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Rome

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Rome

Empire’s Worth of History, Food, Civilization, and Catholicism

Italy’s capital is enormous, sometimes bewildering, often stunning and exhilarating. What else could one expect from a city that once ran a vast empire and now contains an entire separate nation, the heart of a major religion, within its borders? Though the empire crumbled long ago, the city is constantly vibrant. Standing in the city center by the Forum, it’s easy to feel that you’re living inside a giant postcard, with crumbling ruins on one side and the commanding sight of the ancient Colosseum rising above the rooftops on the other. The evidence of more recent history is also omnipresent here; most spectacularly in Vatican City, where people pour into St. Peter’s Basilica and Square and the famous Vatican Museums to worship, gawk, and wonder at everything from the Pope to the Sistine Chapel. However, though aged sights are abundant in Rome, the city is anything but elderly, and it is certainly not tired. The fashion is high-class here, the shopping opportunities countless, the cuisine delicious, the gelato heavenly, and the traffic absolutely ferocious, in both speed and volume. If you want a fast-paced day of historical sightseeing or just a slow afternoon with a cappuccino, Rome offers both and everything in between.

Rome travel guide by tripwolf

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  • Rome facts

    • population: 2,705,603
    • area: 1,285 km²
    • time zone: CET (UTC+1), Summer: CEST (UTC+2)
    • languages: Italian
    • website: http://www.comune.roma.it/
  • recommendations from your friends

    places your friends recommend in Rome

  • not to miss

    the best places in Rome - chosen by tripwolf

    • 26 votes
      sight

      1. Trevi Fountain

      Rome's most popular hydraulic organ. Rome's most popular fountain stands in a small plaza surrounded by six-storey palazzi. And it's not only tourists who throw coins into the shallow basin - which is ...

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    • 21 votes
      sight

      2. Colosseo

      The largest arena where gladiators used to do battle with beasts. The Italians would have loved to dedicate the Colosseum to football but so far only the ballerinas from the Bolshoi Theatre have been a...

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    • 16 votes
      sight

      3. Pantheon

      An ingenious structure - a cylinder with a dome. A drum with a dome on top of it - the construction of the Pantheon is simple and yet inspired. Marcus Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, had it built to h...

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  • reviews & insider tips (4)

    reviews and insider tips for Rome

    2009-06-09
    a caputal place in my heart
    2009-03-19
    Statt den überteuerten Restaurants in der Innenstadt oder am Termini lieber in das schöne Viertel Testaccio ausweichen (Metro Piramide). Römische Lokale mit leckerer italienischer Küche. Außerdem DAS Ausgehviertel in Rom.

    Sonntags ist der Autoverkehr in den Fiori di Imperatori (Straße zwischen Piazza Venezia, Forum Romanum und Colosseum) und auf der Via Appia Antica gesperrt. Deshalb unbedingt Fahrrad leihen und direkt im Süden des Stadtzentrums die wunderschöne Appia Antica mit ihren Katakomben, Tempeln und sonstigen römischen Hinterlassenschaften entlangfahren. Lecker, aber etwas teurer im schönen Garten draußen essen kann man dann im schönen Ristorante L'Archeologia (Appia Antica, 139). Super-lecker Fisch und frisch gegrilltes Fleisch!
    2008-06-24
    there is no italy without rome!
    2008-05-12
    stay at least 4 days, so that you can see it all .... read angels and demons from Dan Brown and follow the steps of the book