Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, a metropolitan area of about 4 million inhabitants spread over a 5,352 km² area. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian peninsula, on the Tiber river.

Rome's history as a city spans over two and a half thousand years, as one of the founding cities of Western Civilisation. Even outside of the history of the Roman Empire, Rome has a significant place in the story of Christianity up to the present day as the home of the Roman Catholic Church.

No other city comes close. It may no longer be caput mundi (capital of the world), but Rome is an epic, bubbling-over metropolis harbouring lost empires. One visit and you’ll be hooked. Rome has a glorious monumentality that it wears without reverence. Its architectural heirlooms are buzzed around by car and Vespa as if they were no more than traffic islands.

The city bombards you with images: elderly ladies with dyed hair chatting in Trastevere; priests with cigars strolling the Imperial Forums; traffic jams around the Piazza Navona Colosseum; plateloads of pasta in Piazza Navona sinuous trees beside the Villa Borghese; barrages of pastel-coloured scooters revving up at traffic lights as if preparing for a race.