Salvi’s 18th-century Fountain of Trevi (see fountain). It is a tradition for visitors to cast small coins into its churning waters, supposedly to ensure their eventual return to Rome. The most imaginative fountain is probably Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers. Another by Bernini is the graceful Fountain of the Triton on the Piazza Barberini. In the Piazza della Repubblica is the colossal Fountain of the Naiads. Its voluptuous beauties wrestle with seaborne monsters; some argue that they represent scenes of love. The Fountain of the Barcaccia in the Piazza di Spagna was designed to resemble a leaking boat. The fountain is attributed to Bernini’s father, Pietro, although some believe it was created by the younger Bernini. One of the pleasures of a visit to Rome is a night tour of the city’s numerous illuminated fountains.
Some of the richest exhibits of mosaics and household and religious objects of ancient Rome are in the Capitoline Museum. Other museums include the Palazzo Venezia, the national Museum of Rome, and the Vatican Museum. A museum that features Etruscan archaeological finds is the Villa Giulia at the northwestern end of the Villa Borghese.
Rome’s great galleries include the Vatican, with its Sistine Chapel and Pinacoteca; the Borghese Gallery, with its Bernini sculptures and Antonio Canova’s Pauline Borghese as well as a group of famous paintings; the Doria-Pamphili Gallery, with an extraordinary collection of paintings that includes works by Diego Velázquez, Titian, and Caravaggio; the National Gallery of Modern Art; and the 17th-century Gallery of Ancient Art in the Palazzo Barberini, a treasure-house of paintings dating back to the 14th century. Great works by Fra Filippo Lippi, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco, and Caravaggio make this a remarkable collection.
Rome is the world’s greatest Christian religious center. Many of its more than 400 churches contain masterpieces. There are seven pilgrimage basilicas: St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, San Sebastiano, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Paolo Fuori le Mura (St. Paul Outside the Walls), Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and St. Lawrence Outside the Walls. Other churches are Santa Maria in Aracoeli; St. Peter in Chains, with Michelangelo’s sculpture Moses; and the Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuits.
Due south of the city is the E.U.R. (Universal Exposition of Rome). Planned by Mussolini in 1935 as a symbol of Fascism for a 1942 world’s fair, it was only partially completed and was damaged during World War II. After 1952 the original buildings were restored and new ones added. The E.U.R. complex contains stadiums, artificial lakes, and formal gardens. The older buildings are occupied by government ministries.
There are also miniskyscrapers that house headquarters of major private and semistate firms, hundreds of villas, deluxe condominiums, and smaller apartments. Nearby is the Sports Palace, designed by Pier Luigi Nervi and Marcello Piacentini for the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Another noteworthy zone is the Appian Way, or Via Appia Antica, to the southeast on the way to the Castelli Romani. The Appian Way was built in 312 bc and was a key military highway in ancient times. This marvel of Roman engineering, built of basalt and stone, is 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide.
Imperial law forbade burial within built-up areas, so mausoleums were constructed on many of the roads. Those on the Appian Way include the tombs of Hadrian, Scipio, and supposedly Seneca. While most Romans were cremated, early Christians believed in resurrection and were embalmed and buried. Because of Roman persecution, their burials took place underground in deep tunnels called catacombs. The most notable are those of St. Callixtus, St. Sebastian, and Domitilla (see catacombs).
The English Cemetery draws numerous visitors. Inside the graveyard there is a romantic enclave of cypress trees, marble angels, and sad inscriptions to noted foreigners of the 19th century—among them Keats and Shelley.
In the early 21st century, Rome had only about 5 percent of the nation’s population. In contrast, metropolitan London and the greater Paris area accounted for roughly 15 percent of the populations of England and France, respectively.
A large share of those who live in Rome and its suburbs are considered outsiders (forestieri). Italian sources indicate that no more than 15 percent of the Romani have lived for several generations in the capital. Some forestieri originated in Frosinone and Latina, south of Rome, but most came from the Mezzogiorno, or southern mainland, and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
Exploding on the city’s margin but still within the communal boundary are several large suburbs that have large apartment complexes rather than single-family dwellings. There are still numerous shantytowns that have limited facilities: sanitation is poor, indoor plumbing is rare; water is obtained only from wells, and central heating is often unavailable. The Romani commonly complain about transients who illegally occupy unfurnished apartments, but the legal processes to remove them are slow. Rome too has the problem of the homeless.
Rome is noteworthy for its educational resources. The University of Rome is located near Castro Pretorio. It was founded by Pope Boniface VIII on another site in 1303, but it is no longer controlled by the Roman Catholic church. It was greatly enlarged in the 1930s. There are more than 120,000 students enrolled, many from foreign countries. There are several faculties spread over the city, but the chief cluster and administrative headquarters are in Città Universitaria (University City).
Rome’s chief public hospital, the Policlinico, is nearby. It is the finest teaching hospital in the city. The national library is also in this district.
One of the chief specialized institutes is the American Academy, founded in 1894 to offer studies in architecture and allied arts for American students who have won the Prix de Rome. Another is the American School of Classical Studies. The French Academy serves gifted young French artists. The British School of Rome specializes in archaeological studies. Belgium, Spain, Sweden, and Egypt all have advanced architecture schools in Rome. One of the world’s oldest academies of fine arts, the Academy of St. Luke is also in Rome. The Academy of St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, is renowned throughout the Western world. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is headquartered in Rome. It collects and distributes data on world crops and markets and also plays a major role in technical aid to the less-developed world.
Before World War II, Rome served primarily as an administrative, religious, and tourist center. These functions persist, but there is now far greater diversity.
Rome is not only the capital of Italy but the administrative center of the five-province region called Lazio and the seat of the province of Rome. Thus a major share of its labor force is employed by municipal, provincial, regional, and national authorities. They are white-collar workers (impiegati). Huge revenues are earned by the city’s service industries—its hotels, pensions, bars, and restaurants that cater mainly to tourists. Its fashionable stores and boutiques are world-renowned, and there are many handicraft workshops as in the past.
Rome is a key publishing center for books, magazines, and newspapers, which include media of the various political parties. The principal papers are the right-wing Il Messaggero, the centrist La Repubblica, the leftist Paese Sera, and the Communist L’Unità.
Although there is no heavy industry or much large-scale manufacturing, nearly 20 percent of the active labor force is engaged in some branch of industry—and the share is growing. Allied with the construction industry is the production of bricks, cement, glass, ceramics, and wood products. There is also an increasing volume of processed foods, textiles, and clothing. Light machinery, particularly electronics, is significant, and high-technology industries are a growing phenomenon. Petroleum refining and petrochemical production with by-product facilities are rapid-growth sectors despite the absence of a modern port. Their development is based on markets within the five-province region, especially the city itself.
Penetrating the maze of narrow, winding streets are modern thoroughfares, some a result of urban planning during the pre–World War II Fascist era. These commercial streets include the Via del Corso, Via del Tritone, Via Veneto, Via Barberini, Via Venti Settembre, Via Nazionale, and the more residential Via Cavour. The Piazza San Silvestro, Largo Argentina, and the railway station—Termini—are the hubs of the city’s bus system. There are two subway (Metropolitana) lines. Parts of the city core are closed to cars, and commercial vehicles may enter this restricted zone only at preselected times. There are too few legal parking spaces and garages so that double and triple parking are common, contributing to the vehicular chaos of central Rome.
Approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the center, there is a peripheral ring road known as the Raccordo Annulare. It is tied to the city’s major internal arteries: Via Cassia, Via Flaminia, Via Salaria, Via Nomentana, Via Aurelia, and Via Appia Nuova. Roads off the ring lead southwestward to Ostia, Rome’s Lido, and the country’s major international airport at Fiumcino (Leonardo da Vinci). The alternative airport is Ciampino, a smaller and older one that is now a military airport and is used mainly for charter flights. The superhighway Autostrada del Sole ties Rome to Florence, while yet another arm leads to Naples. Roads also run to the Adriatic, particularly to the port of Pescara, and to Castelli Romani, Castel Gandolfo (the summer residence of the pope), and Tivoli, on the site of the legendary Tibur.
After centuries of disunity following the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy began to move toward unification during the first half of the 19th century. (For early history see Roman Empire). Despite the fall of Napoleon, France, Austria, and Spain continued to support the papacy in its control over Rome and the Papal States. Nevertheless, there was a rebirth of revolutionary spirit in Italy, particularly in Rome. Despite a relaxation of controls by Pope Pius IX and the granting of a constitution, the city had long been exposed to challenging new ideas, and its population was ready to support leaders who wished Rome to join a new unified state.
The first modern Italian revolution came to an abortive end in 1848, but the desire for change persisted. When Italy was finally unified through the efforts of Camillo Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, Rome and the Papal States remained subject to Pius. (See also Cavour, Camillo; Garibaldi, Giuseppe; Pius, popes.)
A decade later France was defeated by Prussia, and its armies abandoned Italy. Italian forces marched into Rome in 1870, and the city again became Italy’s capital. Pius IX refused to accept the authority of the new government, choosing instead to become a self-proclaimed “prisoner in the Vatican.” He and his successors remained voluntary prisoners until the Concordat of 1929 with Mussolini (see Mussolini, Benito). The new Lateran Treaty recognized the legal rights and independence of the papacy within Vatican City and the summer residence of the pope at Castel Gandolfo.
In 1871 King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy and Piedmont assumed the throne (see Victor Emmanuel, kings of Italy). The population of Rome was then about 212,000, with the majority living in the Campus Martius section of ancient Rome. The built-up area then occupied less than 1 percent of the current communal area.
A considerable amount of building was carried out in the city after 1871, and the occupied area was greatly extended. The municipal authorities gave maximum freedom to private land speculators, and great fortunes were made. There was major residential construction in the Prati district, adjoining the Vatican, and a residential boom in the Salaria and Nomentana districts of northern Rome. Beginning in about 1890 great villas were converted into apartment blocks. The Villa Borghese survived as one of the city’s few open spaces. Parts of the old city, including the former Jewish ghetto, were redeveloped. A new plan with regulated zoning was approved in 1909, but its provisions could not be enforced because of the swelling population of the city, which reached 519,000 by 1911.
After 1922 Mussolini made it his policy to enhance the prestige of Rome. Extensive reconstruction was undertaken; the ancient forums were excavated, and the Via dei Fori Imperiali was built from the Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum and the Via della Conciliazione to the Vatican. It was during this period that Mussolini built the E.U.R. Another project of the Fascist era was the straightening and dredging of the Tiber with new embankments that essentially eliminated the threat of flooding within the city. Another achievement was the draining of malarial marshes.
In World War II, Rome was declared an “open city,” meaning that it was not occupied by any troops and was not allowed to be bombed; thus it did not suffer significantly from damage. After the war there was a virtual explosion of construction activity to accommodate the growing population. Despite many new residential and commercial developments, the city’s population continued to outpace the supply.
Rome has all of the problems of major cities. Its infrastructure (the provision of water, sewers, hospitals, and schools) is grossly inadequate, particularly when the shantytowns are considered. To all this must be added problems of air pollution, traffic congestion, overcrowding, and an inefficient road system linking the periphery with the center. There is only a minimal relationship between workplaces and residences. The city has been in constant debt, and its problems may be more severe than those of other metropolitan areas its size. (See also Italy.) Population (2013 estimate), 2,863,322;metropolitan area (2011 estimate), 3,298,000.
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