Travel To Rome Italy

Posts Tagged ‘city roma’

There is probably no other capital city which is so great and at the same time so small. If you are visiting Rome for the first time, go out on a sunny morning and you can go on foot anywhere in the city center. No map is really needed, possibly a guide in your pocket.

No matter which direction you go, you will pretty soon end up in a square, in front of a church or a palace and be amazed. Your gaze meets the Church of St Peter, the Forum Romanum, the Capitol, the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Colosseum and Fontana di Trevi. All of these are major sights which remain great milestones in human history. The rest – the local trattorias, the best cappuccino, the good ice cream, colorful markets, and even football – is a pure love story of the kind that last a lifetime.

The city of Rome is over two thousand seven hundred sixty years old. That is if you choose to believe the old legend that tells that the city was founded on April twenty first in the year seven hundred and fifty three BC, when Romulus on the Palatine drew up the first city, roma quad rata, while he murdered his twin brother Remus. Since then, many different people have come and gone. The Etruscans have disappeared and the Roman Empire was passed over. The eternal city of Rome has been ruled by kings, emperors and popes.

Today Rome is a capital of a republic led by a president, trying to appear as a modern European country with the functioning of social security, pensions and medical care as well as having a regulated traffic. Somewhat behind most of the other European Union member states, however, one must say. The ancient is never far away even in the modern city. The city’s seven hills (Palatine, the Capitol, Esquilinen, Quirinale, Viminale, Aventinen and Celio) are still clearly seen in the city. The municipality of Rome is wide – farther so than even Paris – and also includes the ancient port city of Ostia, which during the summer is a popular seaside resort. The base for the city’s road network is an antique construction. The road exits still carry the same names as they did two thousand years ago: Flaminia, Cassia, Prenestina, Salaria and Appia.

In contrast to all the antiques a visit to Mussolini exhibition city EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) is recommended, the construction of which was finished after the Second World War. Fascism’s eminent architects Marcello Piacentini and others have created a modern city here with wide streets, not forgetting the antique ideals of old with columns and white marble. EUR is largely reminiscent of a metaphysical town in a big dream landscape, much like in Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings.

As one often says – a lifetime is not long enough to really see and experience everything that Rome has to offer. The best thing is to take it easy and first and foremost try to enjoy the city. Plan to return on more visits and do not try to squeeze in hundreds of churches, museums, palaces and other antique and modern sites in only one week.