Rome has been the capital of Italy since 1871 and is the boot’s most populous municipality. It is the only city in the world that contains a state, the Vatican, which is governed by the pope.

After being founded by Romulus according to the legend in 753 BC, the city served successively as the centre of the Roman monarchy, the Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire, hence the famous expression “All roads lead to Rome”.

Rome has 900 churches, which means it would take a year and a half to visit all of them at a rate of two per day. Its 2,000 fountains include the Trevi Fountain, in which Anita Ekberg took a bath in her evening gown, beneath the gaze of Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.

Rome is twinned with just one city — Paris! “Only Paris is worthy of Rome, only Rome is worthy of Paris”; so went the slogan for their union, which was made official on 30 January 1956.

We have depicted the skyline of Rome as seen from the Orange Garden.

You can see the church of San Pietro, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon of Rome, the Great Synagogue and l'Altare della Patria.