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WIKIMAG n. 11 - Ottobre 2013
Rome
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Rome
Roma |
Comune |
Roma Capitale |
From top left clockwise: the
Colosseum, the
Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the
Castel Sant'Angelo, an aerial view of the city's historic
centre, the dome of
St. Peter's Basilica, the
Trevi Fountain, the
Piazza della Repubblica. |
Flag |
Coat of arms |
|
Nickname(s):
|
The territory of the comune (Roma Capitale) inside the
province of Rome |
Location of Rome in Italy |
Coordinates:
41°54′N
12°30′ECoordinates:
41°54′N
12°30′E |
Country |
Italy |
Region |
Lazio |
Province |
Rome (RM) |
Government |
• Mayor |
Ignazio Marino (PD) |
Area |
• Total |
1,285.31 km2 (496.26 sq mi) |
Elevation |
20 m (70 ft) |
Population (31 December 2012)[1][2] |
• Total |
2,638,842 |
• Density |
2,100/km2 (5,300/sq mi) |
Demonym |
Roman |
Time zone |
CET (UTC+1) |
• Summer (DST) |
CEST (UTC+2) |
Postal code |
00100; 00121 to 00199 |
Dialing code |
06 |
Patron saint |
Saint Peter and
Saint Paul |
Saint day |
29 June |
Website |
Official website |
Rome (//;
Italian:
Roma
pronounced [ˈroːma] (
listen);
Latin:
Rōma)
is a city and special
comune
(named "Roma Capitale") in
Italy.
Rome is the capital of Italy and also of the
homonymous province and of the
region of
Lazio. With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km2
(496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated
comune and
fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within
city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.8 million people live in the urban area,
and 4,194,068 in
Rome metropolitan area.[3][4][5][6][7]
The city is located in the central-western portion of the
Italian Peninsula, on the
Tiber
within Lazio (Latium). Rome is the only city in the world to contain in
its interior a whole state; the
enclave of
Vatican City.
Rome's history spans
more than two and a half thousand years, since its legendary
founding in 753 BC. Rome is one of the oldest cities in Europe.[citation
needed] It is referred to as "The Eternal City", a notion
expressed by ancient Roman poets and writers. In the ancient world it
was successively the capital city of the
Roman Kingdom, the
Roman Republic and the
Roman Empire, and is regarded as one of the birthplaces of
western civilization. Since the 1st century AD, Rome has been
considered the seat of the
Papacy and
in the 8th century it became the capital of the
Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the
capital of the
Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the
Italian Republic.
After the
Middle Ages, Rome was ruled by popes such as
Alexander VI and
Leo
X, who transformed the city into one of the major centers of the
Italian Renaissance along with
Florence.[8]
The current version of
St Peter's Basilica was built and the
Sistine Chapel was painted by
Michelangelo. Famous artists and architects, such as
Bramante,
Bernini and
Raphael,
resided for some time in Rome, contributing to its
Renaissance and
Baroque
architecture.
Rome has been ranked by
GaWC in 2010 as a
beta+ world city,[9]
as well as the 28th most important global city.[10]
In 2007, Rome was the 11th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most
visited in the
European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy.[11]
The city is one of Europe's and the world's most successful city
"brands", both in terms of reputation and assets.[12]
Its historic centre is listed by
UNESCO
as a
World Heritage Site.[13]
Monuments and museums such as the
Vatican Museums and the
Colosseum are among the world's most visited tourist destinations
with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted
the
1960 Summer Olympics.
Etymology
About the origin of the name Roma several hypotheses have been
advanced.[14]
The most important are the following:
History
Earliest history
There is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area
from approximately 14,000 years ago, but the dense layer of much younger
debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites.[17]
Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about
10,000 years of human presence. Several excavations support the view
that Rome grew from
pastoral settlements on the
Palatine Hill built above the area of the future
Roman Forum. While some archaeologists argue that Rome was indeed
founded in the middle of the 8th century BC (the date of the tradition),
the date is subject to controversy.[18]
However, the power of the well known tale of Rome's legendary foundation
tends to deflect attention from its actual, and much more ancient,
origins.
Legend
of the Founding of Rome
Traditional stories handed down by the
ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest
history of their city in terms of
legend
and
myth. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous
of all
Roman myths, is the story of
Romulus and Remus, the twins who were suckled by a
she-wolf.[19]
They decided to build a city, but after an argument,
Romulus killed his brother. According to the Roman
annalists, this happened on 21 April 753 BC.[20]
This legend had to be reconciled with a dual tradition, set earlier in
time, that had the
Trojan refugee
Aeneas
escape to Italy and found the line of Romans through his son
Iulus,
the namesake of the
Julio-Claudian dynasty.[21]
This was accomplished by the Roman poet
Virgil
in the first century BC.
Monarchy, republic, empire
The original settlement developed into the capital of the
Roman Kingdom (ruled by a succession of seven kings, according to
tradition), and then the
Roman Republic (from 510 BC, governed by the
Senate), and finally the
Roman Empire (from 27 BC, ruled by an
Emperor). This success depended on military conquest, commercial
predominance, as well as
selective assimilation of neighbouring civilizations, most notably
the
Italics,
Etruscans and
Greeks. From its foundation Rome, although losing occasional
battles, had been undefeated in war until 386 BC, when it was briefly
occupied by the
Gauls.[22]
According to the legend, the Gauls offered to deliver Rome back to its
people for a thousand pounds of gold, but the Romans refused, preferring
to take back their city by force of arms rather than ever admitting
defeat, after which the Romans recovered the city in the same year.[23]
Map depicting late ancient Rome.
The Republic was wealthy, powerful and stable before it became an
empire. According to tradition, Rome became a republic in
509 BC. However, it took a few centuries for Rome to become the
great city of popular imagination, and it only became a great empire
after the rule of
Augustus (Octavian). By the 3rd century BC, Rome had become the
pre-eminent city of the Italian peninsula, having conquered and defeated
the
Sabines, the
Etruscans, the
Samnites and most of the Greek colonies in
Sicily,
Campania and
Southern Italy in general. During the
Punic Wars between Rome and the great Mediterranean empire of
Carthage, Rome's stature increased further as it became the capital
of an overseas empire for the first time. Beginning in the 2nd century
BC, Rome went through a significant population expansion as Italian
farmers, driven from their ancestral farmlands by the advent of massive,
slave-operated farms called
latifundia, immigrated to the city in great numbers. The victory
over Carthage in the
First Punic War brought the first two provinces outside the Italian
peninsula,
Sicily and
Corsica et Sardinia. Parts of Spain (Hispania)
followed, and in the beginning of the 2nd century the Romans got
involved in the affairs of the Greek world. By then all Hellenistic
kingdoms and the Greek city-states were in decline, exhausted from
endless civil wars and relying on mercenary troops. This saw the fall of
Greece after the
Battle of Corinth (146 BC) and the establishment of Roman control
over Greece.[24]
The Roman Empire at its greatest extent controlled
approximately 6.5 million square
kilometres [25]
of land surface.
The Roman Empire had begun more formally when Emperor Augustus (63
BC–AD 14; known as Octavian before his throne accession) founded the
Principate in 27 BC.[26]
This was a monarchy system which was headed by an emperor holding power
for life, rather than making himself
dictator like
Julius Caesar had done, which had resulted in his assassination on
15 March 44 BC.[27]
At home, Emperor Augustus started off a great programme of social,
political and economic reform and grand-scale reconstruction of the city
of Rome. The city became dotted with impressive and magnificent new
buildings, palaces,
fora and
basilicae. Augustus became a great and enlightened patron of the
arts,
and his court was attended by such poets as
Virgil,
Horace
and
Propertius.[26]
His rule also established the
Pax
Romana, a long period of relative peace which lasted approximately
200 years.[28]
Following his rule were emperors such as
Tiberius,
Caligula,
Nero,
Trajan, and
Hadrian.
Nero was
well known for his extravagance, cruelty, tyranny, and the myth that he
was the emperor who "fiddled while
Rome burned" during the night of 18 to 19 July 64 AD.[29]
The
Antonine Plague of 165–180 is believed to have killed as much as
one-third of the population.[30]
Roman dominance expanded over most of western Europe and the shores
of the Mediterranean, though its influence through client states and the
sheer power of its presence was wider than its formal borders.
Its population surpassed one million inhabitants.[31]
For almost seven hundred years, Rome was the most politically important,
richest, and largest city in the Western world. After the empire started
to
decline and was split, it lost its capital status to
Milan and
then to
Ravenna, and was surpassed in prestige by the capital of the
Eastern Roman Empire,
Constantinople, whose Greek inhabitants continued through the
centuries to call themselves Roman.
Middle Ages
The Bishop of Rome, called the
Pope, was
important since the early days of Christianity because of the martyrdom
of both the apostles
Peter and
Paul there. The Bishops of Rome were also seen (and still are seen
by some) as the successors of Peter, he being the first Bishop of Rome.
The city thus became of increasing importance in the
Catholic Church. After the
Sack of Rome in 410 AD by
Alaric
I and the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Rome alternated between
Byzantine and
Germanic control. Its population declined from more than a million
in 210 AD to 500,000 in 273[32]
to 35,000 during the
Early Middle Ages,[33]
reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings
interspersed among large areas of ruins, vegetation, vineyards and
market gardens.[34]
Rome remained nominally part of the
Byzantine Empire until 751 AD, when the
Lombards finally extinguished the
Exarchate of Ravenna which was the last holdout of the Byzantines in
northern Italy. In 756,
Pepin the Short gave the Pope temporal jurisdiction over Rome and
surrounding areas, thus creating the
Papal States. In 846, Muslim Arabs
stormed the city and managed to loot
St. Peter's and St. Paul's basilica, both outside the city wall.[35]
Rome remained the capital of the Papal States until its annexation by
the
Kingdom of Italy in 1870; the city became a major pilgrimage site
during the Middle Ages and the focus of struggles between the Papacy and
the
Holy Roman Empire starting with
Charlemagne, who was crowned its first emperor in Rome in 800 by
Pope Leo III. Apart from brief periods as an independent city during
the
Middle Ages, Rome kept its status as Papal capital and "holy city"
for centuries, even when the Papacy
briefly relocated to
Avignon
(1309–1377).
Early modern
The latter half of the 15th century saw the center of the
Italian Renaissance move to Rome from Florence. The Papacy wanted to
equal and surpass the grandeur of other Italian cities and to this end
created ever more extravagant churches, bridges, squares and public
spaces: among them, the new
Saint Peter's Basilica, the
Sistine Chapel,
Ponte Sisto (the first bridge to be built across the
Tiber since antiquity, although on roman foundation), and
Piazza Navona. The Popes were also patrons of the arts, engaging the
best artists of the time, including
Michelangelo,
Perugino,
Raphael,
Ghirlandaio,
Luca Signorelli,
Botticelli, and
Cosimo Rosselli.
The period was also infamous for papal corruption, with many Popes
fathering children, and engaging in
nepotism and
simony.
The corruption of the Popes and the huge expenses for their building
projects led, in part, to the
Reformation and, in turn, the
Counter-Reformation. Popes, such as
Alexander VI, were well known for their decadence, wild parties,
extravagance and immoral lives.[36]
However, under these extravagant and rich popes, Rome was transformed
into a centre of art, poetry, music, literature, education and culture.
Rome became able to compete with other major European cities of the time
in terms of wealth, grandeur, the arts, learning and architecture.
The
Renaissance period changed Rome's face dramatically, with works like
the
Pietà by Michelangelo and the frescoes of the Borgia Apartment, all
made during Innocent's reign. Rome reached the highest point of
splendour under
Pope Julius II (1503–1513) and his successors
Leo
X and
Clement VII, both members of the
Medici family. In this twenty-year period Rome became one of the
greatest centres of art in the world. The old St. Peter's Basilica built
by Emperor
Constantine the Great[37]
(which by then was in a terrible state) was demolished and a new one
begun. The city hosted artists like
Ghirlandaio,
Perugino,
Botticelli and
Bramante, who built the temple of
San Pietro in Montorio and planned a great project to renovate the
Vatican. Raphael, who in Rome became one the most famous painters of
Italy creating frescos in the
Villa Farnesina, the
Raphael's Rooms, plus many other famous paintings. Michelangelo
started the decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and executed
the famous statue of the
Moses for
the tomb of Julius. Rome lost in part its religious character, becoming
increasingly a true Renaissance city, with a great number of popular
feasts, horse races, parties, intrigues and licentious episodes. Its
economy was rich, with the presence of several Tuscan bankers, including
Agostino Chigi, who was a friend of Raphael and a patron of arts.
Before his early death, Raphael also promoted for the first time the
preservation of the ancient ruins. The fight between France and Spain in
Europe caused the first plunder of the City in more than one thousand
years. In 1527 the
Landsknechts of Emperor
Charles V
sacked the city, putting to an abrupt end the golden age of the
Renaissance in Rome.[38]
Beginning with the Council of Trent in 1545, the Church began the
Counter-Reformation as an answer to the Reformation, a large-scale
questioning of the Church's authority on spiritual matters and
governmental affairs. (This loss of confidence then lead to major shifts
of power away from the Church.)[38]
Under the popes from
Pius IV to
Sixtus V, Rome became the centre of the reformed Catholicism and saw
the installment of new monuments which celebrated the papacy's restored
greatness.[39]
The popes and cardinals of the 17th and early 18th centuries continued
the movement by having city's landscape enriched with baroque buildings.
During the
Age of Enlightenment, new ideas reached also the Eternal City, where
the papacy supported archeological studies and improved the people's
welfare.[38]
But not everything went well for the Church during the
Counter-Reformation.
There were setbacks in the attempts to restrain the anti-Church
policies of European powers of the time. The most notable setback
perhaps being in 1773 when Pope Clement XIV was forced by secular powers
to have the Jesuit order suppressed.[38]
Late
modern and contemporary
The rule of the Popes was interrupted by the short-lived
Roman Republic (1798 to 1800), which was built under the influence
of the
French Revolution. The Papal States were restored in June 1800, but
during
Napoleon's reign
Rome was annexed as a Département of the
French Empire: as the Département du Tibre from 1808 until
1810, and then as the Département Rome until 1814. After the fall
of Napoleon, the Church State under the pope was reinstated through the
Congress of Vienna of 1814.
In 1849, another
Roman Republic arose within the framework of the
revolutions of 1848. Two of the most influential figures of the
Italian unification,
Giuseppe Mazzini and
Giuseppe Garibaldi, fought for the short-lived republic.
Rome became the focus of hopes of Italian reunification when the rest
of Italy was reunited under the
Kingdom of Italy with a temporary capital at Florence. In 1861, Rome
was declared the capital of Italy even though it was still under the
control of the Pope. During the 1860s, the last vestiges of the
Papal States were under French protection, thanks to the foreign
policy of
Napoleon III. And it was only when this was lifted in 1870, owing to
the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War, that Italian troops were able to
capture Rome entering the city through a breach near
Porta
Pia. Afterwards,
Pope Pius IX declared himself as
prisoner in the Vatican, and in 1871 the capital of Italy was moved
from
Florence to Rome.[40]
Soon after World War I, Rome witnessed the rise to power of
Italian Fascism guided by
Benito Mussolini, who
marched on the city in 1922, eventually declaring a new
Empire and allying Italy with
Nazi Germany. The interwar period saw a rapid growth in the city's
population, that surpassed 1,000,000 inhabitants. In World War II, due
to its art treasuries and the presence of Vatican, Rome
largely escaped the tragic destiny of other European cities.
However, on 19 July 1943 the San Lorenzo district was
bombed by Anglo-American forces, resulting in about 3,000 deaths and
11,000 wounded. After the fall of Mussolini and the
Italian Armistice on 8 September 1943, the city was occupied by the
Germans and declared as open city until
its liberation on 4 June 1944.
Rome grew momentously after the war, as one of the driving forces
behind the "Italian
economic miracle" of post-war reconstruction and modernisation. It
became a fashionable city in the 1950s and early 1960s, the years of "la
dolce vita" ("the sweet life"), with popular classic fims such as
Ben Hur,
Quo Vadis,
Roman Holiday and
La Dolce Vita[41]
being filmed in the city's iconic
Cinecittà Studios. A new rising trend in population continued until
the mid-1980s, when the comune had more than 2,800,000 residents;
after that, population started to decline slowly as more residents moved
to nearby suburbs.
Government
Local government
Rome constitutes a
comune
speciale, named "Roma Capitale",[42]
and is the largest both in terms of land area and population among the
8,101 comuni of Italy. It is governed by a mayor, currently
Ignazio Marino, and a city council. The seat of the comune is
the Palazzo Senatorio on the
Capitoline Hill, the historic seat of the city government. The local
administration in Rome is commonly referred to as "Campidoglio",
the Italian name of the hill.
Administrative and historical subdivisions
Since 1972 the city has been divided into administrative areas,
called municipi (sing. municipio) (until 2001 named
circoscrizioni).[43]
They were created for administrative reasons to increase
decentralisation in the city. Each municipio is governed by a
president and a council of four members who are elected by its residents
every five years. The municipi frequently cross the boundaries of
the traditional, non-administrative divisions of the city.
The municipi where originally 20, then 19.[44]
In 2013 their number has been reduced to 15.[45]
Rome is also divided into differing types of non-administrative
units. The historic centre is divided into 22
rioni, all of which are located within the
Aurelian Walls except
Prati and
Borgo.
These originate from the
Regiones of ancient Rome, which evolved in the Middle Ages into the
medieval rioni.[46]
In the
Renaissance, under Pope
Sixtus V, they reached again the number of fourteen, and their
boundaries were finally defined under
Pope Benedict XIV in 1743.
A new subdivision of the city under
Napoleon was ephemeral, and there were no sensible changes in the
organisation of the city until 1870, when Rome became the third capital
of Italy. The needs of the new capital led to an explosion both in the
urbanisation and in the population within and outside the
Aurelian walls. In 1874 a fifteenth rione,
Esquilino, was created on the newly urbanised zone of
Monti. At the beginning of the 20th century other rioni where
created (the last one was Prati – the only one outside the Walls of
Pope Urban VIII – in 1921). Afterward, for the new administrative
subdivisions of the city the name "quartiere" was used. Today all the
rioni are part of the first Municipio, which therefore coincides
completely with the historical city (Centro Storico).
Provincial and regional government
Rome is the principal town of the
homonymous Province, which includes the city's metropolitan area and
extends further north until
Civitavecchia. The Province of Rome is the 9th largest by area in
Italy. At 5,352 square kilometres (2,066 sq mi), its dimensions are
comparable to the region of
Liguria.
Moreover, the city is also the capital of the
Lazio
region.
National
government
Rome is the national capital of Italy and is the seat of the
Italian Government. The official residences of the
President of the Italian Republic and the
Italian Prime Minister, the seats of both houses of the
Italian Parliament and that of the
Italian Constitutional Court are located in the historic centre. The
state ministries are spread out around the city; these include the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is located in
Palazzo della Farnesina near the Olympic stadium.
Geography
Astronaut view of Rome, 2002
Location
Rome is in the
Lazio
region of
central Italy on the
Tiber river (Italian:
Tevere).
The original settlement developed on hills that faced onto a ford beside
the
Tiber Island, the only natural ford of the river in this area. The
Rome of the Kings was built on seven hills: the
Aventine Hill, the
Caelian Hill, the
Capitoline Hill, the
Esquiline Hill, the
Palatine Hill, the
Quirinal Hill, and the
Viminal Hill. Modern Rome is also crossed by another river, the
Aniene,
which flows into the Tiber north of the historic centre.
Although the city centre is about 24 kilometres (15 mi) inland from
the
Tyrrhenian Sea, the city territory extends to the shore, where the
south-western district of
Ostia is located. The altitude of the central part of Rome ranges
from 13 metres (43 ft)
above sea level (at the base of the
Pantheon) to 139 metres (456 ft)
above sea level (the peak of
Monte Mario).[47]
The Comune of Rome covers an overall area of about 1,285 square
kilometres (496 sq mi), including many green areas.
Topography
Rome seen from satellite.
Throughout the history of Rome, the urban limits of the city were
considered to be the area within the city walls. Originally, these
consisted of the
Servian Wall, which was built twelve years after the
Gaulish
sack of the city in 390 BC. This contained most of the Esquiline and
Caelian hills, as well as the whole of the other five. Rome outgrew the
Servian Wall, but no more walls were constructed until almost 700
years later, when, in 270 AD, Emperor
Aurelian began building the
Aurelian Walls. These were almost 19 kilometres (12 mi) long, and
were still the walls the troops of the
Kingdom of Italy had to breach to enter the city in 1870. The city's
urban area is cut in two by its ring-road, the
Grande Raccordo Anulare ("GRA"), finished in 1962, which circles
the city centre at a distance of about 10 km (6 mi). Although when the
ring was completed most part of the inhabited area lay inside it (one of
the few exceptions was the former village of
Ostia, which lies along the tyrrhenian coast), in the meantime
quarters have been built which extend up to 20 km (12 mi) beyond it.
The comune covers an area roughly three times the total area
within the Raccordo and is comparable in area to the entire
provinces of
Milan and
Naples,
and to an area six times the size of the territory of these cities. It
also includes considerable areas of abandoned marsh land which is
suitable neither for agriculture nor for urban development.
As a consequence, the density of the comune is not that high,
its territory being divided between highly urbanised areas and areas
designated as parks,
nature reserves, and for agricultural use.
Climate
Rome enjoys a
Mediterranean climate (Köppen
climate classification: Csa),[48]
with mild, humid winters and warm, dry summers.
Its average annual temperature is above
20 °C
(68 °F) during the day and
10 °C
(50 °F) at night. In the
coldest month – January, the average temperature is
12 °C
(54 °F) during the day and
3 °C
(37 °F) at night. In the
warmest months – July and August, the average temperature is
30 °C
(86 °F) during the day and
18 °C
(64 °F) at night.
December, January and February are the coldest months, with average
temperatures around 12.5 °C
(54.5 °F) during the day and
3.6 °C
(38.5 °F) at night.
Temperatures generally vary between 10 and 15 °C (50 and 59 °F) during
the day and between 3 and 5 °C (37 and 41 °F) at night, with colder or
warmer spells occurring frequently. Snowfall is rare but not unheard of,
with light snow or flurries occurring almost every winter, generally
without accumulation, and major snowfalls once every 20 or 25 years (the
last one in 2012).[49]
The average
relative humidity is 75%, varying from 72% in July to 77% in
November. Sea temperatures vary from a low of
13 °C
(55 °F) in February and March
to a high of 24 °C
(75 °F) in August.[50]
[hide]Climate
data for
Rome Ciampino Airport (altitude: 105 m sl,
satellite
view) |
Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
Average high °C (°F) |
11.9
(53.4) |
13.0
(55.4) |
15.2
(59.4) |
17.7
(63.9) |
22.8
(73) |
26.9
(80.4) |
30.3
(86.5) |
30.6
(87.1) |
26.5
(79.7) |
21.4
(70.5) |
15.9
(60.6) |
12.6
(54.7) |
20.4
(68.7) |
Daily mean °C (°F) |
7.5
(45.5) |
8.2
(46.8) |
10.2
(50.4) |
12.6
(54.7) |
17.2
(63) |
21.1
(70) |
24.1
(75.4) |
24.5
(76.1) |
20.8
(69.4) |
16.4
(61.5) |
11.4
(52.5) |
8.4
(47.1) |
15.2
(59.4) |
Average low °C (°F) |
3.1
(37.6) |
3.5
(38.3) |
5.2
(41.4) |
7.5
(45.5) |
11.6
(52.9) |
15.3
(59.5) |
18.0
(64.4) |
18.3
(64.9) |
15.2
(59.4) |
11.3
(52.3) |
6.9
(44.4) |
4.2
(39.6) |
10.0
(50) |
Precipitation mm (inches) |
66.9
(2.634) |
73.3
(2.886) |
57.8
(2.276) |
80.5
(3.169) |
52.8
(2.079) |
34.0
(1.339) |
19.2
(0.756) |
36.8
(1.449) |
73.3
(2.886) |
113.3
(4.461) |
115.4
(4.543) |
81.0
(3.189) |
804.3
(31.665) |
Avg. precipitation
days (≥ 1 mm) |
7.0 |
7.6 |
7.6 |
9.2 |
6.2 |
4.3 |
2.1 |
3.3 |
6.2 |
8.2 |
9.7 |
8.0 |
79.4 |
Mean monthly
sunshine hours |
120.9 |
132.8 |
167.4 |
201.0 |
263.5 |
285.0 |
331.7 |
297.6 |
237.0 |
195.3 |
129.0 |
111.6 |
2,472.8 |
Source:
Servizio Meteorologico,[51]
data of sunshine hours[52] |
[show]Average
sea temperature |
Demographics
Historical population |
Year |
Pop. |
±% |
1861 |
194,500 |
— |
1871 |
212,432 |
+9.2% |
1881 |
273,952 |
+29.0% |
1901 |
422,411 |
+54.2% |
1911 |
518,917 |
+22.8% |
1921 |
660,235 |
+27.2% |
1931 |
930,926 |
+41.0% |
1936 |
1,150,589 |
+23.6% |
1951 |
1,651,754 |
+43.6% |
1961 |
2,188,160 |
+32.5% |
1971 |
2,781,993 |
+27.1% |
1981 |
2,840,259 |
+2.1% |
1991 |
2,775,250 |
−2.3% |
2001 |
2,663,182 |
−4.0% |
2010 (Est.) |
2,754,440 |
+3.4% |
Source:
ISTAT 2001 |
At the time of the Emperor
Augustus, Rome was the largest city in the world: with a population
of about one million people (about the size of London in the early 19th
century, when London was the largest city in the world).[55][56][57][58]
After the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city's population fell
dramatically to less than 50,000 people, and continued to either
stagnate or shrink until the
Renaissance.[59]
When the
Kingdom of Italy annexed Rome in 1870, the city had a population of
about 200,000, which rapidly increased to 600,000 by the eve of World
War I. The
Fascist
regime of Mussolini tried to block an excessive demographic rise of the
city, but failed to prevent it from reaching one million people by early
1930s. After the Second World War, growth continued, helped by a
post-war economic boom. A construction boom also created a large number
of suburbs during the 1950s and 1960s.
In mid-2010, there were 2,754,440 residents in the city proper, while
some 4.2 million people lived in the greater Rome area (which can be
approximately identified with its administrative
province, with a population density of about 800inhab./km2
stretching over more than 5,000 km²). Minors (children ages 18 and
younger) totalled 17.00 percent of the population compared to pensioners
who number 20.76 percent. This compares with the Italian average of
18.06 percent (minors) and 19.94 percent (pensioners). The average age
of a Roman resident is 43 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the
five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Rome grew by 6.54
percent, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.56 percent.[60]
The current birth rate of Rome is 9.10 births per 1,000 inhabitants
compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births.
Ethnic groups
According to the latest statistics conducted by ISTAT,[61]
approximately 9.5% of the population consists of non-Italians. About
half of the immigrant population consists of those of various other
European origins (chiefly Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Albanian)
numbering a combined total of 131,118 or 4.7 percent of the population.
The remaining 4.8 percent are those with non-European origins, chiefly
Filipinos (26,933), Bangladeshis (12,154), Peruvians (10,530), and
Chinese (10,283).
The
Esquilino
rione, off
Termini Railway Station, has evolved into a largely immigrant
neighbourhood; it is now seen as Rome's Chinatown, but in fact
immigrants from more than a hundred different countries crowd its busy
streets and piazzas. A thriving commercial district, Esquilino boasts
dozens of restaurants featuring every kind of international cuisine.
There are innumerable wholesale clothes shops: of the 1,300 or so
commercial premises operating in the district 800 are Chinese-owned,
around 300 are run by immigrants from other countries around the world
and some 200 are owned by Italians.[62]
Hundreds of
Romani gypsies live in illegal trailer camps on the city's
outskirts. There is a growing population of homeless people in Rome,
mostly not Italian and estimated at 7,000.
Religion
Much like the rest of Italy, Rome is predominantly Roman Catholic,
and the city has been an important centre of religion and pilgrimage for
centuries, the base of the ancient Roman Religion with the
pontifex maximus and later the seat of the
Vatican
and the pope. Before the arrival of the Christians in Rome, the
Religio Romana (literally, the "Roman Religion") was the major
religion of the city in classical antiquity. The first gods held sacred
by the Romans were
Jupiter, the most high, and
Mars, god of war, and father of Rome's twin founders,
Romulus and Remus, according to tradition. Other gods and goddesses
such as
Vesta and
Minerva
were honoured. Rome was also the base of several mystery cults, such as
Mithraism. Later, after
St Peter and
St Paul were martyred in the city, and the first Christians began to
arrive, Rome became Christian, and the
Old St. Peter's Basilica was constructed in 313 AD. Despite some
interruptions (such as the
Avignon papacy), Rome has for centuries been the home of the Roman
Catholic Church and the
Bishop of Rome,
otherwise known as the pope.
Despite the fact that Rome is home to the
Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica, Rome's cathedral is the
Basilica of St. John Lateran, located to the south-east of the
city-centre. There are around 900 churches in Rome in total, aside from
the cathedral itself, some others of note include: the
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, the
Basilica di San Clemente,
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and the
Church of the Gesu. There are also the ancient
Catacombs of Rome underneath the city. Numerous highly important
religious educational institutions are also in Rome, such as the
Pontifical Lateran University,
Pontifical Biblical Institute,
Pontifical Gregorian University, and
Pontifical Oriental Institute.
In recent years, there has been a significant growth in Rome's
Muslim
community, mainly due to immigration from North African and Middle
Eastern countries into the city. As a consequence of this increase of
the local practitioners of the
Islamic
faith, the comune promoted the building of the
largest mosque in Europe, which was designed by architect
Paolo Portoghesi and inaugurated on 21 June 1995. Since the end of
the Roman Republic, Rome is also the center of an important
Jewish community,[63]
which was once based in
Trastevere, and later in the
Roman Ghetto. There lies also the major synagogue in Rome, the
Tempio Maggiore.
Vatican City
Main article:
Vatican City
The territory of Vatican City is part of the Mons Vaticanus (Vatican
Hill), and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields, where
St. Peter's Basilica, the
Apostolic Palace, the
Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with various other
buildings. The area was part of the Roman
rione of
Borgo until 1929. Being separated from the city on the west bank of
the
Tiber river, the area was an outcrop of the city that was protected
by being included within the walls of
Leo IV, later expanded by the current fortification walls of
Paul III/Pius
IV/Urban
VIII.
When the
Lateran Treaty of 1929 that gave the state its present form was
being prepared, the boundaries of the proposed territory was influenced
by the fact that much of it was all but enclosed by this loop. For some
tracts of the frontier, there was no wall, but the line of certain
buildings supplied part of the boundary, and for a small part of the
frontier a modern wall was constructed.
The territory includes
Saint Peter's Square, separated from the territory of Italy only by
a white line along the limit of the square, where it touches Piazza Pio
XII. St. Peter's Square is reached through the
Via della Conciliazione, which runs from the Tiber River to St.
Peter's. This grand approach was constructed by
Benito Mussolini after the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty.
According to the Lateran Treaty, certain
properties of the Holy See that are located in Italian territory,
most notably the
Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the
major basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial status similar to that of
foreign
embassies.
Pilgrimage
Rome has been a major Christian pilgrimage site since the Middle
Ages. People from all over the Christian world visit Vatican City,
within the city of Rome, the seat of the papacy. The Pope was the most
influential figure during the Middle Ages. The city became a major
pilgrimage site during the
Middle Ages and the focus of struggles between the Papacy and the
Holy Roman Empire starting with
Charlemagne, who was crowned its first emperor in Rome in 800 by
Pope Leo III. Apart from brief periods as an independent city during
the
Middle Ages, Rome kept its status as Papal capital and "holy city"
for centuries, even when the Papacy
briefly relocated to
Avignon
(1309–1377). Catholics believe that the Vatican is the last resting
place of St. Peter.
Pilgrimages to Rome can involve visits to a large number of sites,
both within the Vatican City and in Italian territory in the city of
Rome itself. A popular stopping point is
Pilate's stairs where, according to the Christian tradition, the
steps that led up to the
praetorium of
Pontius Pilate in
Jerusalem, which
Jesus Christ stood on during his
Passion on his way to trial.[64]
The stairs were, reputedly, brought to Rome by
St. Helena in the 4th Century. For centuries, the Scala Santa has
attracted Christian pilgrims who wished to honor the Passion of Jesus.
Some of these are the catacombs of antiquity in which Christians prayed,
buried their dead and performed worship during periods of persecution,
and various national churches, most famously the Church of St. Louis of
the French, or churches associated with individual religious orders,
such as the Jesuit Church of Jesus.
Traditionally there have been seven churches known as the
Pilgrim churches, visited because an individual saint is venerated
there, or in the Middle Ages to obtain indulgences, or for national
reasons since there are national churches in Rome for most Catholic
countries. St Peter’s basilica is the main destination for pilgrimage,
because of the presence of the pope and the burial of many past popes
there, including St Peter, recognised by Catholics as the first pope. St
Peters and three other major churches, all within Italian territory and
therefore outside Vatican City form what are called the four main
basilicas, these are the Basilica of St John Lateran, the Basilica of St
Paul Outside the Walls, where St Paul is believed buried, and Saint Mary
Major. Three other minor basilicas, all within Rome, form the seven
pilgrimage sites.
Cityscape
Architecture
Rome's architecture over the centuries has greatly developed,
especially from the Classical and Imperial Roman styles to modern
Fascist architecture. Rome was for a period one of the world's main
epicentres of classical architecture, developing new forms such as the
arch, the
dome and
the
vault.[65]
The
Romanesque style in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries was also
widely used in Roman architecture, and later the city became one of the
main centres of
Renaissance and
Baroque
architecture.[65]
Ancient Rome
One of the symbols of Rome is the
Colosseum (70–80 AD), the largest
amphitheatre ever built in the Roman Empire. Originally capable of
seating 60,000 spectators, it was used for
gladiatorial combat. A list of important monuments and sites of
ancient Rome includes the
Roman Forum, the
Domus Aurea, the
Pantheon,
Trajan's Column,
Trajan's Market, the
Catacombs, the
Circus Maximus, the
Baths of Caracalla,
Castel Sant'Angelo, the
Mausoleum of Augustus, the
Ara
Pacis, the
Arch of Constantine, the
Pyramid of Cestius, and the
Bocca della Verità.
Medieval
Often overlooked, Rome's medieval heritage is one of the largest in
Italian cities. Basilicas dating from the
Paleochristian age include
Santa Maria Maggiore and
San Paolo Fuori le Mura (the latter largely rebuilt in the 19th
century), both housing precious 4th century AD mosaics. Later notable
medieval mosaic and fresco art can be also found in the churches of
Santa Maria in Trastevere,
Santi Quattro Coronati, and
Santa Prassede. Lay buildings include a number of towers, the
largest being the
Torre delle Milizie and the
Torre dei Conti, both next the Roman Forum, and the huge staircase
leading to the basilica of
Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.
Renaissance
and Baroque
Rome was a major world centre of the
Renaissance, second only to Florence, and was profoundly affected by
the movement. Among others, a masterpiece of
Renaissance architecture in Rome is the Piazza del Campidoglio by
Michelangelo. During this period, the great aristocratic families of
Rome used to build opulent dwellings as the
Palazzo del Quirinale (now seat of the
President of the Italian Republic), the
Palazzo Venezia, the
Palazzo Farnese, the
Palazzo Barberini, the
Palazzo Chigi (now seat of the
Italian Prime Minister), the
Palazzo Spada, the
Palazzo della Cancelleria, and the
Villa Farnesina.
Many of the famous city's squares – some huge, majestic and often
adorned with
obelisks, some small and picturesque – got their present shape
during the Renaissance and Baroque. The principal ones are
Piazza Navona,
Piazza di Spagna,
Campo de' Fiori,
Piazza Venezia,
Piazza Farnese,
Piazza della Rotonda and
Piazza della Minerva. One of the most emblematic examples of Baroque
art is the
Fontana di Trevi by
Nicola Salvi. Other notable 17th-century
baroque palaces are the
Palazzo Madama, now the seat of the
Italian Senate and the
Palazzo Montecitorio, now the seat of the
Chamber of Deputies of Italy.
Neoclassicism
In 1870, Rome became the capital city of the new
Kingdom of Italy. During this time,
neoclassicism, a building style influenced by the architecture of
antiquity, became a predominant influence in
Roman architecture. During this period, many great palaces in
neoclassical styles were built to host ministries, embassies, and other
governing agencies. One of the best-known symbols of Roman neoclassicism
is the
Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II or "Altar of the Fatherland", where
the
Grave of the Unknown Soldier, that represents the 650,000 Italians
that fell in World War I, is located.
Fascist
architecture
The Fascist regime that ruled in Italy between 1922 and 1943
developed an architectural style that was characterised by its links
with ancient Roman architecture. The most important Fascist site in Rome
is the
E.U.R
district, designed in 1938 by
Marcello Piacentini. It was originally conceived for the
1942 world exhibition, and was called "E.42" ("Esposizione 42").
The world exhibition, however, never took place because Italy entered
the Second World War in 1940. The most representative building of the
Fascist style at E.U.R. is the
Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (1938–1943), the iconic design of
which has been labelled the cubic of Square Colosseum. After World War
II, the Roman authorities found that they already had the seed of an
off-centre business district of the type that other capitals were still
planning (London
Docklands and
La
Défense in Paris). Also the
Palazzo della Farnesina, the current seat of the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was designed in 1935 in pure
Fascist style.
Parks and gardens
Spanish Steps & Trinita dei Monti
Public parks and nature reserves cover a large area in Rome, and the
city has one of the largest areas of green space among European
capitals.[66]
The most notable part of this green space is represented by the large
number of villas and landscaped gardens created by the Italian
aristocracy. While many villas were destroyed during the building boom
of the late 19th century, a great many remain. The most notable of these
are
Villa Borghese,
Villa
Ada, and
Villa Doria Pamphili. Villa Doria Pamphili is west of the Gianicolo
hill comprising some 1.8 square kilometres (0.7 sq mi).
Also on the Gianicolo hill there is Villa Sciarra, with playgrounds for
children and shaded walking areas. In the nearby area of Trastevere the
Orto Botanico (Botanical Garden) is a cool and shady green space. The
old Roman hippodrome (Circus Maximus) is another large green space but
the main attraction is the ancient site of the chariot racing and it has
few trees. Nearby is the lush Villa Celimontana, close to the gardens
surrounding the Baths of Caracalla and Rose Garden (‘roseto comunale’).
The Villa Borghese garden is the best known large green space in Rome,
with famous art galleries among its shaded walks. It is close to the
Spanish Steps that climb the slope to the Piazza Trinita dei Monti from
the Piazza di Spagna,and
Piazza del Popolo with its Augustinian Church built in the 13th
century. Rome also has a number of regional parks of much more recent
origin including the
Pineto Regional Park and the Appian Way Regional Park. There are
also nature reserves at Marcigliana and at Tenuta di Castelporziano.
Fountains and
aqueducts
Rome is a city famous for its numerous fountains, built in all
different styles, from Classical and Medieval, to Baroque and
Neoclassical. The city has had
fountains for more than two thousand years, and they have provided
drinking water and decorated the
piazzas
of Rome. During the
Roman Empire, in 98 AD, according to
Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named curator
aquarum or guardian of the water of the city, Rome had nine
aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins,
not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths and
owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to
two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service.[67]
During the 17th and 18th century the Roman popes reconstructed other
ruined Roman acqueducts and built new display fountains to mark their
termini, launching the golden age of the Roman fountain. The fountains
of Rome, like the paintings of
Rubens, were expressions of the new style of Baroque art. They were
crowded with allegorical figures, and filled with emotion and movement.
In these fountains, sculpture became the principal element, and the
water was used simply to animate and decorate the sculptures. They, like
baroque gardens, were "a visual representation of confidence and power".[68]
Statues
Rome is well known for its statues but, in particular, the
talking statues of Rome. These are usually ancient statues which
have become popular soapboxes for political and social discussion, and
places for people to (often satirically) voice their opinions. There are
two main talking statues: the
Pasquino and the
Marforio, yet there are four other noted ones:
il Babuino,
Madama Lucrezia,
il Facchino and
Abbot Luigi. Most of these statues are ancient Roman or classical,
and most of them also depict mythical gods, ancient people or legendary
figures; il Pasquino represents
Menelaus, Abbot Luigi is an unknown Roman magistrate, il Babuino is
supposed to be
Silenus,
Marforio represents
Oceanus,
Madama Lucrezia is a bust of
Isis, and
il Facchino is the only non-Roman statue, created in 1580, and not
representing anyone in particular. They are often, due to their status,
covered with placards or
graffiti expressing political ideas and points of view. Other
statues in the city, which are not related to the talking statues,
include those of the Ponte Sant'Angelo, or several monuments scattered
across the city, such as that to
Giordano Bruno in the Campo de'Fiori.
Obelisks and
columns
The city contains eight
ancient Egyptian and five
ancient Roman
obelisks,
together with a number of more modern obelisks; there was also formerly
(until 2005) an
ancient Ethiopian obelisk in Rome.[70]
The city contains some of obelisks in
piazzas,
such as in
Piazza Navona,
St Peter's Square,
Piazza Montecitorio, and
Piazza del Popolo, and others in
villas,
thermae
parks and gardens, such as in
Villa Celimontana, the
Baths of Diocletian, and the
Pincian Hill. Moreover, the centre of Rome hosts also
Trajan's and
Antonine Column, two ancient Roman columns with spiral relief.
Bridges
The city of Rome contains numerous famous bridges which cross the
Tiber. Famous ones include the
Ponte Cestio, the
Ponte Milvio, the
Ponte Nomentano, the
Ponte Sant'Angelo, the
Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, the
Ponte Sisto and the
Ponte dei Quattro Capi. Currently there are five ancient Roman
bridges still remaining in the city.[71]
Most of the city's public bridges were built in Classical or Renaissance
style, but also in Baroque, Neoclassical and Modern styles. According to
the
Encyclopædia Britannica, the finest ancient bridge remaining in Rome
is the
Ponte Sant'Angelo, which was completed in 135 AD, and was decorated
with 10 statues of the angels, designed by
Bernini in 1688.[72]
Catacombs
Rome has extensive amount of ancient catacombs, or underground burial
places under or near the city, of which there are at least forty, some
discovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian
burials, they include
pagan and Jewish burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed
together. The first large-scale catacombs were excavated from the 2nd
century onwards. Originally they were carved through
tuff, a
soft
volcanic rock, outside the boundaries of the city, because
Roman
law forbade burial places within city limits. Currently maintenance
of the catacombs is in the hands of the
Papacy
which has invested in the
Salesians of Don Bosco the supervision of the Catacombs of St.
Callixtus on the outskirts of Rome.
Economy
Panoramic view of
EUR business district.
Being the capital city of Italy, Rome hosts all the principal
institutions of the nation, like the Presidency of the Republic, the
government (and its single Ministeri), the Parliament, the main judicial
Courts, and the diplomatic representatives of all the countries for the
states of Italy and the Vatican City (curiously, Rome also hosts, in the
Italian part of its territory, the Embassy of Italy for the Vatican
City, a unique case of an Embassy within the boundaries of its own
country). Many international institutions are located in Rome, notably
cultural and scientific ones – such as the American Institute, the
British School, the French Academy, the Scandinavian Institutes, the
German Archaeological Institute – for the honour of scholarship in the
Eternal City, and Specialized Agencies of the United Nations, such as
the
FAO. Rome, also hosts major international and worldwide political
and cultural organisations, such as the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
World Food Programme (WFP), the
NATO Defence College and ICCROM, the International Center for the
Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
[1]. Rome is currently an beta+
world city, falling down from its alpha- status in 2008, along with
Berlin,
Stockholm,
Athens,
Prague,
Montreal and
Vancouver, to name a few.[9]
With a score of 2.56, Rome was also ranked in 2010 as 28th in the Global
Cities Index (moving up two places from its 2008 position), being the
highest-ranking city in Italy (Milan comes second at 42nd).[10]
Furthermore, Rome was in 2008, also ranked 15th out of all the cities of
the world for global importance, mainly for cultural experience.[73]
With a 2005 GDP of €94.376 billion (US$121.5 billion),[74]
the city produces 6.7% of the national GDP (more than any other single
city in Italy), and its unemployment rate, lowered from 11.1% to 6.5%
between 2001 and 2005, is now one of the lowest rates of all the
European Union capital cities.[74]
Rome grows +4.4% annually and continues to grow at a higher rate in
comparison to any other city in the rest of the country.[74]
This means that were Rome a country, it would be the world's 52nd
richest country by GDP, near to the size to that of Egypt. Rome also had
a 2003 GDP per capita of €29,153 (US$ 37,412), which was second in
Italy, (after Milan), and is more than 134.1% of the EU average GDP per
capita.[75]
Rome, on the whole, has the highest total earnings in Italy, reaching
€47,076,890,463 in 2008,[76]
yet, in terms of average workers' incomes, the city places itself 9th in
Italy, with €24,509[76]
On a global level, Rome's workers receive the 30th highest wages in
2009, coming three places higher than in 2008, in which the city ranked
33rd.[77]
The Rome area had a
GDP amounting to $167.8 billion, and $38,765 per capita.[78]
Although the economy of Rome is characterised by the absence of heavy
industry and it is largely dominated by
services, high-technology companies (IT, aerospace, defence,
telecommunications), research, construction and commercial activities
(especially banking), and the huge development of tourism are very
dynamic and extremely important to its economy. Rome's international
airport,
Fiumicino, is the largest in Italy, and the city hosts the head
offices of the vast majority of the major Italian companies, as well as
the headquarters of three of the world's 100 largest companies:
Enel,
Eni, and
Telecom Italia.[79]
Universities, national radio and television and the movie industry in
Rome are also important parts of the economy: Rome is also the hub of
the
Italian film industry, thanks to the Cinecittà studios, working
since the 1930s. The city is also a centre for banking and insurance as
well as electronics, energy, transport, and aerospace industries.
Numerous international companies and agencies headquarters, government
ministries, conference centres, sports venues, and museums are located
in Rome's principal business districts: the
Esposizione Universale Roma (EUR); the Torrino (further south
from the EUR); the Magliana; the Parco de' Medici-Laurentina
and the so-called Tiburtina-valley along the ancient
Via Tiburtina.
Education
Rome is a nationwide and major international centre for higher
education, containing numerous academies, colleges and universities.
According to the City Brands Index, Rome is considered the world's
second most historically, educationally and culturally interesting and
beautiful city.[80]
It boasts a large variety of academies and colleges, and has always been
a major worldwide intellectual and educational centre, especially during
Ancient Rome and the
Renaissance, along with Florence.[81]
Rome has a large number of universities and colleges. Its first
university,
La Sapienza (founded in 1303), is the largest in Europe and the
second-largest in the world, with more than 140,000 students attending;
in 2005 it ranked as Europe's 33rd best university[82]
and currently ranks among Europe's 50 and the world's 150 best colleges.[83]
In order to decrease the overcrowding of La Sapienza, two new public
universities were founded during the last decades:
Tor Vergata in 1982, and
Roma Tre in 1992. Rome hosts also the
LUISS School of Government, Italy's most important graduate
university in the areas of international affairs and European studies.
Rome
ISIA was founded in 1973 by
Giulio Carlo Argan and is Italy's oldest institution in the field of
industrial design.
Rome contains also a large number of
pontifical universities and other institutes, including the
British School at Rome, the
French School in Rome, the
Pontifical Gregorian University (The oldest
Jesuit university in the world, founded in 1551),
Istituto Europeo di Design, the, the
Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici, the Link
Campus of Malta, and the
Università Campus Bio-Medico. Rome is also the location of two
American Universities;
The American University of Rome[84]
and
John Cabot University as well as
St. John's University branch campus,
John Felice Rome Center, a campus of
Loyola University Chicago and Temple University Rome, a campus of
Temple University.[85]
The
Roman Colleges are several
seminaries for students from foreign countries studying for the
priesthood at the Pontifical Universities.[86]
Examples include the
Venerable English College, the
Pontifical North American College, the
Scots College, and the
Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome.
Rome's major libraries include: the
Biblioteca Angelica, opened in 1604, making it Italy's first public
library; the
Biblioteca Casanatense, opened in 1701; the
Biblioteca Vallicelliana;
Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute of Art History, a
German library located in Rome, often noted for excellence in the arts
and sciences;[87]
the
National Central Library, one of the two national libraries in
Italy, which contains 4,126,002 volumes; The Biblioteca del Ministero
degli Affari Esteri, specialised in diplomacy, foreign affairs and
modern history; the Biblioteca dell'Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana;
the Biblioteca Don Bosco, one of the largest and most modern of all
Salesian libraries; the Biblioteca e Museo teatrale del Burcardo, a
museum-library specialised in history of drama and theatre; the
Biblioteca della Società Geografica Italiana, which is based in the
Villa Celimontana and is the most important geographical library in
Italy, and one of Europe's most important;[88]
and the
Vatican Library, one of the oldest and most important libraries in
the world, which was formally established in 1475, though in fact much
older and has 75,000
codices
from throughout history.[89]
Culture
Entertainment and performing arts
Rome is an important centre for music, and it has an intense musical
scene, including several prestigious music conservatories and theatres.
It hosts the
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (founded in 1585), for which
new concert halls have been built in the new
Parco della Musica, one of the largest musical venues in the world.
Rome also has an opera house, the
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, as well as several minor musical
institutions. The city also played host to the
Eurovision Song Contest in 1991 and the
MTV Europe Music Awards in 2004.
Rome has also had a major impact in music history. The
Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music,
which were active in the city during the 16th and 17th centuries,
therefore spanning the late
Renaissance and early
Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produced. Many
of the composers had a direct connection to the
Vatican
and the
papal chapel, though they worked at several churches; stylistically
they are often contrasted with the
Venetian School of composers, a concurrent movement which was much
more progressive. By far the most famous composer of the Roman School is
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose name has been associated for
four hundred years with smooth, clear,
polyphonic perfection. However, there were other composers working
in Rome, and in a variety of styles and forms.
Tourism
Rome today is one of the most important tourist destinations of the
world, due to the incalculable immensity of its archaeological and
artistic treasures, as well as for the charm of its unique traditions,
the beauty of its panoramic views, and the majesty of its magnificent
"villas" (parks). Among the most significant resources are the many
museums – (Musei Capitolini, the Vatican Museums, Galleria Borghese,
including those dedicated to modern and contemporary art and great many
others) –
aqueducts,
fountains, churches,
palaces,
historical buildings, the
monuments and ruins of the
Roman Forum, and the
Catacombs. Rome is the 3rd most visited city in the EU, after London
and Paris, and receives an average of 7–10 million tourists a year,
which sometimes doubles on holy years. The Colosseum (4 million
tourists) and the
Vatican Museums (4.2 million tourists) are the 39th and 37th
(respectively) most visited places in the world, according to a recent
study.[90]
Rome is a major archaeological hub, and one of the world's main
centres of
archaeological research. There are numerous cultural and research
institutes located in the city, such as the
American Academy in Rome,[91]
and The Swedish Institute at Rome,[92]
to name a few. Rome contains numerous
ancient sites, including the
Forum Romanum,
Trajan's Market,
Trajan's Forum,[93]
the
Colosseum, and the
Pantheon, to name but a few. The
Colosseum, arguably one of Rome's most iconic archaeological sites,
is regarded as a
wonder of the world.[94][95]
Rome contains a vast and impressive collection of art, sculpture,
fountains,
mosaics,
frescos,
and paintings, from all different periods. Rome first became a major
artistic centre during ancient Rome, with forms of important
Roman
art such as
architecture, painting, sculpture and
mosaic
work.
Metal-work,
coin die and gem engraving,
ivory carvings, figurine glass,
pottery, and book illustrations are considered to be 'minor' forms
of Roman artwork.[96]
Rome later became a major centre of
Renaissance art, since the popes spent vast sums of money for the
constructions of grandiose
basilicas,
palaces,
piazzas
and public buildings in general. Rome became one of Europe's major
centres of Renaissance artwork, second only to
Florence, and able to compare to other major cities and cultural
centres, such as Paris and
Venice.
The city was affected greatly by the
baroque, and Rome became the home of numerous artists and
architects, such as
Bernini,
Caravaggio,
Carracci,
Borromini and
Cortona,
to name a few.[97]
In the late 18th century and early 19th century, the city was one of the
centres of the
Grand Tour,[98]
when wealthy, young English and other European aristocrats visited the
city to learn about
ancient Roman culture, art, philosophy and architecture. Rome hosted
a great number of neoclassical and rococo artists, such as
Pannini and
Bernardo Bellotto. Today, the city is a major artistic centre, with
numerous art institutes[99]
and museums.
Internal view of the Colosseum
Rome has a growing stock of contemporary and modern art and
architecture. The National Gallery of Modern Art has works by Balla,
Morandi, Pirandello, Carrà, De Chirico, De Pisis, Guttuso, Fontana,
Burri, Mastroianni, Turcato, Kandisky, Cézanne on permanent exhibition.
2010 sees the opening of Rome's newest arts foundation, a contemporary
art and architecture gallery designed by acclaimed Iraqi architect Zaha
Hadid. Known as
MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts it restores a
dilapidated area with striking modern architecture. Maxxi[100]
features a campus dedicated to culture, experimental research
laboratories, international exchange and study and research. It is one
of Rome's most ambitious modern architecture projects alongside Renzo
Piano's Auditorium Parco della Musica[101]
and Massimiliano Fuksas' Rome Convention Center, Centro Congressi Italia
EUR, in the EUR district, due to open in 2011.[102]
The Convention Center features a huge translucent container inside which
is suspended a steel and teflon structure resembling a cloud and which
contains meeting rooms and an auditorium with two piazzas open to the
neighbourhood on either side.
Rome is also widely recognised as a world
fashion capital. Although not as important as Milan, Rome is the
world's 4th most important center for fashion in the world, according to
the 2009
Global Language Monitor after
Milan,
New York and Paris, and beating London.[103]
Major luxury fashion houses and jewellery chains, such as
Bulgari,
Fendi,[104]
Laura Biagiotti and
Brioni (fashion), just to name a few, are headquartered or were
founded in the city. Also, other major labels, such as
Chanel,
Prada,
Dolce & Gabbana,
Armani
and
Versace have luxury boutiques in Rome, primarily along its
prestigious and upscale
Via dei Condotti.
Cuisine
Spaghetti alla
Carbonara, a typical Roman dish
Main article:
Roman cuisine
Rome's cuisine has evolved through centuries and periods of social,
cultural, and political changes. Rome became a major gastronomical
centre during the
ancient Age.
Ancient Roman cuisine was highly influenced by Ancient Greek
culture, and after, the empire's enormous expansion exposed Romans to
many new, provincial culinary habits and cooking techniques. Later,
during the
Renaissance, Rome became well known as a centre of high-cuisine,
since some of the best chefs of the time, worked for the popes. An
example of this could be
Bartolomeo Scappi, who was a chef, working for
Pius IV in the Vatican kitchen, and he acquired fame in 1570 when
his cookbook Opera dell'arte del cucinare was published. In the
book he lists approximately 1000 recipes of the Renaissance
cuisine
and describes cooking techniques and tools, giving the first known
picture of a
fork.[105]
In the modern age, the city developed its own peculiar cuisine, based on
products of the nearby
Campagna, as lamb and vegetables (globe
artichokes are common).[106]
In parallel, roman Jews -present in the city since the 1st century BC-
developed their own cuisine, the cucina giudaico-romanesca.
Examples of Roman dishes include "Saltimbocca
alla Romana" – a veal cutlet, Roman-style; topped with raw ham and
sage and simmered with white wine and butter; "Carciofi
alla giudia" – artichokes fried in olive oil, typical of Roman
Jewish cooking; outer leaves removed, stuffed with mint, garlic,
breadcrumbs and braised; "Spaghetti
alla carbonara" – spaghetti with
bacon,
eggs and
pecorino, and "Gnocchi
di semolino alla romana" –
semolina dumpling, Roman-style, to name but a few.[107]
Cinema
Set of Gangs of New York in
Cinecittà studios, Rome
Rome hosts the
Cinecittà Studios,[108]
the largest film and television production facility in continental
Europe and the centre of the
Italian cinema, where a large number of today's biggest box office
hits are filmed. The 99-acre (40 ha) studio complex is 5.6 miles
(9.0 km) from the centre of Rome and is part of one of the biggest
production communities in the world, second only to
Hollywood, with well over 5,000 professionals – from period costume
makers to visual effects specialists. More than 3,000 productions have
been made on its lot, from recent features like
The Passion of the Christ,
Gangs of New York,
HBO's Rome,
The Life Aquatic and
Dino De Laurentiis’
Decameron, to such cinema classics as
Ben-Hur,
Cleopatra, and the films of
Federico Fellini.
Founded in 1937 by
Benito Mussolini, the studios were bombed by the
Western Allies during the Second World War. In the 1950s, Cinecittà
was the filming location for several large American film productions,
and subsequently became the studio most closely associated with
Federico Fellini. Today Cinecittà is the only studio in the world
with pre-production, production, and full post-production facilities on
one lot, allowing directors and producers to walk in with their script
and "walk out" with a completed film.
Language
Main articles:
Roman dialect and
Latin
Although associated today only with Latin, ancient Rome was in fact
multilingual. In highest antiquity
Sabine tribes shared the area of what is today Rome with Latin
tribes. The Sabine language was one of the
Italic group of ancient Italian languages, along with Etruscan,
which would have been the main language of the last three kings who
ruled the city till the founding of the Republic in 509 BC. Urganilla,
or
Plautia Urgulanilla, wife of Emperor Claudius, is thought to have
been a speaker of Etruscan many centuries after this date, according to
Suetonius' entry on Claudius. However Latin, in various evolving forms,
was the main language of classical Rome, but as the city had immigrants,
slaves, residents, ambassadors from many parts of the world it was also
multilingual. Many educated Romans also spoke Greek, and there was a
large Greek, Syriac and Jewish population in parts of Rome from well
before the Empire.
Latin
evolved during the Middle Ages into a new language, the volgare.
The latter emerged as the confluence of various regional dialects, among
which the
Tuscan dialect predominated, but the population of Rome also
developed its own dialect, the
Romanesco. The Romanesco spoken during the Middle Ages was a
southern Italian dialect, very close to the
Neapolitan. The influence of the
Florentine culture during the
renaissance, and, above all, the immigration to Rome of many
Florentines following the two
Medici Popes (Leo
X and
Clement VII), caused a major shift in the dialect, which began to
resemble more the Tuscan varieties. This remained largely confined to
Rome until the 19th century, but then expanded to other zones of
Lazio (Civitavecchia,
Latina), from the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the
rising population of Rome and to better transportation systems. As a
consequence of education and media like radio and television,
Romanesco became more and more similar to standard Italian.
Dialectal literature in the traditional form
Romanesco includes the works of such authors as
Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (one of the most important Italian poets
altogether),
Trilussa, and
Cesare Pascarella. Contemporary
Romanesco is mainly represented by popular actors such as
Aldo Fabrizi,
Alberto Sordi,
Nino Manfredi,
Anna Magnani,
Gigi Proietti,
Enrico Montesano, and
Carlo Verdone.
Rome's historic contribution to language in a worldwide sense is much
more extensive however. Through the process of
Romanisation, the peoples of
Gallia, the
Iberian Peninsula, Italy and
Dacia
developed languages which derive directly from Latin and were adopted in
large areas of the world both through colonization and cultural
influence. Moreover, also modern English, because of the
Norman Conquest, borrowed a large percentage of its vocabulary from
the Latin Language. The Roman or Latin alphabet is the most widely used
writing system in the world used by the greatest number of languages.[109]
Rome has long hosted artistic communities, foreign resident
communities and a large number of foreign religious students or pilgrims
and so has always been a multilingual city. Today because of mass
tourism many languages are used in servicing tourism, especially English
which is widely known in tourist areas, and the city hosts large numbers
of immigrants and so has many multilingual immigrant areas.
Sports
The
Olympic Stadium is mostly used as a shared home stadium for
Serie A
football clubs
S.S. Lazio and
A.S.
Roma, who contest the
Derby della Capitale.[citation
needed]
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Rome, as in the rest
of the country. The city hosted the final games of the
1934 and
1990 FIFA World Cup. The latter took place in the
Olympic Stadium, which is also the home stadium for local
Serie A
clubs
S.S. Lazio, founded in 1900, and
A.S.
Roma was founded in 1927, whose rivalry has become a staple of Roman
sports culture. Footballers who play for these teams and are also born
in the city tend to become especially popular, as has been the case with
players such as
Francesco Totti and
Daniele De Rossi (both for A.S. Roma).
Atletico Roma is a minor team that plays in
First Division; its home stadium is
Stadio Flaminio.
Rome hosted the
1960 Summer Olympics, with great success, using many ancient sites
such as the
Villa Borghese and the
Thermae of Caracalla as venues. For the Olympic Games many new
structures were created, notably the new large Olympic Stadium (which
was also enlarged and renewed to host qualification and the final match
of the
1990 FIFA World Cup), the Villaggio Olimpico (Olympic Village,
created to host the athletes and redeveloped after the games as a
residential district), ecc. Rome made a
bid to host the
2020 Summer Olympics but it was withdrawn before the deadline for
applicant files.[111][112]
Rugby union is gaining wider acceptance. Until 2011 the
Stadio Flaminio was the home stadium for the
Italy national rugby union team, which has been playing in the
Six Nations Championship since 2000 (the team now plays home games
at the Stadio Olimpico because the Stadio Flaminio needs works of
renovation in order to improve both its capacity and safety), albeit
with less than satisfactory performances, as they have never won the
Championship (Italy's best result being to date the 4th place in
2007). Rome is home to local rugby teams, such as
Rugby Roma (founded in 1930 and winner of five Italian
championships, the latter in 1999-2000),
Unione Rugby Capitolina and
S.S. Lazio 1927 (rugby union branch of the multisport club
S.S. Lazio).
Every May, Rome hosts the
ATP Masters Series tennis tournament on the clay courts of the
Foro Italico. Cycling was popular in the post-World War II period,
although its popularity has faded. Rome has hosted the final portion of
the
Giro d'Italia twice, in 1989 and 2000. Rome is also home to other
sports teams, including basketball (Virtus
Roma), volleyball (M.
Roma Volley),
handball or
waterpolo.
Transport
Rome is at the centre of the radial network of roads that roughly
follow the lines of the ancient Roman roads which began at the
Capitoline Hill and connected Rome with its empire. Today Rome is
circled, at a distance of about 10 km (6 mi), by the ring-road (the
Grande Raccordo Anulare or GRA).
Due to its location in the centre of the Italian peninsula, Rome is a
principal railway node for central Italy. Rome's main railway station,
Termini, is one of the largest railway stations in Europe and the
most heavily used in Italy, with around 400 thousand travellers passing
through every day. The second-largest station in the city,
Roma Tiburtina, is currently being redeveloped as a
high-speed rail terminus.[113]
Rome is served by three airports. The intercontinental
Leonardo da Vinci International Airport is Italy's chief airport and
is commonly known as "Fiumicino Airport", as it is located within the
nearby
Comune of Fiumicino, south-west of Rome. The older
Rome Ciampino Airport is a joint civilian and military airport. It
is commonly referred to as "Ciampino Airport", as it is located beside
Ciampino, south-east of Rome. A third airport, the
Roma-Urbe Airport, is a small, low-traffic airport located about
6 km (4 mi) north of the city centre, which handles most helicopter and
private flights.
The city suffers from traffic problems largely due to this radial
street pattern, making it difficult for Romans to move easily from the
vicinity of one of the radial roads to another without going into the
historic centre or using the ring-road. These problems are not helped by
the limited size of Rome's metro system when compared to other cities of
similar size. In addition, Rome has only 21 taxis for every 10,000
inhabitants, far below other major European cities.[114]
Chronic congestion caused by cars during the 1970s and 1980s led to
restrictions being placed on vehicle access to the inner city-centre
during the hours of daylight. Areas where these restriction apply are
known as Limited Traffic Zones (Zona a Traffico Limitato (ZTL) in
Italian). More recently, heavy night-time traffic in
Trastevere and
San Lorenzo has led to the creation of night-time ZTLs in those
districts, and there are also plans to create another night-time ZTL in
Testaccio.
Overview map of Rome's underground and rail system in 2011
A 2-line metro system called the
Metropolitana operates in Rome. Construction on the first branch
started in the 1930s. The line had been planned to quickly connect the
main railway station with the newly planned E42 area in the southern
suburbs, where the 1942
World Fair was supposed to be held. The event never took place
because of war. The area was later partly redesigned and renamed
EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma: Rome Universal Exhibition) in
the 1950s to serve as a modern business district. The line was finally
opened in 1955, and it is now part of the B Line.
The A line opened in 1980 from Ottaviano to Anagnina stations, later
extended in stages (1999–2000) to Battistini. In the 1990s, an extension
of the B line was opened from Termini to Rebibbia. This underground
network is generally reliable (although it may become very congested at
peak times and during events, especially the A line) as it is relatively
short.
The two existing lines, A and B, intersect at Roma Termini station. A
new branch of the B line (B1) opened on 13 June 2012 after an estimated
building cost of €500 million. B1 connects to line B at Piazza Bologna
and has four stations over a distance of 3.9 km (2 mi). A third line,
line C, is under construction with an estimated cost of €3 billion and
will have 30 stations over a distance of 25.5 km (16 mi). It will partly
replace the existing rail line, Termini-Pantano. It will feature full
automated, driverless trains.[115]
The first section was due to open in 2011 and the final sections in
2015, but archaeological findings often delay underground construction
work. A fourth line, D line, is also planned. It will have 22 stations
over a distance of 20 km (12 mi). The first section is projected to open
in 2015 and the final sections before 2035.
Above-ground public transport in Rome is made up of a bus, tram and
urban train network (FR lines). The bus and tram network is run by
Trambus S.p.A. under the auspices of Atac S.p.A. (which
originally stood for the Municipal Bus and Tramways Company, Azienda
Tramvie e Autobus del Comune in Italian). The bus network has in
excess of 350 bus lines and over eight thousand bus stops, whereas the
more-limited tram system has 39 km (24 mi) of track and 192 stops.[116][117]
There is also one
trolleybus line, opened in 2005, and additional trolleybus lines are
planned.[118]
International entities, organisations and involvement
Rome is unique in having a sovereign state located entirely within
its city limits, the Vatican City. The Vatican is an enclave of Rome and
a sovereign possession of the
Holy
See, the supreme government of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome hosts
foreign embassies to both Italy and the Holy See, although frequently
the same ambassador is accredited to both.
Another body, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), took refuge in Rome in
1834, due to the conquest of Malta by
Napoleon in 1798. It is sometimes classified as having sovereignty
but does not claim any territory in Rome or anywhere else, hence leading
to dispute over its actual sovereign status.
Rome is also the seat of international agencies of the
United Nations, such as the
World Food Programme (WFP), the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Rome has traditionally been involved in the process of European
political integration. In 1957, the city hosted the signing of the
Treaty of Rome, which established the
European Economic Community (predecessor to the
European Union), and also played host to the official signing of the
proposed
European Constitution in July 2004.
Rome is the seat of the
NATO Defense College and is the place where the
Statute of the International Criminal Court was formulated.
Twin towns, sister cities and partner cities
Rome is since 1956 exclusively and reciprocally
twinned only with:
-
(French) Seule Paris est digne de Rome; seule Rome est
digne de Paris.
-
(Italian) Solo Parigi è degna di Roma; solo Roma è degna
di Parigi.
- "Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris."[119][120][121]
Rome's sister and partner cities are:
-
Achacachi, Bolivia
-
Algiers, Algeria
-
Beijing, China[122][123]
-
Belgrade, Serbia
-
Brasília, Brazil
-
Cairo, Egypt
-
Kiev, Ukraine
-
Kraków, Poland[124]
-
London, United Kingdom
-
Multan, Pakistan
-
Mumbai, India
-
Madrid, Spain[125]
|
-
Marbella, Spain
-
Montreal, Canada
-
New York City, USA[126]
-
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
-
New Delhi, India
-
Seoul, South Korea[127][128]
-
Sydney, Australia
-
Tirana, Albania[129][130]
-
Tokyo, Japan
-
Tongeren, Belgium
-
Tunis, Tunisia[131]
-
Washington, D.C., USA[132]
|
See also
Bibliography
- Bertarelli, Luigi Vittorio
(1925). Guida d'Italia (in Italian) IV. Rome: CTI.
- Brilliant, Richard (2006).
Roman Art. An American's View. Rome: Di Renzo Editore.
ISBN 88-8323-085-X.
- Coarelli, Filippo (1984).
Guida archeologica di Roma (in Italian). Milano: Arnoldo
Mondadori Editore.
- Kinder, Hermann; Hilgemann,
Werner (1964). Dtv-atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)
1. Zürich: Ex Libris.
- Hughes, Robert (2011). Rome.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
- Lucentini, Mario (2002). La
Grande Guida di Roma (in Italian). Rome: Newton & Compton
Editori.
ISBN 88-8289-053-8.
- Rendina, Mario (2007). Roma
ieri, oggi, domani (in Italian). Rome: Newton & Compton
Editori.
- Spoto, Salvatore (1999). Roma
Esoterica (in Italian). Rome: Newton & Compton Editori.
ISBN 88-8289-265-4.
- Rome – Eyewitness Travel.
DK. 2006.
ISBN 1-4053-1090-1.
Documentaries
-
Scam City -
Season 1 (2012)
- The Holy Cities: Rome produced by Danae Film Production,
distributed by HDH Communications; 2006.
External links
- Official
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