10 Interesting Facts About Rome

A legend say that Rome was built on seven hills. The Ethernal City is known for its architectural heritage but there are some interesting facts to give you an insight into the Roman culture, its history and treasures.

1. The birth of the Eternal City, which was founded in 753BC, is celebrated every year on the 21st of April. Celebrations include fireworks, gladiator shows, traditional Roman banquets and parties.

2. The Pantheon is the only monument belonging to ancient Rome that still remains fully intact. What is even lesser known, is that inside there are the tombs of Italy’s king Vittorio Emanuele II, and his successor, Umberto I.

3. There is a park in Rome named “Park of Monsters.” Not because it is a haunted place but because it is full of grotesque figures like a crude Hercules slaying an Amazon and an ogre’s face with a mouth so big that people can even walk through it!

4. The Baths of Caracalla although in a bad state now, were once in their prime days spread across 27 acres and could handle 1,600 people at any given time. Built in the 3rd century, they are the biggest survivors of Rome’s imperial era.

5. Rome has a museum which is entirely dedicated to pasta. The Pasta Museum is unique around the world and showcases different pasta-making machines, as well as paintings related to pasta.

6. St Peter’s Basilica inside Vatican City is the largest church ever constructed in the world.

7. The Colosseum, a huge amphitheatre which could seat 50,000 people, is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

8. The Monumental Cemetery of the Capuchin Brothers has used the bones of over 4,000 Capuchin monks to create symbolic works of art in its series of chapels.

9. The Vatican Museums is a huge museum complex with over 1,000 museums and galleries like the Gallery of Tapestries and Etruscan and Egyptian Museums that are full of masterpieces collected by the popes. It is the world’s largest museum complex.

10. St. Peter’s Basilica was a structure that stood for almost 1,000 years until it almost collapse and was rebuilt by 1500s and 1600s. It is an overwhelming structure which displays the work of some of Italy’s greatest artists like Raphael, Michelangelo, and Maderno.