Caput mundi was never an exaggeration: for centuries, the roads of the known world ended here. Founded — legend says — in 753 BC, Rome layers a pagan temple under a Baroque church under a twentieth-century palazzo without embarrassment. Its historic centre has been a UNESCO site since 1980, together with the Holy See's properties, and within the city's borders lies the smallest state on Earth, the Vatican.
The right way to visit: book the unmissables — Colosseum, Vatican Museums — then get lost on purpose. Rome rewards wrong turns, especially at dawn, when the old lanes still belong to Romans and cats.
Near Rome
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
