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Rome is a city and special comune in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and also of Lazio. With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km², it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fifth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.8 million people live in the Rome urban and metropolitan area. The city is located in the...  MORE

Rome is a city and special comune in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and also of Lazio. With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km², it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fifth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.8 million people live in the Rome urban and metropolitan area. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber within the Lazio region of Italy. Rome is referred to as "The Eternal City", a notion expressed by ancient Roman poets and writers. Rome's history spans more than two and a half thousand years, since its founding in 753 BC. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe. 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. LESS