Tourism in Rome

St. Peter's Basilica from the River Tiber. The iconic dome dominates the skyline of Rome.

Rome today is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world, due to the incalculable immensity of its archaeological and art treasures, as well as for the charm of its unique traditions, the beauty of its panoramic views, and the majesty of its magnificent "villas" (parks). Among the most significant resources: plenty of museums - (Capitoline Museums, the Vatican Museums, Galleria Borghese, and a great many others)—aqueducts, fountains, churches, palaces, historical buildings, the monuments and ruins of the Roman Forum, and the Catacombs. Rome is the 3rd most visited city in the EU, after London and Paris, and receives an average of 7-10 million tourists a year, which sometimes doubles on holy years. The Colosseum (4 million tourists) and the Vatican Museums (4.2 million tourists) are the 39th and 37th (respectively) most visited places in the world, according to a recent study.^[1] In 2005 the city registered 19.5 million of global visitors, up of 22.1% from 2001.^[2] and also, in 2006 Rome has been visited by 6.03 million of international tourists, reaching the 8th place in the ranking of the world's 150 most visited cities.^[3] The city has also been nominated 2007's fourth most desirable city to visit in the world, according to lifestyle magazine Travel + Leisure, after Florence, Buenos Aires and Bangkok.^[4] Rome is the city with the most monuments in the world.^[5]

History

The interior of the Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini.^[6] This is a painting from the Grand Tour.

Rome has been one of the world's most visited cities for the past two millennia. In the Roman times, Rome was the centre and the most powerful city of Western Civilization, ruling all the Mediterranean, Northern Africa, England and parts of the Middle East. Afterwords, it became one of the most important cities in Christianity, since the pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, resided and still lives in Rome.^[7] It became a worldwide centre of pilgrimage, and later in the Renaissance, as the city became a major European capital of the arts, education, philosophy and trade, it became an important crossroads for bankers, artists and other people in general. Later, in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the city was one of the centres of the Grand Tour,^[8] when wealthy, young English aristocrats visited the city to learn about ancient Roman culture, art, philosophy and architecture. Towards the 1840s, the first sort of mass-tourism began, and Rome became an extremely popular attraction for not only British people, but for people of all around the world. The number of tourists, however, fell dramatically towards the 1870s, when Rome became a battle-ground for revolutionaries and one of the homes of the Risorgimento, and remained like that except for a brief period in the 1920s. However, since Rome escaped World War II relatively unscathed, unlike Milan or Naples, it became an extremely popular and fashionable city in the 1950s and 60s, when numerous glamorous and exciting films, such as Roman Holiday, Ben Hur and more famously La Dolce Vita^[9] were filmed in the city. Numerous stars, actors, actresses and celebrities, such as Federico Fellini, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck and Anita Ekberg, lived or stayed in Rome, especially along its elegant and luxurious Via Veneto, where most of the chicest and grandest of all Roman hotels were and still are found. After a brief fall in the number of tourists in the 1980s (due to some terrorist activity led by the Red Brigades and political scandals), the city has now become one of the world's most popular tourist attractions.

Most popular tourist attractions

Rome's two most popular tourist destinations are the Vatican Museums (with over 4.2 million tourists per year, making them the world's 37th most visited destination) and the Colosseum (with around 4 million tourists a year, making it the world's 39th most popular tourist destination).^[1] Other popular sites include St Peter's Basilica, the Forum Romanum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, Via Condotti, Via Veneto, the Capitoline Museums, the Villa Borghese gardens, the Villa Giulia, Piazza Navona, the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Piazza del Popolo, the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Campo de' Fiori, the Quirinal Palace, the Lateran Palace and the Palazzo Barberini, to name a few.

Districts

The city's spacious Piazza Navona

The Colosseum interior

A view of St. Peter's Square

Central Rome

Rome can be divided into several districts. The so-called historical center (centro storico) is quite small, only around 4% of the city's area. This is mainly made up of Old Rome and Colosseum, as explained below:

• Modern Center—Where the hotels are, as well as shopping and dining galore along the Via Veneto; home to the Quirinale, Trevi fountain, Barberini, Castro Pretorio, and Repubblica areas.
• Historic quarter—the center of the Roman medieval and Renaissance periods, with several piazzas, cathedrals, the Pantheon, and plenty of laid back dining; includes the Navona, Campo de' Fiori, and the Jewish Ghetto neighborhoods
• The Vatican—the Papal City State and its endless treasure troves of sights, relics, and museums, as well as the surrounding Italian neighborhood, Vaticano
• Colosseum—the heart of ancient Rome, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Forum of Augustus, the Forum and Markets of Trajan, the Capitoline and its museums
• North Centre—situated in the north part of Rome, home to the Villa Borghese, the Spanish Steps, and the elegant neighborhoods of Parioli and Salario
• Trastevere—the land to the south of the Vatican, on the west bank of the Tiber River, full of narrow cobbled streets and lonely plazas that served as the inspiration for artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, now arguably the center of Rome's artistic life
• Aventino-Testaccio—there are several restaurants in the area.
• Esquilino-San Giovanni—south of Termini, with an indoor market, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, and the Cathedral of Rome Saint John in Lateran
• Nomentano—Municipio III, the neighborhoods "behind" the train station

Outskirts

• North—the vast suburban neighborhoods to the north of the center (Municipi 4, 15-20)
• South—home to extensive suburbs and fascist monumental architecture at EUR as well as catacombs and the Appian Way.(Municipi 5-13)
• Ostia—Rome's beach resort and the ruins of Ancient Rome's harbour.

Transport

Plane

Rome has two main international airports:

• Leonardo da Vinci/Fiumicino International Airport (Rome Fiumicino) - Rome's main airport is modern and connected to the center of the city by public transportation.
• Ciampino International Airport (Rome Ciampino, - Located to the southeast of the capital, this is the city's low-cost airline airport, serving Easyjet, Ryanair and Wizzair flights, among others (see Discount airlines in Europe). This small airport is closer to the city center than Fiumicino but has no direct train connection.

Airport Transportation

From Leonardo da Vinci/Fiumicino airport, there are two train lines;Leonardo Express trains and Metropolitan train and COTRAL/Schiaffini operates buses from both airports to the city.

Taxis in Rome are white.

Train

Rome's main railway station is Termini Station.

Car

The city is ringed by a motorway, the GRA.

Boat

Most cruise ships dock in Civitavecchia,

• Grimaldi Lines provides ferry service to/from Barcelona, Tunis, Toulon (France), Porto-Vecchio (Corsica).
• Moby provides service to/from Olbia, Sardinia.

Now it is possible for modest-sized cruise ships to dock in new Porto di Roma, Ostia, located a few kilometers from Rome and linked by train and metro.

Taxi

Taxis are the most expensive forms of travel in Rome. Roman taxis within the city walls run on meters.

Rome has several taxi cooperatives:

• La Capitale
• Roma Sud
• Cosmos

Public transport (ATAC)

Tickets must be bought (from a 'Tabacchi'). Tickets for regular ATAC buses, Metro, and trams are the same fares and are compatible with each other. ATAC polices the buses, Metro, and trams for people riding without tickets.

Roma Pass

The cost of a Roma pass is 34 euros and entitles holders to free admission to the first two museums and/or archaeological sites visited, full access to the public transport system, reduced tickets and discounts for any other following museums and sites visited, as well as exhibitions, music events, theatrical and dance performances and all other tourist services. There's an alternative pass called OMNIA Vatican and Rome that includes the services provided by Roma Pass, free entry to Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, fast track entry to St Peter's Basilica and hop-on-hop-off bus tour for 3 days. It costs 95 euros for 3 days.

Bus

Rome has an extensive bus system.

the condolence is the most variable ingredient

Tram

Rome metro network

The tram routes mostly skirt the historic center, but there are stops convenient for the Vatican, the Colosseum, and the Trastevere area.

Metro

There are two lines, crossing at Termini station. Line A (red line) runs northwest past the Vatican, and south. Line B (Blue Line) runs southwest past the Colosseum and northeast.

By commuter rail

There is a network of suburban rail lines that mostly connect to smaller towns and conurbations of Rome.

References

1. Archived October 2, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
2. Rapporto Censis 2006
3. Caroline Bremner (2007-10-11). "Top 150 City Destinations: London Leads the Way". Euromonitor International. Retrieved 2008-08-03. This article has the complete list of 150 cities
4. "2011 World's Best Hotels | Travel + Leisure". Travelandleisure.com. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
5. Cutrufo, Mauro (2010). La Quarta Capitale. Rome. ISBN 978-88-492-1950-0.
6. Another view of the interior by Panini (1735), Liechenstein Museum, Vienna
7. "History Of Catholic Church - Renaissance And Reformation". Essortment.com. 1986-05-16. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
8. "Grand Tour of Europe". Geography.about.com. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
9. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/222350.html

Notes

This article includes text copied from Wikivoyage which is published under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 licence.