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The City of Rome
Located on the River Tiber, among the Apennine Mountains and the Tyrrhenian Sea, Rome, the capital of Italy, this place is one of the world's oldest cities as well as one of the principal centers of European culture. With the enclave of the Vatican City within its territory, Rome is also the center of Roman Catholicism.
The city was founded during the eight century BC on an important trade route between the Etruscans to the north and the Greek colonies to the south. The legendary origins of Rome are related in the tale of Romulus and Remus. Princess Rhea Silvia, ravished by Mars (the God of War), gave birth to the twins and abandoned them to fate. The River Tiber carried them to the Palatine Hill, where a she-wolf mothered the babes until their discovery by a shepherd. Romulus later killed Remus, before going on to found Rome in the marshy lowlands of seven hills. As the centre of a massive Roman Empire, Rome was already a large city by the second century A.D. At its peak in the 3rd century, Rome had a population of 2 million! Its fortune fluctuated with the times and its population dropped in the middle Ages until the renaissance ushered in a new era of growth.
The city was chosen as capital after the unification of Italy in 1870. Rome has stayed as the political, administrative and cultural center of Italy. Situated among Italy's North and South, and thoroughly detested by both, Rome is perhaps the perfect capital for a country like Italy. Once the seat of a great empire, and later the home of the papacy, which governed its dominions from here with a distant and autocratic hand, it's still seen as a place somewhat apart from the rest of Italy, spending money made elsewhere on the corrupt and bloated government machine that runs the country. Romans, the thinking seems to go, are a lazy lot, not to be trusted and living very nicely off the fat of the rest of the land. Even Romans find it hard to disagree with this analysis: in a city of around four million, there are around 600,000 office-workers, compared to an industrial workforce of one sixth of that.
As other large cities, the inner city deteriorated somewhat but most city inhabitants who fled this deterioration did not completely sever their ties with Rome. Rather, they commuted to their jobs and took advantage of the many cultural and social opportunities offered by the city.
The economy of Rome is characterized by the deficiency of heavy industry, but commercial activities especially banking and the development of tourism are exceptionally important to its economy. Universities, national radio and television and the movie industry in Rome are also important elements of the economy. A phenomenon particular to Rome is the widespread incidence of double employment, people working two jobs.
Rome
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Rome
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