Caput mundi is not hyperbole: for centuries the roads of the known world ended here. Founded, so the legend goes, in 753 BC, Rome lays a pagan temple over a baroque church and a twentieth-century building without the slightest embarrassment, and its historic centre has been a UNESCO site since 1980, together with the properties of the Holy See. Inside its boundaries lives the smallest state on the planet, the Vatican. Since 2010 the comune of Rome no longer exists: in its place is Roma Capitale, a special body provided for by the Constitution, governing the same territory with greater autonomy.
The municipal territory passes twelve hundred square kilometres, and you can see it in the way it is divided: 22 rioni inside the Aurelian Walls, born in the Middle Ages along the lines of the Augustan regions, 35 quarters outside the walls, six suburbs and 53 zones of the Agro romano reaching the city limits. The right way to visit is still the same: book what cannot be missed — the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums — and then get lost. Rome rewards those who take the wrong turning, above all at dawn, when the alleys of the centre belong to the Romans and the cats.
Colosseo · Musei Vaticani e Cappella Sistina · Pantheon and 51 more
Carbonara
27 places to stay · top rated: Umiltà 36 - Preferred Hotels & Resorts 9.6 · BH Hotel 9.6
Next up: Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Tuesday 29 June
Nearest airport: Roma Ciampino, 14 km away
Rome is part of 🏛️ UNESCO heritage
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📅 Every year, on 29 June
On 29 June Rome honours the two apostles martyred in the city. It is the solemnity of its patron saints, established as the capital's own holiday by papal decree in 1818.
Colosseo The largest ancient amphitheater ever built, completed in 80 AD by the Flavian dynasty, is the iconic symbol o 
Musei Vaticani e Cappella Sistina Founded in 1506 by Julius II, they house one of the world's largest art collections, including the Sistine Cha 
Pantheon The largest concrete dome ever built, with a hole open to the sky for nineteen centuries. 
Fontana di Trevi The largest Baroque fountain in Rome, fed by Agrippa's aqueduct since 19 BC. 
basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano Rome's cathedral since Constantine's day, bearing the title of mother and head of all churches. 
basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore The basilica of the snow miracle, consecrated in 434, still keeps its fifth-century mosaics. Guanciale, egg yolk, pecorino romano and black pepper: Rome's signature pasta comes from a recipe fought over between trattorias and army rations.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Rome, but an easy day trip away.
