99 Fun Facts About Rome

Rome is the capital of which Italian region?

Lazio is the Italian form of Latium, and the Latin language, which Rome spread across its empire, takes its name from that region.

Which river flows through the centre of Rome?

The Tiber's island, one legend says, grew from the grain of the exiled king Tarquin, which Romans threw into the river after overthrowing him.

Which Roman landmark was built on the site of the private lake of Nero's Golden House?

The Colosseum rose where Nero's lake had been, in what is seen as Vespasian's populist gesture of handing land Nero had seized back to the people.

In legend, which twin founded Rome on the Palatine, one of its seven hills?

Romulus and Remus quarrelled over which hill to build on, and in the most common telling Romulus killed Remus for leaping over his new walls.

Which Roman square keeps the long oval shape of the stadium Emperor Domitian built there?

Piazza Navona was deliberately flooded every weekend in August for more than two centuries, a summer spectacle that ended in the 1860s.

In Rome's founding legend, which animal suckled the abandoned twin babies?

A she-wolf, though Livy and Plutarch record a rival telling: lupa also meant a prostitute, and the twins' foster mother, Acca Larentia, was said to be one.

Which Roman emperor renamed Rome after himself and fought as a gladiator in the arena?

Commodus had Rome renamed Commodiana, but conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him in his bath.

Which country lies entirely within Rome's municipal boundaries?

Vatican City counts cardinals living elsewhere in Rome as citizens, and anyone who loses its citizenship with no other nationality automatically becomes Italian.

Which Catholic order of knights is recognised as sovereign and has its headquarters in Rome?

The Order of Malta settled in Rome in 1834, decades after Napoleon drove it off Malta in 1798, and its two Rome headquarters enjoy extraterritorial status.

Which district of the city of Rome sits on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast?

Ostia's ancient port once stood at the river mouth, but silt has pushed the coastline out, so its ruins now lie about 3 km from the sea.

Which ancient Roman temple, finished under Hadrian, still stands under its original concrete dome?

The Pantheon survived so well largely because it stayed in use, having been converted into a Christian church early in its history.

Thousands of Spartacus's captured rebels were crucified along which road leading to Rome?

The Via Appia was lined with crosses from Capua to Rome, and although Crassus crushed the revolt, a rival general caught fleeing rebels on his way home and took much of the glory.

Which large park in Rome is famous for the art galleries inside its grounds?

Villa Borghese was built for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, and only became a public park in 1903.

Which English Romantic poet died in Rome in 1821, aged just 25?

John Keats went to Rome on his doctors' orders to seek a warmer climate, but died there of tuberculosis and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

Which Gothic king sacked Rome in 410, the first time it fell to a foreign enemy in about 800 years?

Alaric's Goths carried off Emperor Honorius's half-sister, Galla Placidia, who later married Ataulf, the brother-in-law who succeeded Alaric as leader.

Which basilica is the cathedral of Rome, where the pope presides as the city's bishop?

St John Lateran stands on the palace Constantine gave the Church, which remained the popes' main residence until the Middle Ages.

The Palazzo Senatorio, seat of Rome's city government, stands on which hill?

The Capitoline's temple, the Capitolium, gave English the word capitol, so the US Congress meets in a building whose name deliberately evokes republican Rome.

In legend, Rome's first settlers abducted women from which neighbouring people to populate the city?

The Sabines went to war over it, until the abducted women rushed between the armies, pleading with fathers and husbands, and the two sides made peace.

Which palace is the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic?

Palazzo del Quirinale was the popes' summer residence until 1870, when Italy took Rome and the palace passed to Italy's kings.

Which organisation did six European nations create by signing the 1957 Treaty of Rome?

The European Economic Community grew into today's EU, and its founding treaty lives on, renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Which UN agency has its world headquarters in Rome?

The Food and Agriculture Organization was first based in Washington and moved its headquarters to Rome in 1951.

Since 1956 Rome has been exclusively and reciprocally twinned with which city?

Paris signed the exclusive pact with Rome in 1956, and Paris's all-night arts festival, Nuit Blanche, was later taken up by Rome as the Notte Bianca.

Which luxury fashion house has had its headquarters in EUR's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana since 2015?

Fendi took a 15-year lease on the Fascist-era palace while also sponsoring the restoration of the Trevi Fountain.

What is the common name of Rome's main intercontinental airport?

Officially Leonardo da Vinci International, it handled over 49 million passengers in 2024, the most in Italy.

Which port town north of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea is the city's main harbour?

Civitavecchia grew from Centumcellae, the harbour town Emperor Trajan founded around AD 106.

What is the name of Rome's main railway station?

Termini's new station was planned in the late 1930s, but with the war intervening it was only built between 1947 and 1950.

Which astronomer did the Roman Inquisition try in 1633, sentencing him to house arrest?

Galileo Galilei was forced to recant the view that the Earth orbits the Sun, and his book defending it was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.

Julius Caesar was stabbed at a Senate meeting held in a hall of which Roman theatre?

The Theatre of Pompey held a statue of Pompey, and Plutarch says Caesar, who had defeated Pompey in civil war, sank dying against its pedestal.

Which philosopher was burned alive for heresy in Rome's Campo de' Fiori in 1600?

Giordano Bruno refused to recant before the Roman Inquisition, and a statue of him now stands where the fire burned.

Enrico Fermi held the chair of theoretical physics at which Rome university, founded in 1303?

Sapienza lost Fermi in 1938: after collecting his Nobel Prize in Stockholm he never went home, moving on to America with his family.

Which architect designed the Trevi Fountain, finished by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762?

Nicola Salvi got the commission even though, in the best-known account, he had lost the pope's design contest to an outsider, to Roman dismay.

Which Roman 'talking statue' was covered in so much anonymous satire that it gave English a word?

Pasquino is said to be named after a local resident of that name, a schoolmaster, tailor or barber depending on the telling.

Italy looted an ancient obelisk and put it up in Rome in 1937; which country finally got it back?

Ethiopia's Axum obelisk was sent home in sections, and the first arrived in 2005, nearly 70 years after Italy had taken it.

Which Roman bridge leads straight to the mausoleum Emperor Hadrian built for himself?

Ponte Sant'Angelo's ten angels follow Bernini's designs, but the pope kept the two Bernini carved himself, so copies stand on the bridge.

Rome's catacombs were carved outside the city through which soft volcanic rock?

Tuff is easy to dig yet solid, which let diggers cut long galleries lined with loculi, the tomb niches of ordinary Christians.

In which Federico Fellini film does Anita Ekberg wade into a famous Roman fountain?

La Dolce Vita's news photographer, Paparazzo, gave the world the word paparazzi for intrusive photographers.

Which Rome district is home to an artificial hill made almost entirely of broken ancient amphorae?

Testaccio's hill grew because shards of amphorae used to ship goods to the nearby river port were systematically discarded there.

Which classic Roman pasta dish is made with eggs?

Carbonara's eggs are mixed with the hot pasta away from direct heat, so they turn creamy instead of scrambling.

The English word 'money' comes from a title of which Roman goddess, near whose temple coins were minted?

Juno Moneta's title is said to come from monere, 'to warn', and the same Latin word moneta also gave English the word mint.

Who founded the Cinecittà film studios in 1937?

Benito Mussolini opened Cinecittà under the motto 'Cinema is the most powerful weapon', but after Allied bombing its studios became a camp for displaced people.

Which player spent his whole club career at AS Roma, retiring in 2017?

Francesco Totti won the 2006 World Cup with metal plates in his damaged ankle, after the coach waited until the last moment to call him up.

Which country won the 1990 World Cup final, played at Rome's Stadio Olimpico?

West Germany won through Andreas Brehme's late penalty, reversing the result of the 1986 final, which Argentina had won.

Which future world heavyweight champion won boxing gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics?

Muhammad Ali, then called Cassius Clay, won light-heavyweight gold, and 36 years later he lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Rome's ATP Masters 1000 tennis tournament is played on clay at which venue?

At the Foro Italico in 2006, Rafael Nadal saved two match points against Roger Federer and won the final after more than five hours.

Italian troops captured Rome in 1870 through a breach near which gate?

Porta Pia's breach let Italian troops into Rome once France had withdrawn its garrison for the Franco-Prussian War, and the capture ended the Papal States.

Which city was the capital of Italy from 1865 until Rome took over?

Florence took over from Turin after Italy promised France, in an 1864 deal, to leave the pope's Rome alone, yet Italian troops seized Rome in 1870.

The Allies captured Rome in 1944, just days before which famous operation began?

The D-Day landings began on 6 June 1944, days after the Allies took Rome, a city their bombers had raided heavily in the months before.

Which pope called the first Jubilee, or Holy Year, in 1300, drawing pilgrims to Rome?

Boniface VIII later fell out with Philip IV of France, whose men held him prisoner at Anagni in 1303, and he died about a month later.

Whose troops sacked Rome in 1527, in a raid often seen as ending the Italian Renaissance?

Emperor Charles V hadn't ordered the attack: his unpaid troops mutinied and marched on Rome, though he still took advantage when the pope surrendered.

Which ancient ruin in Rome staged the first Three Tenors concert, on the eve of a World Cup final?

The Baths of Caracalla gave Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras a backdrop seen by around 800 million television viewers in July 1990. The vast bathing complex had lain in ruins since the 530s.

Which marathon runner won gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics after running the whole race barefoot?

Abebe Bikila ran barefoot because the new shoes he bought in Rome gave him blisters. He still crossed the line in world record time, finishing after dark beside a triumphal arch.

Coins tossed into Rome's Trevi Fountain are collected and given to which Catholic organisation?

Caritas spends the money on charity work, and the haul is serious: an estimated 1.4 million euros went into the water in 2016. Fishing coins out for yourself is illegal.

Which sculpture in St Peter's Basilica did a man attack with a geologist's hammer in 1972?

The Pietà, the only work Michelangelo ever signed, was struck on Pentecost Sunday by a disturbed geologist, Laszlo Toth. Restored, it now sits behind a bulletproof screen.

In which 1953 film do Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck tour Rome together on a Vespa?

Roman Holiday won Audrey Hepburn the Academy Award for Best Actress. Italy's Ministry of Tourism at first refused permission to shoot in the city, fearing the film would degrade Italians.

Which stairway in Rome, funded by a French diplomat, climbs to the church of Trinità dei Monti?

The Spanish Steps are named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See at their foot, yet the money came from Étienne Gueffier, a French diplomat who left part of his fortune for the stairs in 1660.

A chimney on which building beside St Peter's in Rome puffs white smoke when a pope is elected?

The Sistine Chapel gets a chimney in its roof for every conclave. Black smoke means no candidate has yet won the two-thirds vote that the cardinals require.

Which Germanic people sacked Rome for 14 days in 455 after sailing over from North Africa?

Vandals tore off half the gilt bronze roof of the Temple of Jupiter during the sack. Renaissance writers later cast them as the model barbarians, and the label stuck.

Which enemy general crossed the Alps with war elephants yet never managed to capture Rome itself?

Hannibal frightened the city so badly that a cry meaning he was at the gates became the Roman phrase for looming disaster. He fought on in Italy for nearly 15 years before Carthage called him home.

Which Disney Channel heroine is mistaken for an Italian pop star on a class trip to Rome?

Lizzie McGuire is spotted at the Trevi Fountain by a singer who says she is the double of his former partner, Isabella. He talks her into posing as Isabella at a music awards show.

Which Baroque master designed Rome's Fountain of the Four Rivers and St Peter's Square colonnades?

Gian Lorenzo Bernini draped a cloth over the head of the fountain's Nile figure because nobody at the time knew where that river began.

Which painter, who died in Rome aged 37, frescoed The School of Athens in the pope's apartments?

Raphael painted himself into the crowd of ancient thinkers, and his Plato is believed to wear the face of Leonardo da Vinci.

Which painter's Calling of Saint Matthew still hangs in Rome's church of San Luigi dei Francesi?

Caravaggio finished it in 1600 for the Contarelli Chapel of the French congregation's church, where it hangs beside two more of his scenes from the saint's life.

Which chariot-racing stadium in ancient Rome held about 150,000 people and is now a public park?

Circus Maximus stretched 621 metres from end to end. The grassy site still draws crowds for concerts and celebrations, including the party for Italy's 2006 World Cup win.

Which hub of ancient public life in Rome lay buried for centuries under a cow pasture?

The Roman Forum began as a marshy lake that early kings drained with a great sewer. In the Middle Ages its buried ruins were known as the Campo Vaccino, the cattle field.

Which emperor's column in Rome is wrapped in a spiral frieze of his wars against the Dacians?

Trajan's ashes were buried in a golden urn in the base of the column, and a statue of him stood on top until it vanished in the Middle Ages.

Which emperor's win at the Milvian Bridge in 312 is marked by Rome's largest triumphal arch?

Constantine beat his rival Maxentius in the battle, and the Senate commissioned the arch. Many of its reliefs were lifted from older monuments to earlier emperors.

Which emperor's bronze statue on horseback survived in Rome because its rider was misidentified?

Marcus Aurelius was taken for the first Christian emperor, which spared his statue the melting pot that claimed more than 20 other bronze riders.

Rome's white marble Vittoriano, nicknamed the Typewriter, honours which first king of united Italy?

Victor Emmanuel II died in 1878, and the monument raised to celebrate him is also known as the Wedding Cake. It holds the shrine of Italy's Unknown Soldier.

Which Rome basilica, where Pope Francis is buried, marks a legendary August snowfall with petals?

Santa Maria Maggiore is also called Our Lady of the Snows. In the legend, snow fell on the Esquiline Hill on the night of 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer.

Which 1959 Charlton Heston epic, winner of eleven Oscars, was made at Rome's Cinecittà studios?

Ben-Hur needed a chariot arena covering 18 acres, the largest film set built up to that time. A thousand workmen spent more than a year carving it out of a rock quarry.

Which Dan Brown thriller sends Robert Langdon around Rome's churches hunting the Illuminati?

Angels & Demons was the first Robert Langdon novel, and its first edition was faulted for putting several of the city's landmarks in the wrong place.

Which Paolo Sorrentino film about a jaded journalist in Rome's high society won a 2014 Oscar?

The Great Beauty follows Jep Gambardella, a 65-year-old who never wrote a second book, and it took the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for foreign-language film.

Which 1948 Vittorio De Sica film follows a father and son searching Rome to save the father's new job?

Bicycle Thieves received an honorary Academy Award, and in 1952 a Sight & Sound poll of film-makers and critics named it the greatest film of all time.

Which Puccini opera, set in Rome in June 1800, premiered at the city's Teatro Costanzi in 1900?

Tosca opened at a time of unrest in the city, and the first night was put back a day for fear of disturbances. Its plot plays out against Napoleon's invasion of Italy.

Which Italian composer wrote the tone poems Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals?

Ottorino Respighi asked for a phonograph record of a real nightingale to be played as the third movement of Pines of Rome fades, a first in orchestral music.

Which Rome rock band, once street buskers in the city, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021?

Måneskin is Danish for moonlight, a word offered by the band's half-Danish bassist when they needed a name for a local contest. They had busked on the Via del Corso.

Which Rome-born composer wrote the film scores for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Mission?

Ennio Morricone, a musician's son, was Oscar-nominated for The Mission but did not win a competitive Academy Award until The Hateful Eight, three decades later.

Which luxury jewellery house was founded in Rome in 1884 by a Greek silversmith from Epirus?

Bulgari is named after its founder, Sotirios Voulgaris. The BVLGARI logo, spelt in the classical Latin alphabet, first appeared over the door of the Via Condotti flagship in 1934.

Which designer, famous for a vivid shade of red, opened his own fashion house on Rome's Via Condotti?

Valentino trained under the couturiers Jean Dessès and Guy Laroche in France before coming home to Italy, and the fashion industry came to call his signature colour Rosso Valentino.

Which emperor, Julius Caesar's adopted heir, boasted that he found Rome brick and left it marble?

Augustus was stretching the truth: his builders mostly used marble as a thin facing over brick or concrete, though the stone had been rare in the city before his reign.

For most of the 14th century, popes left Rome and held court in which city in modern France?

Avignon was home to seven successive popes from 1309. Gregory XI finally moved the court back, reaching Rome in January 1377.

Which red-shirted general led the defence of the short-lived Roman Republic against France in 1849?

Garibaldi beat a far larger French force at the San Pancrazio gate that April, but the French took the city in July and handed power back to the pope.

Which Frankish king was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in St Peter's in Rome on Christmas Day 800?

Charlemagne was proclaimed emperor of the Romans and at once worked the new title into his documents, styling himself crowned by God.

Which former Italian prime minister was kidnapped in Rome in 1978 by the Red Brigades and murdered?

Aldo Moro was seized in Via Fani on the morning of a parliamentary confidence vote. His body was found 54 days later in the boot of a red Renault 4 in the historic centre.

Which politician raised in Rome's Garbatella district became Italy's first female prime minister?

Giorgia Meloni moved to Garbatella as a child after a fire destroyed the more affluent home where she spent her infancy. She was sworn in as head of government in October 2022.

Which educator opened her first Casa dei Bambini in Rome's San Lorenzo district in 1907?

Maria Montessori had been asked to look after the children of working parents in a new apartment block for low-income families. The school enrolled 50 or 60 pupils.

Which nickname for Rome was coined by the poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC?

The Eternal City translates the Latin Urbs Aeterna. Rome also carries the grander title Caput Mundi, the capital of the world.

Which seventh and last king of Rome was driven out in the uprising that founded the Republic?

Tarquin the Proud reigned for 25 years before the revolt. One of the men who led it, Lucius Junius Brutus, was the son of the king's own sister.

Which emperor gave his name to the 19 km circuit of walls built around Rome in the 270s?

Aurelian's walls went up between AD 271 and 275 around all seven hills. They stayed the city's main fortification until the 19th century, which is why so much survives.

Which American sprinter, a childhood polio survivor, won three golds at the 1960 Rome Olympics?

Wilma Rudolph left the Games hailed as the fastest woman on earth after winning the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the sprint relay. Polio at five had weakened her left leg.

Italy won its first World Cup in Rome in 1934, beating which country after extra time?

Czechoslovakia led with 19 minutes left, but Italy equalised and won 2–1 in the first World Cup final ever to need the extra half-hour.

Which team golf contest was staged in 2023 at Marco Simone, a course just northeast of Rome?

The Ryder Cup began with Europe sweeping the opening session 4–0, a lead no European team had ever held after the first session. The hosts went on to win 16½–11½.

Which coach led AS Roma to victory in the first UEFA Europa Conference League final in 2022?

José Mourinho's side beat Feyenoord 1–0 in Tirana, making Roma the first Italian club in 12 years to win a UEFA competition.

Which four-letter Latin abbreviation still appears on Rome's manhole covers and coat of arms?

SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, the Senate and People of Rome, a phrase that first referred to the government of the ancient Republic.

Which architect designed MAXXI, Rome's museum of 21st-century arts, on the site of an army barracks?

Zaha Hadid won the design competition in 1998, but the museum took more than ten years to build. It opened in 2010 and took the Stirling Prize that same year.

Which Shakespeare tragedy follows a general banished from Rome who returns leading its enemies?

Coriolanus earned his name by beating the Volscians at their town of Corioli, the very people he later leads. The play was one of the last two tragedies Shakespeare wrote.

Which historian said the idea for his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire struck him in Rome?

Edward Gibbon dated the moment to 15 October 1764, as he sat among ancient ruins listening to barefooted friars sing vespers. He first planned a history of the city alone.

The proverb about doing as the Romans do in Rome is credited to which saint, a bishop of Milan?

Ambrose was advising Saint Monica and her son, who were puzzled that Saturday was a fast day in Rome but not at home in Milan. He said he simply followed the local custom.

Which palace on Rome's Piazza Colonna is the official residence of Italy's prime minister?

Palazzo Chigi once housed the Austro-Hungarian ambassador and later the ministry for Italy's colonies. The head of government only moved in during 1961.